Afrika - från förhistoria till tidigmodern tid

Africa is where our species first evolved and from where modern humans spread across the globe. Over millennia, the continent witnessed the development of distinctive subsistence strategies, social organisation, urban and cultural dynamics. This course starts with an overview of the continent’s record as the cradle of humankind, and prehistoric societies. It then follows the diversification of cultures, subsistence and resource management, movement of ideas and peoples across different ecologies through the northwestern and southeastern Africa. From the turn of the 1st millennium CE, Africa was a very dynamic, and culturally rich region of societies, states and empires with diverse animal herding and agriculture as well as craft and art, religions, exchange and trade..

Knowledge and understanding / Kunskap och förståelse

• show basic knowledge of main cultural developments in Africa from prehistory to early modern times in a global perspective.
• discuss pre-modern cultures within their chronological and geographical contexts, with an emphasis on comparative dimensions across northwestern and southeastern Africa.

*Competence and skills / Färdigheter och förmåga *

• discuss past cultural phenomena from a multi-scale spatial (local/regional/global) perspective.
• identify and relate critically models and narratives about past African cultures.
• analyse sources and methods in African archaeology, including material culture, oral and written sources, and environmental records.

Judgment and approach / Värderingsförmåga och förhållningssätt

• demonstrate ability in discussing the significance of past cultures to present-day conditions.
• value different sources and materials, and comparative analysis.
• assess records and interpretations in African prehistory and archaeology.

Teaching includes lectures, tutoring, and mandatory seminars.

Assessment takes place in the form of mandatory seminar exercises and written assignments. Students unable to participate in a mandatory seminar exercise will be given a supplementary assignment.

If a student who has twice received a failing grade for the same examination component wishes to change examiner ahead of the next examination session, such a request should be made to the department in writing and should be approved by the department unless there are special reasons to the contrary (Chapter 6 Section 22 of the Higher Education Ordinance).

If a student has received a recommendation from the University of Gothenburg for study support for students with disabilities, the examiner may, where it is compatible with the learning outcomes of the course and provided that no unreasonable resources are required, decide to allow the student to sit an adjusted exam or alternative form of assessment.

In the event that a course has ceased or undergone major changes, students are to be guaranteed at least three examination sessions (including the ordinary examination session) over a period of at least one year, but no more than two years after the course has ceased/been changed. The same applies to internships and professional placements (VFU), although this is restricted to just one additional examination session.

The course is given one of the grades: Pass with Distinction (VG), Pass (G) and Fail (U).

To pass the course requires a Pass (G) grade in all three sub-courses. To pass the course with distinction requires a Pass with Distinction (VG) grade on two sub-courses as well as a passing grade (G) on a third sub-course.

The course coordinator is responsible for systematically collecting students’ views through written course evaluations at the end of the course and for communicating the results to the students.

The results of and possible changes to the course will be shared with students who participated in the evaluation and students who are starting the course.

The course content is sustainability-related as at least one of the learning outcomes clearly shows that the course content meets at least one of the University of Gothenburg's confirmed sustainability criteria for sustainability labelled programmes 1 (sustainability as a concept), 6 (values, culture and ethics), and 9 (planning and design).