Undergraduate Course: The Francophone Black Radical Tradition (ELCF10083)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course engages with a history of Black radical ideas, which opposed slavery, colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism in the French-speaking world. Starting from the intellectual consequences of the Haitian revolution, it follows the development of a global African revolutionary sensibility, expressing itself by political, philosophical, and poetic means simultaneously. |
| Course description |
African American political theorist Cedric Robinson coined the historiographic notion of the ¿Black Radical Tradition¿ in his 1983 book entitled Black Marxism. The concept designates the historically specific and culturally distinctive ways African-descended peoples opposed racism, capitalism, and dehumanization at large throughout modern era. Despite his deep interests in slave rebellions in South America and the Caribbean, as well as his fascination for the Haitian Revolution, Robinson considers that it is only in the 20th century and under the influence of European Marxism that the black radical tradition stopped being an underground and informal shared African worldview to become an actual movement of thought. To prove his point, he refers to three Anglophone Black towering figures: W.E.B Du Bois, Richard Wright, and C.L.R. James.
The first object of this course will be to offer an overview of the debates surrounding the definition of the Black radical tradition. Second, it will put Robinson¿s historiography to the test, confronting the notion Black radicalism to the genealogy of Francophone Black thought. Early 19th Century Haitian writings from Toussaint Louverture, Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre or the Baron de Vastey tend to show that Black radical political thought is by no means a recent phenomenon. Intellectual moments such as 19th Century Haitian political thought and philosophy, the négritude movement, Haitian and West African Marxisms, and Panafricanism will be unpacked throughout the semester.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the notion of the Black radical tradition as well as historiographic debates regarding the concept.
- Explain the main political tendencies within African diasporic thought, their differences and contentions.
- Understand the basics of francophone Black intellectual history as well as its relation to slavery, colonialism, and African traditions.
- Construct coherent arguments which engage effectively with the sources and the relevant contexts and to present them with a high level of clarity in both oral and written form
- Demonstrate autonomy and initiative in their activities, carry out independent research under the guidance of the tutor, and to show awareness of their own and others' roles and responsibilities as part of a team.
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Reading List
Essential¿:
Aimé Césaire, Discours sur le colonialisme, Paris, Présence Africaine, 2011.
René Depestre, Ainsi parle le fleuve noir, Paris, Paroles D¿Aube, 1998.
Frantz Fanon, Les Damnés de la Terre, Paris, La Découverte, 2004.
Jean-Price Mars, Ainsi parla l¿oncle, Montréal, Mémoire d¿encrier, 2021.
Cedric Robinson, Black Marxism: The making of the Black radical tradition, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
Baron de Vastey, Le Système Colonial Dévoilé, Cap-Henry, P. Roux, 1814.
Recommended¿:
Jean-Jacques Cadet, Le Marxisme Haïtien, Paris, Delga, 2020.
Afua Cooper, The Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal, Athens, University of Georgia Press, 2006.
Toussaint Louverture, Mémoires du Général Toussaint Louverture, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2011.
Fred Moten, ¿The Subprime and the beautiful¿, African Identities, Vol. 11, No.2, 2013, pp. 237-245.
Lamine Senghor, La Violation d¿un pays et autres textes anticolonialistes, Paris, L¿Harmattan, 2012. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
By the end of the course, students will have further developed their skills in the areas of research and enquiry, personal and intellectual autonomy, communication, and personal effectiveness. For further specification of these skills see the university¿s graduate and employability skills framework at http://www.employability.ed.ac.uk/documents/GAFramework+Interpretation.pdf |
| Keywords | Black studies,African diaspora,Francophone literature,Africana philosophy |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Norman Ajari
Tel:
Email: najari@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms June Cahongo
Tel: (0131 6)50 3620
Email: J.Cahongo@ed.ac.uk |
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