WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2019-2020       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Development in Question: Conservation in Africa


HIST 267
Spring 2020 not offered
Crosslisting: ENVS 267
Certificates: African Studies Minor
Course Cluster: African Studies, African Studies Minor

"Why not plant trees?" In 1977 Wangari Maathai started the Green Belt Movement, a popular environmental revolution, in Kenya. Then in the 1990s Nigeria Ken Saro-Wiwa fought for the rights of local communities against the multi-national oil industry. Like many African activists, scientists, and farmers, they placed African experiences at the center of environmental policy and conservation. Yet, popular images of the continent's environment in perpetual crisis blame African practices or disregard African efforts. Such depictions of "desertification" or "over grazing" have impacted international and governmental policy. Recent scholarship suggests that such common perceptions of the environment in Africa and conservation policy are misleading. This course will allow students to critically study the history of environmental management on the continent and the development of the idea of conservation. We will examine game park politics, the history of resource extraction, climate change, and other pressing environmental concerns. We will also study diverse African environmental perspectives from the guardians of sacred forests to activists such as Wangari Maathai and Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Requirement for: (AFST-MN)(ENVS-MN)(ENVS)(HIST-MN)(HIST)(IDEA-MN)(IDEA)(STS)

Last Updated on OCT-12-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459