UNIVERSITY OF GHANA INSTITUTE FOR AFRICAN STUDIES
The Institute of African Studies (IAS) is the first and oldest semi-autonomous research institute of the University of Ghana, Legon. It was set up in 1961 by Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, as a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary institute with the mandate to conduct research into all aspects of the arts and the social sciences in Africa.
The Institute carries out this mission by engaging in the regeneration of Africa and her people through knowledge production, dissemination, application and preservation. The IAS mission is geared towards a vision of becoming a global leader for scholarship on Africa and her Diaspora.
Vision
To become a global leader for scholarship on Africa and her Diaspora.
Mission
To engage in the regeneration of Africa and her peoples through knowledge production, dissemination, application and preservation.
The graduate programme in African Studies aims to foster critical thinking among students and to equip them with the resources, tools and methods for an enhanced understanding and appreciation of issues pertinent to African cultures and societies and their development, and to be able to initiate and conduct research in different domains of African Studies. All students are admitted on MA basis and those who excel in the First year course work continue as M.Phil Students.
MA and M.Phil students are offered the same courses with the exception of Seminar II (AFST 650) which is offered to M.Phil students in the second year.
The Courses available for study are the following:
CORE COURSES
| Course Code | Course Title | Credits |
| AFST 601 | Research Methods | 4 |
| AFST613 | Social and Political Systems in Africa | 3 |
FIRST SEMESTER ELECTIVE COURSES
| Course Code | Course Title | Credits |
| AFST 603 | Theories of Development in Africa | 3 |
| AFST 605 | Government and Politics in Early Post Independent Africa | 3 |
| AFST 607 | Africa Oral Literature: An Introduction | 3 |
| AFST 609 | Drama in African Societies | 3 |
| AFST 611 | African Literary Traditions | 3 |
| AFST 615 | Traditional Religions in Africa | 3 |
| AFST 617 | Traditional African Music | 3 |
| AFST 621 | African Historiography and Methodology | 3 |
| AFST 623 | The Slave Trade and Africa | 3 |
| AFST 625 | Coastal States in Ghana in the Seventeenth Century | 3 |
| AFST 631 | Culture and Gender in African Studies | 3 |
| AFST 633 | Survey of African Art | 3 |
| AFST 641 | African Family Studies | 3 |
SECOND SEMESTER ELECTIVE COURSES
| Course Code | Course Title | Credits |
| AFST 602 | Advanced Research Methods | 3 |
| AFST 604 | Issues in African Development | 3 |
| AFST 606 | The Military in African Politics | 3 |
| AFST 608 | Topics in African Oral Literature | 3 |
| AFST 610 | African Theatre | 3 |
| AFST 612 | Trends in African Literature | 3 |
| AFST 616 | Islam and Christianity in Africa | 3 |
| AFST 618 | African Music in Contemporary Perspective | 3 |
| AFST 622 | Ghana since 1945 | 3 |
| AFST 623 | The Slave Trade and Africa | 3 |
| AFST 624 | History of Pan- Africanism | 3 |
| AFST 626 | Colonial Rule and African Responses | 3 |
| AFST 628 | Islam and Christianity in Africa | 3 |
| AFST 632 | Gender and Development in African Studies | 3 |
| AFST 634 | Methodologies for Constructing Art History in African Societies | 3 |
| AFST 636 | Rural Development, Environment and Modernity in Africa | 3 |
SEMINAR PRESENTATION
MA/M.Phil students are required to participate actively including making presentations at the Institute’s seminars.
AFST 640 Seminar I
AFST 650 Seminar II
Credits
Total minimum credit hours required to complete the graduate course in African Studies are as follows:
MA
| Course Work | 25 credits |
| Seminar | 3 credits |
| Dissertation | 12 credits |
| Total Minimum credits required | 40 credits |
M. Phil
| Course Work | 25 credits |
| Seminar I | 3 credits |
| Seminar II | 3 credits |
| Thesis | 30 credits |
| Total Minimum credits required | 61 credits |
AFST 640 – MA SEMINARS
All students in a Department or Programme at this level are expected to attend all seminars specified and be made to give at least one seminar on a review article which, may or may not be in their area of intended research. This should be in the first semester.
In the second semester, each student should make a presentation on his/her dissertation proposal and also attend all seminars at the Department. Both presentations should be graded using a common format designed and should earn each student a total of 3 credits.
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA REQUIRED COURSE (UGRC)
Introduction to African Studies
This course introduces students to the field of African Studies including Africa’s histories, peoples and cultures. It begins with a general introduction to the discipline, its history and values; continues with an introduction to Gender Studies in Africa; and thereafter students select from an extensive and diverse menu of ‘electives’. While all students take the general introduction and the introduction to gender, students are registered into the electives that they will take in the second half of the semester.
The general introduction serves as the springboard from which to launch the entire course.
Objectives of the course:
- To help students appreciate the contemporary value of African Studies as an area of enquiry.
- To help students engage with discourses on African realities.
- To encourage students to appreciate the African Identity.
- To help students develop a sense of Self Determination in the global world.
- To make students aware of the negative stereotypes about Africa and to encourage them to challenge these stereotypes.
- To help students develop appropriate methodologies and frameworks for examining Africa and its past through multi-disciplinary approaches.
- To highlight some of Africa’s contributions to world civilizations and knowledge generation.
- To enhance students’ knowledge in specific areas of African Humanities and Social Sciences
The overall introduction covers three weeks, including two hours of lectures, and one hour of tutorials per week.
Introduction to Gender
The main objective of this two week introduction (four hour), is to help students appreciate the gendered nature of African societies, how this impacts development, and state as well ascivil society responses to gender inequalities. Thiscomponent explains key concepts in African gender studies and explains why and how we address gender issues in African studies. This component of the course also makes a case for transforming gender relations on the basis of three justifications: (1) citizenship rights and the constitution, (2) development imperatives, and (3) the promotion of gender equitable cultures. The role of individual and group agency and leadership in changing gender relations will be highlighted.
The introduction to gender covers three weeks, including two hours of lectures, and one hour of tutorialsper week. Also included is a practical activity, typically a film show.
At the end of the first 6 weeks students take part in a continuous assessment exercise.
Elective Component
In the second half of the semester students join one of 19 pre-selected “elective” classes, each of which is described below. An examination for each of these is carried out at the end of the semester.
