History of Africa to 1890 (saylor.org)

This course will introduce you to the history of Africa from 300,000 BCE to the era of European imperialism in the nineteenth century. You will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place in Africa during this period and examine the experiences of Africans who lived during this period. You will also explore the relationships between Africans and people living in other regions of the world. The course will be structured chronologically except for units 3 and 4, which will divide the continent geographically while covering the classical period of African history. Each unit will include representative documents and other resources that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes. By the end of the course, you will understand how Africans transformed their continent beginning with human evolution and concluding with the era of global capitalism. The story then continues in HIST 252, which covers the last 120 years of African history.

Upon sucessful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Locate major regions, geographic features, and populations in Africa and label them on a map.
Identify major events and trends in the history of Africa prior to 1890 that describe change over time.
Demonstrate the impact of the African environment on human history in Africa and explain how humans in turn changed that environment.
Compare and contrast the diverse social and political structures and systems devised by Africans.
Summarize the connections between Africans and other peoples of the world and the ways in which those connections changed over time.
Demonstrate the usefulness, best practices, and limitations of different types of sources for understanding the African past.
Appraise various conceptions of the African past given the evidence from that past.
Assess the degree to which there can be said to be one, shared African history before 1890.