Africa is NOT a Country

UHP Africa is NOT a Country Description: The UC UHP website describes Africa is NOT a Country as: "The title of this course, “Africa is Not a Country,” is a not-so-tongue in cheek reference to the enormous ethnic, cultural, regional, social, political, and linguistic diversity of the Continent that is frequently reduced to and stereotyped by its simplest parts.  This course is particularly innovative in that it is team-taught by the entire faculty, giving participants a crash-course the amazing diversity of the second largest continent in the world. Students will enjoy “Quick-Talks” each week lead by a new faculty member, community-based experiential learning opportunities, and a safe space to develop the critical thinking skills needed to confront misinformation from the position of an informed and responsible global citizen scholar."

Personal Experience of the Course: Africa is NOT a Country was a phenomenal Honors seminar. It consisted of different professors within the African Studies department coming to educate us something different on Africa. The structure was debriefing about last weeks talk quickly, then talking about this weeks readings and beginner thoughts on it. Then the professor comes in and talks to us interactively, about the decided topic. Afterward, the students asked questions, and then the professor left and their was more debriefings with Dr. McGee, and the begin/finish of the writing prompts. There were writing prompts for each topic that wanted us to critically think about the lecture and write about it. The topics ranged from Afro-Futurism to speaking on Trump's comment about Africa being a shithole. The topics were insightful about Africa because it was details I never would have learned this soon if not for this seminar. In addition to the lectures we had field trips to BI-OKOTO and Afromeals Kitchen. Bi-Okoto we learned West African Dance and Drums, which was enjoyable because it was a new experience I had never done. And witnessing the children completing the dance and drums and excelling at all was amazing because they do this the whole summer. Then for Afromeals kitchen the meals contained plantains, shrimp, rice, chicken, rice, vegetables and seasonings. The food was delectable and having leftovers was even better. 

Towards the end of the semester we had to complete a reflection about the course as a whole, and our knowledge gained. I was able to learn that ignorance will not take you anywhere in life as well as doing bad on one assignment does not define you, the next grade will be even better. In addition to my knowledge because I didn’t know much about Africa at all. Moreover information about Tanzania, Africa’s economy, the culture, much more. This course educated me on more details about Africa that will stay with me forever, because having information on different locations makes it worthwhile, especially being a political science major and Archaeology major. Even so, Africa is rich in history and everything, and knowing some information on Africa continues to dispel the false notions of Africa people have. In addition I did not realize that I want to go visit Africa now. I want to go visit Tanzania and other African countries to experience their culture.