This course will introduce students to a wide variety of primary sources and innovative methodological approaches in African history. We will explore the connections between particular historical contexts and the constitution of particular sources, and how this informs different trends in historical production.

Each week will focus on a different type of source and the debates around their collection and use, including traditions of oral history, colonial and missionary archives, and new, less conventional, sources. We will also explore the political implications of historical methods and the struggles over knowledge, power, and the production of history.

This course will highlight the importance of context, contingency, and ethics in the creation of historical sources, in their use by guild historians, and in the politics of power embedded in any given history.