Liberian History 101: September 2011

Liberian History 101 Syllabus
Dr. Timothy Nevin
Email: liberianhistory101@yahoo.com
Blog: http://liberianhistory101.blogspot.com/

Course Description;
     This introductory course to Liberian History begins during the time period of early migrations into the Grain Coast following the fall of the Mali Empire during the 15^th Century. We will examine the social and political structures of "Pre-Liberia", including the effect of the trans-Atlantic human trade (slave trade) the Kru seaman's labor migration and the introduction of Islam to the region. Next we will examine the formation of the American Colonization Society (ACS) in 1816 and the subsequent "colonial period" in Liberian history from 1821-1847. Aspects of the First Republic will be covered, including social and political developments (including endemic conflict and cooperation) throughout the course of the 19^th Century. Moving on to the 20^th Century, we will examine in detail important events and people who effected change during the era of "pacification", the first World War, and the Fernando Po forced labor crisis. Next we will examine the Tubman era of concessionary enclaves and the resulting economic distortions including an examination of the history of rubber, iron ore, and major infrastructure developments such as the Free Port of Monrovia and Roberts Field airport in the post-war era. Next we will examine the demise of the True Whig Party during the revolutionary 1970s by reading primary texts from the time period alongside developments in the areas of arts and culture during the doomed Tolbert regime. Finally we will critically deconstruct the long-term impact of the military dictatorship of Samuel Doe as reflected in 2 autobiographies from Liberian women authors amongst other sources of evidence. I have put this course together by drawing on 35 different sources including historical writings, human geography, biographies, and oral histories. We will critically examine the views put forth by these various authors based upon the cumulative evidence they present.

     I am mindful of the fact that traditionally Liberian history has reproduced the unhelpful dichotomy of "Congo vs. Country" (or "civilized vs. native") ad nauseaum. This course attempts to go beyond these simplistic notions by emphasizing the fact that there was never one single Americo-Liberian or indigenous viewpoint, and behind the scenes cooperation between various groups was just as important as sectional conflict. I am well aware that the historiography favors the settler elite and their descendants largely due to the fact that this small clique attempted to monopolize political power along the coastal littoral for so long, and so with that in mind I have tried to move away from a straight political history which focuses on the literate elite ruling class, to a wider range of historical actors within Liberian history including women and ethnic minorities as well as external (non-Liberian) actors.

     In this course students will be expected to read 6 articles that have been reproduced and are available on reserve in the TU library and write 4 original reaction papers based upon 4 of these 6 articles and in-class discussions/ debates. These reaction papers will be between 2-3 pages long, typed and double-spaced. These papers can be submitted in hard-copy format or electronically via email or "stick" (flash drive storage device). Students will be required to bring paper and pens to class to take in-class notes, because there is no official set of class notes for this class; creating them based upon in-class lectures is the responsibility of the students. Therefore, attendance is crucial and if a student misses a class for whatever reason she/he should get the class notes from another student who attended that day. There will be in-class reviews for the two exams with accompanying vocabulary term lists. There will also be quizzes throughout the semester based upon the assigned readings.

     There are certain terms that are degrading and/or commonly misused that I will be avoiding in this class, and that I would appreciate if students avoid using when writing their papers. First is the term "native" –I avoid this term due to the primitivist connotations attached. Secondly, instead of the term "tribe" I substitute "ethnic group" for the same reasons. Finally, please avoid misuse of the term "dialect" which is frequently substituted for African languages in Liberia. This class is designed to perk your interest in the Liberian and pre-Liberian past- I hope to do this by encouraging lively debate, examining primary documents, and actively watching certain historical documentary films made about Liberia throughout the semester. I endeavor to treat students as adults and with respect regardless of opinions expressed during the semester, and I expect the same from students. I expect students to come to class ready to discuss the readings and engage with the debates presented in the lectures- participation is an important part of your final grade. There are no materials for sale in this class, and all attempts to bribe the instructor with money or other favors will fail miserably. Any form of cheating will not be dealt with leniency.

     Below is the course schedule. The numbers in the column labeled "lecture materials" refer to the books in the bibliography. The first number before the decimal point refers to the number designated to the book in the bibliography list. Please disregard the numbers listed after the decimal point. For example below the first listing is "3.1-0/ 22.1-0" This simply refers the items listed as #3 and #22 in the bibliography. You do not need to read these books- they are simply listed because these are the books that I will be drawing upon in my class lectures. When the schedule says a certain article is due, that means that you should read that article before the end of the week in which it appears. I am placing copies of all of the articles in the library on reserve, and will also attempt to email copies to you of the scanned articles as email attachments.

Week/ Date
Lecture Materials
Topic
1-Sept. 5-9 3.1-0/ 22.1-0 Historiography Intro.
1-Sept. 5-9 12.1-0/ 12.2-0 Historiographical Issues
2-Sept. 12-16 5.1-1/ 5.2-1/ 28.1-0/ 30.2-2 Indigenous Pre-Liberia
2-Sept. 12-16 9.1-2/ 24.2-2/ Kru art. (+film) Indigenous Resistance & the Kru
2-Sept. 12-16 6.1-0/ 6.2-3/ 30.1-1 Mandingo History

Schultze article due (quiz) Sept. 16th

3-Sept. 19-23 19.1-2/ 4.1-1/ 17.1-3 ACS History, Part 1
3-Sept. 19-23 18.1-2/ 25.1-2 ACS History, Part 2
3-Sept. 19-23 5.3-2/ 16.1-2 ACS History, Part 3
4-Sept. 26-30 1.2-3/ 24.1-0 (+film) Colonial Era Liberia
4-Sept. 26-30 14.1-2/ 14.2-3 Agricultural History
4-Sept. 26-30 4.2-2/ 11.1-2/ 31.1-1 Settler Life in the 1820's

Matilda Newport Article due Sept. 30th (paper & quiz)

5-Oct. 3-7 7.1-2/ 7.2-3 John Russwurm & E. W. Blyden
5-Oct. 3-7 15.1-3/ 18.3-2 Freed Person's Social History
6-Oct. 10-14 4.3-3/ 25.2-3 Independence Era (Post-1847)
6-Oct. 10-14 18.2-2/ 17.2-3 Settler Reports from the 1850's
7-Oct. 17-21 19.2-3/ 26.2-3/ 32.1-0 Territorial Encroachment & the LFF
7-Oct. 17-21 5.4-3/ 22.1-4 Black Zion & Liberian Contradictions 7-Oct. 17-21 1.3-5/ 26.1-3 True Whig Party History

Ruth Stone article due Oct. 21 (paper & quiz)

Oct. 25-29 Mid-Term Exam Week (No Lectures)
Mid-Term Exam, Friday, October 28

8-Oct. 31- Nov. 4 5.5-4/ 16.2-3 "Pacification" of the Hinterlands (1900's)
8-Oct. 31- Nov. 4 16.3-4/ 19.3-4/ 27.2-1 History of Rubber in Liberia

Richard West Ch. 3 Reading due Nov. 11 (paper & quiz)

9-Nov. 7-11 13.1-4/ 13.2-4/ 20.1-4 Labor Scandal of the 1930's
9-Nov. 7-11 22.2-4/ 22.3-4 Slavery Allegations & Investigation
9-Nov. 7-11 13.3-4/ 13.4-4 Contradictions of the C. D. B. King Era

10-Nov. 14-18 19.4-4/ 19.5-5/ 19.6-5/30.1-2 WW 2 & Infrastructure Develop.
10-Nov. 14-18 1.2-5/ 8.1-5 (+inaug. film) President Tubman Biography
10-Nov. 14-18 8.2-5/ 8.3-5/ 27.1-0 (+film) President Tubman's Policy Record

11-Nov. 21-25 23.1-6/ 23.2-6/ 29 Labor History in the Tolbert Era
11-Nov. 21-25 23.3-6/ 24.3-6 (+film clips) Politics of the Tolbert Era

Togba-Nah Tipoteh chap. due Nov. 25 (paper)

12-Nov. 28-Dec. 2 2.1-8/ 2.2-7 Life and Legacy of Samuel K. Doe

13-Dec. 5-9 (H. Cooper & E. J. Sirleaf) Women's History (Autobiographical)
13-Dec. 5-9 2.3-8/ 24.4-7 (+film clips) Liberian Civil War & ECOMOG

Dec. 13-17 Final Exam Week (No Lectures)
Final Exam, Monday, December 12

Bibliography

(these are not books that you are required to read, instead this is a list of the books I will be drawing upon during lectures).

1. Liberia: Rise and Fall of the First Republic by George S. Boley
2. Mask of Anarchy by Stephen Ellis
3. Perennial Problems of Liberian History by Joseph Guannu
4. Back to Africa by Richard West
5. Evolution of Deadly Conflict by Jeremy Levitt
6. The Mandingo in Liberia by Augustine Konneh
7. African-American Settlements and John Russwurm by Amos Beyan
8. The New Liberia by Lawrence Martinelli
9. African Resistance in Liberia by Monday Akpan
10. Slaves No More by Bell Wiley
11. An African Republic by Marie Tyler-McGraw
12. The Growth of the Liberian State by Clarence Z. Liberty
13. Black Scandal by Ibrahim Sundiata
14. A History of Agriculture in Liberia by Santosh Saha
15. Four Months in Liberia by William Nesbit (stolen)
16. Liberia: Black Africa in Microcosm by Charles Wilson
17. Liberian Dreams by Wilson Moses
18. Slavery and the Peculiar Solution by Eric Burin
19. Liberia, America's Friend by Earle Anderson
20. Bitter Canaan by Charles Johnson
21. Historical Dictionary of Liberia by D. Elwood Dunn
22. Brothers and Strangers by Ibrahim Sundiata
23. Democracy, Call of the Liberian People by Togba Nah Tippoteh
24. Liberia; Portrait of a Failed State by John-Peter Pham
25. The Republic of Liberia by Ernest Yancy
26. A Short History of the First Liberian Republic by Joseph Saye Guannu
27. Growth Without Development by Robert Clower
28. Emergence of Autocracy in Liberia by Amos Sawyer
29. Law and Media in Liberia by T. Gongloe
30. A New Geography of Liberia by Willie Schultz
31. "The Search for Matilda Newport" (article) by Jane Martin
32. "The Uncontrollable Force; a History of the Liberian Frontier Force" (article) by Timothy Nevin

Final Grade
Midterm Exam = 20%
Final Exam = 20%
Cumulative Quizzes = 10%
Writing Assignment 1 = 10%
Writing Assignment 2 = 10%
Writing Assignment 3 = 10%
Writing Assignment 4= 10%
Attendance and Participation = 10%

In the Classroom

1. Everyone must bring pen and paper to class each day class meets in order to take notes and quizzes. It is impossible to write everything on the blackboard or have all of the information spelled out in powerpoint presentations, so you will need to take notes in class. If you are absent from class due to illness, etc. you can then get the class notes from a fellow student who was present. I will go over basic note taking skills.

2. I strongly suggest that everyone sign up for a free yahoo email account. That way you will have the option of emailing your writing assignments to me via a special yahoo email address that I have set up for that purpose (liberianhistory101@yahoo.com) and save on printing costs.

3. Everyone must turn off or silence their cell phones prior to the beginning of the class out of respect for the teacher, fellow students and the learning environment. Repeat offenders will be publicly embarrassed and it will negatively affect your participation grade.

4. Once I receive all of the student's email addresses I will email the syllabus to each student. It the students job to check his or her email periodically for class announcements.

5. Please be on time to class! Habitually late students will find that their participation grade will be negatively affected.

6. Attendance will be taken. Students will be considered absent after the first 15 min. of class. There will be a total of 9 hours of excused absences, but on the 10^th hour of absence the student will be formally dropped from the class. This is Tubman University policy, not my own personal policy as an instructor.

7. There will be no make-up quizzes. You must be present to take the quizzes.

8. Teachers cannot accept money from students under any circumstances. There are no second chances for bribery.

9. All writing assignments must be original, without the taint of plagiarism. Presenting someone else's work as your own constitutes grounds for dismissal. Paper grades will be reduced one letter grade per day for lateness, but not accepted on the fourth day past the assigned deadline. Also there will be a policy of "zero tolerance" for cheating on exams.

10. Midterms will be given from October 26-29. Final exams will be given December 13-17. There will not be regular classes held during the final exam week.

11. The professor will be keeping regular office hours for consultations in the Academic Annex (AA) Room 104. These will typically be held on MWF from 1pm-2pm. Please let me know if you would like to meet with me to discuss any matters relating to our class and we will schedule a consultation appointment.
12. There will be no classes (university wide) during the first 3 days of national election week; Oct. 10-12th. Our class will resume after the election is over on Fri. Oct. 14th.

Liberian History 101

Saturday, 24 September 2011

Liberian History Bibliography

Friday, 23 September 2011

Liberian History 101 Syllabus