Osaak A. Olumwullah
Short Writing Assignment for Students
2003 Workshop on Improving Student Writing
Center for Writing Excellence
Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching
HST 400.Q: TRIBALISM IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AFRICAN HISTORY
Instructor: Dr. Osaak A. Olumwullah
Approaching twentieth-century Africa
Learning goal of the assignment:
- to draw students’ attention to the fact that there can be as many interpretations of a given event in the past as there are people/historians trying to understand it;
- develop skills for identifying multiple perspectives/different interpretations of any one given event/happening in the past;
- help students appreciate the importance of a balanced discussion of multiple perspectives/different interpretations of any one given event/happening in the past.
Connections to long (sequenced) assignment:
The assignment is meant to
- a) introduce students to skills for developing critical thinking in history assignments;
- b) provide both awareness of, and practice in exploring mechanisms for, critically analyzing past events.
Part one: Take-home Assignment
- Look at The Times Atlas of World History (King Reference), especially pp. 44-45, 238-239, 240-241, and 282-283 and identify key features of Africa’s historical geography, including the colonial empires and contemporary countries.
- identify those European countries that were the major colonial powers in Africa.
- in not more than two pages, briefly explain both the objectives these powers sought in establishing colonial regimes in Africa, and the attitudes and theories that conditioned their approaches.
Part two: Class Discussion
- Exchange your two-page written assignment with your colleague to the right
- Take 10-15 minutes to read it after which address yourself to the following questions in your discussion:
- what are the relative strengths and weaknesses in your
colleague’s assignment with regard to the objectives of
colonization, and the attitudes and theories that conditioned it?
- would you say one objective for colonization was more important than the other(s), or all are equally important in explaining the European scramble for, and partition of, Africa at the end of the nineteenth century?
- what are your reasons for arriving at this kind of assessment?
|