What is Africa to me?: Black Diasporic Encounters

What is Africa to me?: Black Diasporic Encounters is a Social Science class taught by Christopher Tinson.

Course Description
Africa has always held a special if tenuous place in the formation of African Diasporic self and group identity, as well as shaping various meanings of blackness. To some, Africa is considered the ancestral homeland of humanity. For other African Descendants around the world, Africa has historically been viewed as a point of origin and possible place of refuge from the racial and class oppression experienced in the West. W.E.B. Du Bois, for example, relocated to Ghana in 1961 just two years before his death. At the turn of the 20th century poet Countee Cullen asked ?What is Africa to Me?? And recently, President Barack Obama?s Kenyan heritage led many to consider him a ?son of Africa.? Though international definitions of diaspora are common, how does the formation of domestic diasporas impact notions of home for African Americans? Recognizing the value of a complex diasporic lens that includes race, gender and class, this course will introduce students to some of the diasporic encounters African descendants have experienced historically and contemporarily from the Harlem Renaissance to Hurricane Katrina.

Learning Goals

 * Multi-Cultural
 * Reading
 * Writing