I’m linking these here for future reference. I found all of these as recommendations in Trevor Getz’s Primer for Teaching African History, published earlier this year. They seem potentially useful as assigned readings for undergraduates or as background reading for me.
- Chris Lowe, with Tunde Brimah, Pearl-Alice Marsh, William Minter, and Monde Muyangwa, “Talking about ‘Tribe’: Moving from Stereotypes to Analysis” (1997)
- Jonathan T. Reynolds, “So Many Africas, So Little Time: Doing Justice to Africa in the World History Survey” (2004)
- Binyavanga Wainaina, “How to Write about Africa” (2006)
- Amina Mama, “Is It Ethical to Study Africa? Preliminary Thoughts on Scholarship and Freedom” (2007)
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story” (2009; transcript)
- Kathleen R. Smythe, “Why We Need African History,” in Teaching Africa: A Guide for the 21st-Century Classroom (2013)
- Lendol Calder, “The Stories We Tell” (2013): on narrative in the (U.S.) history survey
Blue Book Diaries 