PS2257: Contemporary African Politics

Sem: AY19/20 Semester 1

Lecturer: Dr Elaine Tan

Overview: This was quite an informative mod. Took this mod as I knew almost nothing about Africa and felt that this mod would at least provide a theoretical background about the issues that Africa faces today. The first few weeks were a brief rundown of the contemporary history of the continent (from the slave trade to post-WW2 struggles for independence) before moving on to particular themes in the domestic politics of African states. Of course, with 54 states in Africa, it is not possible to cover every single state in great detail, but I think Dr Elaine did quite a good job in grouping examples from different African states into specific themes and explaining why these themes are so important in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Elaine tweaks the syllabus each sem so I’m not sure what’s still being covered, but I remember that issues such as peasants, religion, neopatrimonialism and women being taught when I took this mod.

With such a wide range of issues, this is definitely a mod with considerable breadth, providing you with a good crash course into African politics. Dr Elaine’s also really meticulous in her explanations, and she even provides Student Notes for each lecture so that you can actually listen to what’s she saying instead of furiously typing away on your laptop. It does remind me of a JC style of teaching which I’ve only come to appreciate after entering uni. As with other mods that don’t focus on Asia or the West, I would recommend you take this mod to broaden your horizons, as mods that cover Africa are extremely rare to come by in NUS. In fact, the only other mod that discusses Africa in such great detail is an African IR mod taught by the same lecturer.

Assessment:

Class Participation (25%): Dr Elaine was my tutor. She starts off by giving the class a chance to clarify certain concepts before dividing us into smaller groups to discuss the tutorial questions she’s set. Each group will get a chance to present their findings and Dr Elaine will also open up the floor for anyone to make additional points or counterarguments. I do remember tutorials being a rather lively affair so there’s that :)

Group Report (20%): A group essay which involved us filling up a structured questionnaire on an assigned sub-Saharan African state. We also had to research on a chosen issue faced by this particular sub-Saharan African state and suggest possible solutions and limitations to resolving the issue. Can’t remember this being particularly intensive besides the research, as each member only has to write about 500-600 words if the group splits the workload evenly.

Research Essay (35%): We had to choose one question from a given list of essay prompts and write a 2.5k word essay with reference to one sub-Saharan African state. Nothing much to say here, as Dr Elaine provides a comprehensive assessment rubric so that you know what she’s looking out for. However, do be careful when picking a state to write on, as there still exists a lack of research on the domestic politics of certain African states in academic literature (because social sciences remain very Western-centric…). I picked Nigeria, one of the bigger and more powerful African states, so I was never short of content to draw upon for my research.

Two 20 min In-Class Quizzes (10% each): Each quiz comprises of a map quiz and 3 short answer questions. The map quiz is relatively easy to score as most of the states tested were actually covered as case studies during lectures. The short answer questions were also directly based off the lecture content and simply required us to describe and explain certain terms and issues that were taught in class.