ISS 330A Spring 2025 Midterm Study Guide
I’ve designed this study guide to help you focus your study efforts. If you have any questions,
please get in touch with your TA or me.
I. Multiple choice and support for essays
Keim and Somerville
What is Keim and Somerville’s main argument regarding North American uses of the word
“tribe” to describe African peoples and politics?
Táíwò
What is Táíwò’s main argument about the idea of “the precolonial”? How does he support his
argument (i.e., what examples does he use?)
Corrie Decker/ Elisabeth McMahon “Knowledge and the Development Episteme”
Mungo Park
James Rennell
Development episteme
King Leopold II + International African Association (IAA)
Berlin Conference
Walter Rodney, “Africa’s Contribution to European Capitalist Development—The Pre-Colonial
Period,” (pp. 75-91)
According to Walter Rodney, how did Europe “underdevelop” Africa?
On p. 78, Rodney writes, “European technical superiority did not apply to all aspects of
production, but the advantage which they possessed in a few key areas proved decisive.” Give
examples of what he means by this.
Konadu, “Vessels and Villains: African Understandings of Atlantic Commerce and
Commodification” in Transatlantic Africa 1440-1888
Focus on how Konadu uses Equiano’s narrative in the first three pages of the chapter. What do
you learn about West African experiences of enslavement from his narrative?
General Act of the Berlin Conference
What were the conference’s main priorities and outcomes?
Who signed the General Act of the Berlin Conference? (Note: You do not need to know every
signatory. But you should be able to explain who was there and who wasn’t, and why this was
the case.)
Boahen, “The Imposition of the Colonial System: Initiatives and Responses,” (pp. 27-34)
What circumstances led to the “Scramble for or Partition of Africa” (27), according to Boahen
(see especially pp.29-32)?
According to Boahen, “The Scramble was carried out in three stages (33).” What were they?
Laumann, Colonial Africa, 1884-1994, Chapter 1, “Economics”
On p. 14, Laumann writes that Europeans used “a series of complementary, transformative
strategies over time” to achieve the “reorganization of local economies for the benefit of their
metropoles.” What were these strategies, and what effects did they have on African peoples?
Leo Zulu lecture + article
According to Dr. Zulu, what are the main challenges Malawians face related to household
cooking? What solutions do he and his collaborators propose?
Reynolds, “A World Set Free? African Decolonization in the Era of Liberation”
What is sovereignty, and what was its importance for Africans after World War II?
What were some of the different “routes to decolonization” in Africa? (pp. 5-16)
What is Pan-Africanism, and what was its importance for Africans, especially after World War
II?
Names/terms
Kwame Nkrumah
Patrice Lumumba
Congo Crisis
Roy Doron/Toyin Falola, Ken Saro-Wiwa (entire book)
Who was Ken Saro-Wiwa? What was he known for?
How did colonialism in Nigeria affect Saro-Wiwa as a youth and young adult?
What kind of education did he receive?
Explain Saro-Wiwa’s actions during the Nigerian Civil War.
Explain why the Nigerian Civil War was fought, who fought, and what happened to Biafra during
the war.
What themes did Saro-Wiwa’s writing and creative work engage between the end of the
Nigerian Civil War and 1990?
Why did he describe what was happening to the Ogoni as “genocide”?
Why did he create MOSOP?
Why did MOSOP write the Ogoni Bill of Rights? What were the document’s main themes,
arguments, and appeals, and who was the intended audience?
What kinds of activism did Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP undertake between 1990 and 1995?
How did the Nigerian state and its political leaders respond?
What happened in Saro-Wiwa’s trial, and what was the outcome?
What are Saro-Wiwa’s main legacies, according to Doron and Falola in Chapter 8?
Geography
Be able to identify the following within a map of Nigeria: Northern Region,
Western Region, Midwestern Region, Eastern Region, Rivers State, Ogoniland,
Port Harcourt, Lagos (see maps in Doron + Falola, Ken Saro-Wiwa, pp. 31, 51, 83)
Names, terms, dates
Ironsi, Gowon, Ojukwu, Obasanjo, Buhari, Babangida, Abacha
Biafra
Ogoni
Land Use Act of 1978
Shell-BP, Chevron involvement in Nigeria/Niger Delta
Genocide
Ogoni Bill of Rights
Know the key dates/chronology of the Nigerian Civil War.
Know the key dates/chronology of Saro-Wiwa’s life after the Nigerian Civil War.
Know the key dates/chronology from the founding of MOSOP to the execution of Ken Saro-
Wiwa and the Ogoni 9.
II. Essay study questions
How did the Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans affect African peoples? Give specific examples.
How did European colonialism affect African peoples? Give specific examples.
What part(s) did British colonialism play in Ken Saro-Wiwa’s formation as a political activist?
How did the Nigerian Civil War contribute to Ken Saro-Wiwa’s formation as a political activist?
How were Saro-Wiwa’s and Wangari Maathai’s early lives similar? How were they different
from each other?
What challenges did independent Nigeria face that contributed to the outbreak of the Nigerian
Civil War?
What challenges did the Ogoni face after 1958, when oil drilling operations in the Niger Delta
began?
“A Denunciation of European Imperialism” by Nnamdi Azikiwe
What is the historical context for understanding this primary source?
Azikiwe writes, “we are compelled to denounce imperialism as a crime against humanity,
because it destroys human dignity and is a constant cause of wars.” Using specific evidence
from his 1949 speech, what reasons did he give for denouncing imperialism?
How does Azikiwe’s speech connect to Reynolds’s chapter “A World Set Free”?