The African Diaspora
Spring 2010
This class examines the history of the forced migration of Africans throughout the Atlantic from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. We will begin by analyzing the background to the European exploration of the Atlantic and will focus on the intellectual and ideological underpinnings of slavery in the Iberian Peninsula. We will then move to Africa and explore the interaction of Europeans and Africans along the West Coast of Africa, centering on the Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, and Bight of Biafra. The class will also pay considerable attention to the early development of the slave trade in Kongo, considering Kongolese appropriation of Christianity and diplomatic relations with Portugal. Angola will provide the last case study in Africa before we cross the Atlantic to Brazil, Cuba, and Mexico. In Angola, particular attention will be paid to the formation of the Portuguese colony of Angola, the rise of the slave trade, and the social and cultural milieu of the slave trade from Angola to Brazil. In the Americas, we will focus particularly on Brazil, Cuba and Mexico, providing a broad overview of the social History/lives of African and African-descendent people, with special attention to religion and culture.
