Modern Africa
- Course Code
- PSCI 0200
- Course Type
- Tutorials
- Subject Credit
- Course Availability
This tutorial explores Sub-Saharan Africa’s politics and history since 1945. The rise of African nationalism, the ideals of Pan-Africanism, and the decolonisation of the continent by European powers between 1945 and 1975 culminated in the democratisation of South Africa after apartheid in 1990-1994. Since those heady days, Africa’s fate has been contested and different to hopes and expectations. War and disease, especially malaria and HIV/AIDS, have killed many millions, but the continent’s economic and political renaissance has begun in some parts to refute catastrophe and disaster. Democratic transitions in the 1990s away from military rule and one-party states have led to success in some states, but not in all. Resource endowments, not least oil fields, continue to attract outsiders and reignited competition for influence. Ongoing environmental and ethnic conflicts present challenges to the African Union’s hopes of an African century.