Courses in Southern African topics offered
at Duke University

Fall 2009

Magical Modernities
Anne-Maria Makhulu
AAAS 153-01    
CULANTH  153-01  
ICS 111-01

“Ritual has long been a mark, in Western social thought, of all that separates rational modernity from the culture(s) of tradition” (Comaroff and Comaroff 1993:xv) and yet, everywhere, despite the seemingly unstoppable march of modernization, ritual practice thrives.  “Magical Modernities” addresses this apparent contradiction looking specifically to Africa and addressing the Continent’s transformation in the last half century or more since the demise of colonial overrule and subsequent efforts to promote economic and technological “development.”  Drawing connections between large structural forces, including economic adjustment, and the significant uptick of religious and “occult” practices within many postcolonial African states, this course suggests some interesting ways we might think about the conjuncture of ritual and global flows of capital, commodities, and people.  We will also look at a few cases drawn from Latin America and the contemporary U.S.

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Africa in a Global Age
Anne-Maria Makhulu
CULANTH  180S-04

James Ferguson tells us that “Africa’s participation in globalization has certainly not
been a matter simply of ‘joining the world economy.’” Rather, Africa’s inclusion has been selective, uneven, and partial. But this is quite a different proposition than arguing, as many social theorists, economists, and journalists have suggested that the Continent is somehow structurally irrelevant to the process of globalization. This course responds to this debate by first retracing the history of “globalization,” beginning with an older set of questions about capital accumulation and colonial encounter—namely, the traffic in humans from West and East Africa to the New World and the expansion of the Caribbean plantation complex. It concludes by thinking about Africa’s place in relation to a new global order in which novel forms of governance, flexible capital, new technologies and neoliberal norms inform ideas about underdevelopment, civil society, and the third world.

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South African History, 1870-Present
Karin Shapiro
AAAS 199-01
HISTORY 103-03

This course will offer a broad overview of South African history from the mineral revolution of the 1860s and 70s through the official demise of apartheid in 1994, along with a brief consideration of the challenges facing democratic South Africa. In lectures and readings, we will cover such topics as mining-centered industrialization, the South African War (1899-1902) and the subsequent union of the four provinces that constituted South Africa for much of the twentieth century, the transformation of the countryside, the emergence of Afrikaner and African nationalism, segregationist ideology, the construction of Apartheid, the liberation movements, intra-African political conflict, the establishment of multi-party democracy, and the Aids epidemic. Where pertinent we will explore comparisons with the history of race relations in the United States.

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Special Topics in International Development Policy
Catherine Admay

PUBPOL  388-05-Introduction to Human Rights & Conflict

One story of the relationship between human rights and conflict is told in the Preamble to the UN Charter: the human rights framework of our age came about because of the 20th century's two world wars. But for the "untold sorrow" brought about by these conflicts, so the story goes, there would have been no effective demand for and no construction of a set of legal, political and ethical norms intended to help "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war." In this course we will examine the link between human rights and conflict in an interdisciplinary fashion. What are the multiple ways in which the law and political advocacy of human rights relate to conflict? Do demands for human rights precipitate or fuel--as much as prevent--conflicts, whether as war or in other forms of large scale suffering? Are human rights essential for what the field of conflict resolution has termed "positive peace"? Should policymakers involved in multiple stages of conflict, both inter- and intrastate, be more cautious about viewing rights as a remedy for conflicts? What are the relevant ethical considerations? With the benefit of greater analytical and contextual understanding of competing priorities and tradeoffs, what positive role might be cast for human rights in the conflicts of the 21st century? To consider these and other questions, we will draw substantially on historical and policy analyses, learning the legal/political history of the contemporary framework for human rights and connecting it to real-world efforts underway by lawyers and other practitioners to reframe and transform conflict and build peace. There is no expectation that students have a special expertise in law.

PUBPOL  81 FCS-International Law & Global Health

This course will examine where and how international law intersects with global health inequalities.  In what instances has international law been a positive force for addressing these inequalities and when has the law itself compounded and extended the problem?  Through two or three case studies, students will be challenged to critically assess whether the law — and what particular bodies of law — would be the most appropriate.  For example, if the families of working coffee farmers in the Sidamo region of Ethiopia are suffering from severe malnutrition while western coffee consumers pay top dollar for a bag of roasted Sidamo label beans, what legal regimes might apply?  Or if American pharmaceutical companies institute legal proceedings in South Africa or India whose outcome might put essential medecines beyond sick people’s reach, in what other arenas might lawyers and others work to contest or address the health inequalities that will follow?  Having a basic grasp of a handful of leading rules systems (human rights, trade, intellectual property, among others), students will then be asked to consider the legal, political and ethical merits of pursuing better health outcomes through resort to the law.  We will consider the law as lawyers must — attending to the technical elements and complexities — but we will also seek to understand the extent to which the law's power resides as much in its political punch or moral appeal.  In short, the course will work to situate international law and global health in the stream of strategic choices available to those who call for better health by demanding greater justice.

Spring 2009

From Apartheid to Democracy in South Africa
Sheridan Johns
AAAS  171-01
POLSCI 171-01
ICS 110B-01

The South African political system in the Twentieth Century with particular attention
to the transition from apartheid and white minority rule to nonracial democracy.

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South Africa Through Biography/Autobiography
Karin Shapiro
HISTORY 196S

This course will explore twentieth century South African history through the lens of biographyand autobiography. The protagonists range from little known South Africans like Kas Maine, a sharecropper for whom the only official document that exists is a 1931 record of a fine he paid for failing to produce a dog license, to world renowned figures, like Nelson Mandela. While most of the readings cover virtually the entire twentieth century, I have carefully selected them to provide a chronological presentation of South African history. I have also chosen a mix of scholarly and non-scholarly writings, as well as discussions that expose South Africa's countryside and cities, its underworld and its place on the world stage.

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Current Issues in Anthropology - The Arts and Human Rights
Catherine Admay,
Louise Meintjes
CULANTH  180 - Current Issues in Anthropology
ETHICS  180 - Special Topics in Ethics
MUSIC  120 - Advanced Special Topics in Music

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Mbira
Cosmas Magaya,
Paul Berliner
MUSIC   84C-01  

Fall 2008


Magical Modernities
Anne-Maria Makhulu
AAAS 153-01    
CULANTH  153 - 01  
ICS 111-01

“Ritual has long been a mark, in Western social thought, of all that separates rational modernity from the culture(s) of tradition” (Comaroff and Comaroff 1993:xv) and yet, everywhere, despite the seemingly unstoppable march of modernization ritual practice thrives.  “Magical Modernities” addresses this apparent contradiction looking specifically to Africa and addressing the Continent’s transformation in the last half century or more since the demise of colonial overrule and subsequent efforts to promote economic and technological “development.”  Drawing connections between large structural forces, including economic adjustment, and the significant uptick of religious and “occult” practices within many postcolonial African states, this course suggests some interesting ways we might think about the conjuncture of ritual and global flows of capital, commodities, and people.  We will also look at a few cases drawn from Latin America and the contemporary U.S.

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Theoretical Foundations of Cultural Anthropology
Prof. Anne-Maria Makhulu
CULANTH  190 - 01   

Major schools and theories of cultural anthropology.

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South African History, 1870-Present
Karin Shapiro
AAAS 199-01
HISTORY 103-03

This course will offer a broad overview of South African history from the mineral revolution of the 1860s and 70s through the official demise of apartheid in 1994, along with a brief consideration of the challenges facing democratic South Africa. In lectures and readings, we will cover such topics as mining-centered industrialization, the South African War (1899-1902) and the subsequent union of the four provinces that constituted South Africa for much of the Twentieth Century, the transformation of the countryside, the emergence of Afrikaner and African nationalism, segregationist ideology, the construction of Apartheid, the liberation movements, intra-African political conflict, the establishment of multi-party democracy, and the Aids epidemic. Where pertinent we will explore comparisons with the history of race relations in the United States.