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15 Teaching about Africa: Violence and Conflict Management
- Indiana University Press
- Chapter
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163 15 Teaching about africa Violence and Conflict Management Linda M. Johnston and Oumar chérif Diop Many african writers have addressed the rule of tyranny and violence in postcolonial africa in their work. attempts to teach about this literature of violence in africa can be a challenge for any academic, especially when working with undergraduate students who may or may not have had some prior exposure to african writers or the literature of africa in particular. Working in interdisciplinary teaching teams can be one way to combine skill sets and expertise in order to provide a better and easier learning experience for the students. Students can begin to understand the context and conflicts that produce the literature, the aims of the authors in presenting the literature, and the role the literature plays in helping to understand conflicts and ways to resolve them. To understand the role of historical violence in african studies, it is important to understand how the oppressors in africa controlled their victims and perpetrated horrible crimes. The literature of violence that developed in the postcolonial period functions to both deconstruct the language of oppression and contribute to overcoming tyrannical rule. if the language of oppression is removed, the new resultant narrative that develops is fundamentally different from the original, both in structure and in purpose (Johnston 2000). By the time most students reach the college level, they will have been exposed to analyzing literary work. adding the tools of conflict analysis , students can zero in on the aspects of the literature that are conflictual. This process helps the students to better understand the violence in general. Our two-pronged approach assists with this in-depth analysis by focusing on (1) the types of conflict and (2) how the literary text dramatizes this conflict. By combining these two types of 164 | African Arts analysis, students can better understand what the african author is portraying about the conflict he or she is trying to describe. in this chapter, the focus is on the strategy and the instruments for analysis utilized for teaching a module on african studies and conflict management. The chapter discusses the theoretical models utilized, the process of analysis, and the instruments used. in developing this pedagogical approach, the focus is on literature (in both text and film) produced by africans. Our multidisciplinary course on africa focuses on the struggles for liberty and considers issues dealing with the intersection of politics, culture, race, class, ethnicity, and gender. it also actively connects with issues that are intimately influenced by the sociocultural and political conditions of africa, as well as promotes a discussion on the theory and issues that inform and affect african studies. Because of students’ low exposure to african literature as a discipline, the class helps them acclimatize to the literary discourse and enhances their reading and interpretation skills. given most U.S. students’ unfamiliarity with the context of african literature, the critical analysis of literatures of violence, or the analysis tools utilized by the conflict resolution field, along with the cultural, historical, and social factors that inform the literary text, it would be counterproductive to start any course with complex narrative structures punctuated by various allusions. More than anything, the students need to learn to conduct a careful and thorough analysis of what they are reading. instead of burdening them immediately with the most complex works, we start the module with texts that are short and fairly easy to grapple with. The fact that students are not initially intimidated by the length and the complexity of the cases eases them into the different layers of the text, one layer at a time. as a case in point, the reading and discussion of chinua achebe’s “Dead Men’s Path” (2005) or ngugi wa Thiong’o’s “The Martyr” (1975) or “a Meeting in the Dark” (1997) reveal some major issues that have been central to the postcolonial african experience such as the racial, cultural, and political antagonisms. Students are often more comfortable navigating such texts that are not burdened by intricate narrative structures and too culture-specific elements. These stepping-stones allow the students to grapple with historical, cultural, and social issues and to engage progressively with longer and more complex texts. Subsequently , instructors can expand on the religious and cultural issues that are at the heart of these works. furthermore, these preliminary readings and discussions prepare the students for their exploration of more complex texts. for example, the importance of education as argued by...