African Studies

Front 1

Cultural Nationalism

Back 1

• The 20th century (1)
• Forced the spread of intellectual tradition (2)
• Has two aspects
• One is the response to a cultural crisis (3)
o crisis occurred via the slave trade, colonization (4)
• One is the reaction to cultural alienation (5)
o struggle to hold the foundational values the people (6)
• Brings the issue of Double alienation: People are alienated from their own cultures and from the West who is reluctant to embrace them (7)
• Because of the slave trade and colonization, Africans experience this double alienation (8)
• Cultural nationalism in Africa was necessary because it is now considered normal to judge societies in relation to Europe (9)
• Falola discusses how Blyden, a leading cultural nationalist, laid the groundwork for nationalism (10)
o Accepted biological and cultural difference between groups of people (11)
o Rejects idea that we are not equal (12)
• Falola discusses that the educated elite did not just become the consumer of culture, but the creator of a new

Front 2

African Personality

Back 2

• Irele says that the most significant part of African development is the emergence of a distinctive consciousness (1)
• Means the distinctive physical and moral nature of an African (2)
• This is made in terms of distinction against Westerners (3)
• Represents the subjective response to the pressures of the colonial situation (4)
• The term later became an inspirational idea and a justifying principle (5)
• Negritude is the francophone version of African personality (6)
• Both African Personality and Negritude have their source in the diaspora (7)
• First termed by Blyden in a speech in Freetown in 1843 (8)
• Robert July called Blyden the “first African personality” (9)
• He is this in the sense that he was an African writer and intellect (10)
• Going against the European logic, Blyden said the attempt to civilize is what is going to produce moral corruption (11)
• As Irele says, a sense of African belonging has always been an aspect of black experience and consciousness in America. (

Front 3

Decolonization

Back 3

• Refers to the end of formal European colonial empires in Africa (1)
• Beginning with the restoration of the monarchy in Egypt in 1922 and ending with the demise of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 (2)
• Involves both peaceful and violent liberation (3)
• Zeleza discusses that one reason for decolonization was the African nationalism (4)
• He also discusses that some argue that decolonization was the result of imperial policy and planning (5)
• Mass decolonization occurred after WWII (6)
• Happened at a rapid pace—in 1960 alone 17 countries decolonized (7)
• Collins and Burns discuss how WWI fueled the beginning of decolonization because the Africans were forced to join the Europeans in the war (8)
• They also discuss that Before WWII African politicians thought in terms of reforming colonial rule rather than overthrowing it (9)
• Europeans asking Africans to help in the war against fascism is a contradiction (10)
• Zeleza discusses how the Nazis gave racist ideologies, such as colo