History 211: The World Wars in Africa

From the first shots of the First World War to the release of African POWs in Germany in 1945, this course will investigate how Europe’s need for manpower and resources fettered Africans and at the same time opened up new opportunities for them to effect their interactions with colonialism and themselves. With forced agricultural production, commercial sex work, and young men sent to battlefronts in Africa and Europe, the World Wars changed Africa and Africans in numerous ways. While the course will address traditional aspects of military history, it will also investigate the social, cultural, and political changes that took place as intended and unintended outcomes on the part of European rulers as well as colonized Africans. May be taken for credit toward the Indigeneity, Race, and Ethnicity Studies major or minor.