Our class lectures, recitations, and readings concern both Africa and the African Diaspora, and highlight the struggle for freedom among African and African-descended populations in the first half of the twentieth century. This struggle takes two principal forms: 1) the fight for independence (to break free from colonial authority, primarily in Africa and the Caribbean); and 2) the fight to achieve full citizenship (in lands where they constitute a minority and/or a disempowered community, such as the U.S., Latin America, and Europe). In studying these two principal forms of struggle, for this period our class focused on cultural developments, such as the Harlem Renaissance, Négritude, religions, musical genres, etc.; and political developments – including the UNIA, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, anticolonial struggles in Africa and the Caribbean, etc.The Question/Assignment Craft an argumentative essay that analyzes how cultural and political developments impacted, influenced, reflected, or were otherwise related to each other in the first half of the twentieth century. Keep in mind that such impact, influence, reflection, or other forms of interrelatedness could flow from the cultural realm to the political – or the reverse; and could involve either ideas/concepts or individuals – or both. For example, what was the relationship between the Harlem Renaissance and the Niagara Movement (that led to the NAACP)? Or, what was the relationship between Négritude and the decolonial movement in Francophone West Africa? These are just two examples of interrelatedness that you are certainly free to write about, but you must also choose at least one more example. That is, whatever examples of interrelatedness you choose to write about, you must provide at least three examples to support your argument. While you are free use all of the assigned readings, you are expected to engage with Blood Relations, The Wine of Astonishment, Discourse on Colonialism, and Reversing Sail and the lectures (with respect to Reversing Sail and the lectures, a good strategy is to focus on one while referencing the other less frequently).
