Introduction to Contemporary Africa seeks to illuminate and clarify the profoundly diverse and complex dynamics impacting contemporary Africa and its communities. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we introduce students to Africa’s history, geography, culture, politics and economics. Nevertheless, Africa is unquestionably diverse; it is the world’s second largest continent and the second most populous with 54 countries. Introduction to Contemporary Africa and its online resources provide a systematic and comprehensive approach to learning about Africa and its peoples by emphasizing Africa’s potentialities while also examining the historical, political, cultural and economic issues impacting the continent as a whole as well as individual countries.
Chapter 1: Perceptions of Africa
Chapter 2: Africa's Geographies
Chapter 3: A Brief History
Chapter 4: African Religion
Chapter 5: African Languages
Chapter 6: Popular Music in Africa
Chapter 7: African Politics
Chapter 8: The International System
Chapter 9: Africa's Development
Anita
Plummer
Dr. Anita Plummer is an Assistant Professor of African Studies at Howard University. Her research and teaching focus on African political economy, emerging markets, transnationalism and Sino-African relations. Before joining the faculty at Howard University, she taught International Studies at Spelman College in Atlanta and she was also a Mellon post-doctoral fellow in the Cultures in Transnational Perspective Program and Visiting Assistant Professor of Global Studies and Political Science at the University of California Los Angeles. She was awarded a Carter G. Woodson Center Pre-doctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia. She received her Ph.D. in African Studies from Howard University in Washington, DC.
Msia Kibona
Clark
Dr. Msia Kibona Clark is an Associate Professor of African cultural & feminist studies in the Department of African Studies at Howard University. She is originally from Tanzania and received her doctorate in African Studies from Howard University in 2006. Her work focuses on representations of Pan Africanism, African feminism, and African/Diaspora identities in popular culture. Her work examines hip-hop in Africa’s importance as social commentary, especially around Pan Africanism and African feminist thought. Her work also explores how Black mobilization is shifting African and Diaspora identities, and impacting Black activism. She has published three books (Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati, Hip-Hop in Africa: Prophets of the City and Dustyfoot Philosophers, and Pan African Spaces: Essays on Black Transnationalism). Her more recent articles and book chapters include “Hip-Hop and Human Rights in Africa”, “Feminisms in African Hip-Hop”, “The Contemporary African Diaspora”, “The Evolution of a Bicultural Identity, in the Shadows of Nyerere’s Pan Africanism”, and the forthcoming “African Women and Hip-Hop in the Diaspora”.