PART VI THE PROPOSED CURRICULUM FOR THE AFRICAN PEACE ACADEMY (An excerpt from Equipping the New African Peacebuilder by Titus K. Oyeyemi Copy right Titusoye04/04 - APPLI/AFPLI) Divisions of Curriculum This curriculum will be divided into four sections: Africa, Religion, Peace Studies and Economic and International Relations.  Each section offers at least 8 courses. Each course is expected to be at least 3 Credit Hours, thus making up a total of 120 Credit Hours for the four academic-years of 8 semester terms.  It is difficult to present at this stage, a clear and cognitive delineation of the parameters, boundaries and limitations of the courses.  However, the first semester of the curriculum will offer five courses for 15 Credit Hours.  Thereafter, all subsequent semesters will build upon previously completed plans of study until the first four year cycle is completed.  In this way, students admitted to the program after the first full academic year might have the opportunity to enroll for available courses at more than one level at the same time. Distribution of Courses Steps will be taken to ensure that courses are appropriately distributed among the four levels of 100, 200, 300 and 400.   This projection may not have been adequately articulated in the draft curriculum presented in this thesis; however, efforts will be made to ensure that courses are streamlined as we advanced into the program. It will then be possible to distribute courses among the four stages of the academic program, namely: the freshmen, the sophomore, the junior and the senior classes.  With time, we shall identify what the building blocks are and then assemble them together to complete a strong structure for the peace education program. Section of the Curriculum and Courses Offered In the following pages, sections of the curriculum and courses are presented.  Each section is begun with a short narrative, and each course with an introductory statement, the rationale, aim and objectives of the course.  The audience is also identified and the teaching and learning resources highlighted. SECTION I AFRICA Eight courses, made up of five history courses, two social science courses, and one seminar, will be offered in this section.  Each course will earn the student 3 credit hours.  The seminar course shall earn the student 4 credit hours, but will be taken through out the eight semester of college at 0.5 credit hour per semester. The history topics are divided into four courses, one to each level of academic program.  The social sciences courses will be available at Course Levels 200 and 300. The seminar course shall be available at all semesters. Africa’s History from 6000 BC to AD 1400, the Second Phase of the European Renaissance. According to Professor Basil Davidson, the renowned British historian and the world’s leading expert on African historiography: “history stops for Africa in 1830; and after that its politics.” Africa has had a checkered past. History began for Africa when history began for mankind at 6000 B. C.  Historic, geographic and archaeological evidence abounds to show that Africa was the cradle of mankind and civilization. Recent archaeological and scientific discoveries have proved that the first man on earth was an African.  There are biblical and other religious historic evidences to show that Africans have contributed to world affairs since time immemorial. Rationale It is my opinion that many laudable peacemaking efforts had failed, was because the practitioners considered it a waste of time to learn about the historic past of the people experiencing violence.   Many peace advocators or workers today operating in the international arena spend less time to learn about the historic past of the people they are “assigned” to work with. While a general knowledge of world history is good, it is not always enough to deal with the specifics, when a people are experiencing deadly violence resulting from prolonged enmity for ancient and antiquated wrongs. Many peace workers trained in Christian religion, ethics, international law, and politics, want to participate or operate in the peacemaking efforts in Africa, but their knowledge of Africa’s past history is scanty, or not available. In other cases, they just think that they could presume that those pasts did not exist or at least gloss over them. Aim The aim of this course is to respond to statements like the one cited above.  Is it true that Africa had no history beyond 1830?  If so why?  What type of politics did Africa play or was played on Africa beyond 1830? Objectives The objectives of this course will therefore include but not limited to the following: -        To identify the historic races of people that are regarded as Africans and to study their origins and how they interacted with other known historic races of the rest of the ancient worlds. -        To examine life in Africa during the primitive periods of mankind on earth, the stone age, the bronze age, and during the times of such empires like the Babylonian, Persian, the Greek, the Romans, the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages until the Eve of the European Renaissance. -        To highlight the stories of “the Vandals, who crossed the Rhine in 407, wandered across France and Spain, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in 429, and took Carthage in 439, at which time they had become virtual masters of all the northern coast of Africa from the Straights to the borders of Egypt and how their rule in North Africa was disastrous for the people of Africa..” -        Investigate how the fall of Rome in 410 AD brought an end to the Imperial Church and the implications that the fall had on North African. -        Analyze how the emergence of the eastern invaders “whom North Africans called ‘Greeks,’”   brought another form of Christianity agreeing in doctrine with that of the western Catholics, but showed marked differences in terms of culture and daily practices.”    -        To study the ancient characteristics of specific people from selected African countries, such as Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and Ghana (or any other African country that meets the set criteria) during this period with a view to understand their cultures, languages, government, commerce, their strength and weaknesses. -        To investigate the historic contributions and legacies that Africans of the period under study bestowed upon our world and modern civilization, if any. -        To equip the potential African Peacemaker and Peacebuilder with the past when Africa and Africans were at the same footing with the rest of the world. Audience Since this is a 100 Level course, freshmen to this program are expected to be the primary audience.   Other people that could benefit from this course might include faculty members, research agencies, active peaceworkers and potential peaceworkers in Africa, who might, through a course like this, generate new ideas on how to tackle perennial violence among Africans. Teaching Approach Teaching approach usually used for history subject will be employed for this course. The teaching approach shall include lecturing, book reading, investigative research, and attendance at related conferences and seminars. Learning Resources Books on ancient world history will be consulted for study materials and documentary evidence will be acquired from museums. Books on Church History from the days of the Church Fathers to the Eve of Reformation shall be consulted, even though they may not cover information before the 1st century A. D.  Some books to be considered for this course are as follows: Justo L. Gonzalez, the Story of Christianity (Massachusetts: Peabody, First Printing, December 1999), Volume 1. Toyin Falola and Atieno Odhiambo, Eds. The Challenges of History and Leadership in Africa, The Essays of Bethwell Allan Ogot (NJ: African World Press Inc. / The Red Sea Press Inc.) Washington A. J. Okumu The African Renaissance – History, Significance and Strategy (NJ: African World Press Inc. / The Red Sea Press Inc) John P. Kealy and David W. Shenk, The Early Church in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya: Oxford University Press, 1975) Africa’s History from AD 1400 to AD 1840, the Eve of Africa Partition Among the seven European countries, (200 Level) “The Atlantic Slave Trade began around 1440 A.D., simultaneously with the second phase of the Italian Renaissance and its spread throughout Europe.”  It lasted for about 400 years (A.D. 1400 to A. D. 1800).  Prior to A.D. 1440; the Arabs raided African villages as far back as A.D. 800 through the Arabian Slave Trade Connections.  According to Okumu, “the slave trade was the largest intercontinental forced migration of wage-less labor from one society to another.”  If the two slave trade systems were put together, over 40 million Africans were forced into slavery outside Africa. Rationale •        No doubt, two major events were taking place around this period in the world         one was renaissance, i.e. recovery from decadence,         another was denudement and slavery, i.e. removing the manpower from one part of the world to be enslaved in another part. •        In the last twenty-five years, some bold attempts had been made to seek for reparations for African’s slave labor that developed Europe. •        It is interesting to note that there is a reparations class action lawsuit in the courts in the United States of America, and the fifth hearing of this historic class action lawsuit is scheduled for Monday, December 1, 2003. •        Until Africans became united enough to present a cohesive voice, the hope for any reparation may just become an unrealistic dream. Through a psychological misplacement of guilt Africans have continued an unbroken chain of tribal hatred. The rationale for this course therefore is to highlight the real enemy so that Africans will stop fighting tribal wars that have their roots in antiquities and offenses related to the atrocities of slave trade periods. Aim The aim of this course is to provide a literary encounter for the potential African Peacemaker to see how slavery had dehumanized the African and how in his effort to deal with this problem, must of necessity be violent. This course will also compare what the development the 15th – 19th centuries could have meant for Africa if slave trade had not checked her progress. Objective The objective of this course includes the following: -        To examine the impacts of the slave trades on development (human, material and scientific) in Africa. -        To study the routes of slave trade and how through their slave labor Africans had enriched other nations of the world. -        To investigate some of the uprisings that African slaves embarked upon in different parts of Europe and Arabia and how those uprisings were brutally crushed. -        To investigate the role of the two world religions, Islam and Christianity during the period of slave trade in Africa. -        To investigate the role played by Lisbon, Portugal and London, England and the Americas, and the Arabian Peninsula against Africa during this period. -        To investigate the role of African elite at this period and how they have contributed to tribal hatred and enmity in Africa. -        Investigate how slavers checked the works of the missionaries and stalled the development that could have directly result. -        To study Africans in Diaspora, identify their locations, create literary and physical contacts, and encourage socio-cultural relationship with them. -        To encourage Africans to champion the cause of slavery eradication in the continent and join current debates and set the agenda for the reparation and compensation for Africa for its contribution to Europe’s development through her four hundred years of enslavement. -        To promote a truce among warring tribes whose reasons for enmities dated back to slave trade period. Audience This is a level 200 course and the audience would be students in their sophomore year.  At this time, the students would be able to develop individual portfolios and compose analytical questions that will aid them in their personal investigations of how slave trade contributed to tribal warfare in Africa. Teaching Approach Teaching approach usually used for history courses will be employed for this course. The teaching approach shall include lecturing, book reading, investigative research, and attendance at related conferences and seminars. Learning Resources This is a course that will never lack in learning resources because hundreds of books had been written on this subject.  Audio and visual learning resources can also be easily acquired for teaching this course.  Some books that could be recommended for classroom discussions will include: Basil Davidson.  The Blackman Burden Africa’s History from AD 1844 to 1960, the Period of Colonialism Though slave trade was officially abolished by an Act of British Parliament in 1833, it continued illegally for another forty years.  At the heels of the abolition of slave trade came the great explorations in Africa that eventually culminated in the scramble for the continent and consequently, in her being partitioned among the seven European nations of Belgium, Britain, French, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain in 1844-1845. At the onset, partitioning of Africa held out a dubious promise,  create nation-states similar to the Europeans nations out of Africa which had been ravaged by slave trade and inter-tribal skirmishes, and communal scuffles; courtesy of offensive by and defensive against European slavers and their African agents.  It was a good thing, at least in the eyes of the perpetrators and their supporters at the United Nations Organizations who held King Leopold II in high esteem for his outlandish plans for Africa and Africans. But historians like Davidson discovered, “in retrospect, that -        the whole great European project in Africa, which stretched over more than a hundred years, was questionable and futile -        it constituted a vast obstacle thrust across every reasonable avenue of African progress out of preliterate and prescientific societies into the “modern world.” -         It achieved the reverse of what occurred in a Japan made aware of the need to “catch up with the West” -        it taught that nothing useful could develop without denying Africa’s past and without a ruthless severing from Africa’s roots, and -        it encouraged a slavish acceptance of models drawn from entirely different histories”   This course will find out whether or not these notions were the truth and in face of available evidence, whether there have been a change in the approach to African issues and problems.  And if there had been any change how has that change been constituted, taught and presented in both European and African classrooms? Rationale •        Africans need to answer one question by themselves.  “Why is it that whenever Europe was in need of cheap labor to boost her economy or manpower to fight her wars, and mineral resources to feed her industries, it always look for these in Africa without the readiness to pay for what she takes? •        Where else will Africans learn these facts except they teach them to themselves?  Young Africans need to know and therefore must be taught. Aim The aim of this course is to re-dramatize before the special audience, potential African Peacemakers and Peacebuilders, the drama of how Africa became the colonies of the European countries in the early years of the 20th century.  By the end of this course, the student will be able to understand the history of colonial Africa and why Davidson had said “history stopped for Africa in 1830 and politics began,” and what type of politics was played out on Africa during those years and identify the role played by the different players involved in the drama.  The student will also be in a position to praise or blame those young but brave Africans who fought for Africa’s Independence.  They will also be able to analyze and evaluate the short-comings of these Africans that led to Africa into decadence than glory after independence. Objective The objectives of this course include the following: -        Survey the important events of this period, such as:         The rule of the Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique and establishment of the first European Colony by the Dutch in the Cape of  Good Hope in AD 1652         The founding of Sierra Leone in 1799 by the British as a land for freed slaves returning to Africa.         The arrival of the first American blacks (slave progenitors) in Liberia in 1820 and how it became independent in 1847         The scramble for Africa and the eventual partition in 1884 among European Countries -        Highlight the events of the abolition of slave trades and the key players: William Wilberforce of England, David Livingstone, Mongo Park, Vasco Da Gamma, and other Explorers. -        Highlight the work of Missionaries (the Catholics and the Protestants), and how their work opened the way for the European Colonizers into more hinterlands in Africa, and how they were later checked by the colonizers and mistrusted by indigenes because of church leadership struggles. -        Investigate how Africans Resisted European Encroachments and how Africans and their kings and kingdoms were over-powered, conquered and colonized.  Special attention will be paid to European military operations against countries like Ghana, Sudan, Ethiopia, Botswana, and the coastal regions of southern Nigeria. -        Survey Africa of 1914 – The Height of Colonial Expansion -        Investigate the training in Western Education received by the returned slaves (the captured and the recaptured), their vision and characteristics, their contributions, and how rejection of their equality with the white colons and operatives led to struggle for independence by these African elite. -        Survey the colonial policies of subjugation, oppression, and military occupation, and how these created frictions between them and the African intellectuals who eventually demanded independence. -        Investigate the tactics of divide and rule of the British and the French, the atrocities of King Leopold II of Belgium and how these collectively laid the foundation for tribal hatred, skirmishes and civil wars in Africa, especially the incessant wars in the Republic of Congo up to this day and the genocide in Burundi and Rwanda. -        Survey the key players and prime movers of African Independence. Audience Since this is a 300 Level course, the audience shall be students who had completed their sophomore and are in their junior years at college. The question to ask anyone aspiring to become a peace worker in Africa is “how can you resolve a conflict you do not understand?”   As a third party, the peacemaker could be effective only if he or she can reason together with the first and the second party at the same and at the same level. If he or she doesn’t meddle instead of settle the conflict, which is exactly the harm that geopolitics did in Africa. Teaching Approach Teaching approach usually used for history courses will be employed for this course. The teaching approach shall include lecturing, book reading, investigative research, and attendance at related conferences and seminars. Learning Resources This is a course that will never lack in learning resources because hundreds of books had been written on this subject.  Audio and visual learning resources can also be easily acquired for teaching this course.  Some books that could be considered include: Basil Davidson.  The Blackman Burden Africa’s History from AD 1950 to 2000, the Period of Independence, Neocolonialism, Geopolitics and African Dictatorship The seeds for colonialism, racism, geopolitics, and African dictatorship were sown, cultivated and grown in the years before and up to the 20th century.  The ripened fruits were however reaped in the 100 years between A.D. 1900 and A.D. 2000.   Africa was apparently peaceful during the first three quarters of the 20th century, probably because of the presence of colonial powers,  when the enmities among the various tribal and ethnic groups were ostensibly suppressed and hidden  away under the occupation of foreign powers. It still beats the imagination of any right thinking African that the Independence collectively fought for by young African leaders could easily be trampled under the feet or allowed to be snatched away without a collective fight by Africans.  Though freedom had been costly to Africans, but Africans had failed to pay the price for liberty which is much more costly.   Freedom is internal struggle, confronted within ones’ borders and territories, but liberty is an external battle, fought outside ones’ own borders and territories, at the frontiers, even on the ground and the soil of the enemy. Regrettably, Africans are dissipating their energies within instead of building up the energy for external liberation. Rationale •        The stark reality is that though Africa had received political independence, Africa is not politically and economically free. •        For Africa freedom and liberty does not mean the same thing. •        Another important reality to bear in mind is that at independence, “Africa produced tribal and regional leaders instead of national leaders.” •        Africans need to develop a new sense of community, not one of neocolonialism, a sense of sharing and not one of grabbing, a spirit of building up and not a spirit of pulling down. •        Quoting the words of Frantz Fanon, “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.”   That mission is the collectively finding and fighting liberty for Africa by Africans. Aim This is the fourth and last series on the subject “Africa in historical perspective.” Since this course will cover the last 40 years of events in the continent of Africa, it is better considered as a study of current and contemporary issues than seen as historic issues. This is so because some students taking the course may themselves have personal experience about the subject-matter. Another course, “stories of wars in Africa,” will however, take an historical nature.  At a recent presentation, an African in the audience where I presented a paper on “Equipping the African Peacemaker” at the Kroc-Institute at the Notre Dame University in Indiana, asked this question: “Why has Africa been so violent in the last 40 years?” The aim of this course is to partially answer that question, but sufficiently enough to equip the student with the tools needed to become an effective peacemaker in Africa. Objectives   The objectives of this course shall include but not limited to the following: -        A thorough review of the preceding three parts of the theme “Africa in Historical Perspective.” -        With the aid of different maps, do a comparative analysis between the Africa of 1914 (the height of colonial expansion) and Africa of 1976 (the height of independence) with a view to identify how many independent African nations had fought wars, were at war, or about to be at war. -        Investigate, analyze and evaluate how unresolved issues of colonialism, racism, imperialism, geopolitics, absence of democracy and military dictatorship, the curses and woes of deliberate economic squeeze and policies affected Independent Africa. -        Investigate the onslaught against missionaries in this period, why some were gagged, and others were expelled, why some indigenes dropped their Christian names, and many changed their Christian religion to either Islam or Traditional Religion, and how this situation was used to the advantage of Islam and promoted the spread of Pentecostalism. -        Investigate why colonialism and apartheid lingered longer beyond 1976 in the four countries of South Africa, the roles played by other independent African nations, and why South Africa was relatively peaceful since independence in 1990. -        With the aid of maps, statistics, and documentary evidences, examine the causes and effects of the tribal wars of 1970 – 2000 in Africa with a view to determine their economic costs, ecological devastations and loss of meaningful development. Audience This is a 400 Level course and the students will be in their senior and final year at the college when they are suppose to take this course.  Having spent nearly four years in this college, and having taken other related courses, the student would have realized that no matter how smart, intelligent or powerful, no one single African or a single ethnic group possess the capability to make Africa great.   Africa’s greatness depended on the collective unity of all Africans.  Like the task of rebuilding the fallen Jerusalem wall, during Nehemiah’s dispensation when each person was assigned to work where his property is located.  Africans, by developing their own territory, would have collectively developed one Africa. Teaching Approach Teaching approach usually used for history courses will be employed for this course. The teaching approach shall include lecturing, book reading, investigative research, and attendance at related conferences and seminars. Learning Resources This is a course that will never lack in learning resources because hundreds of books had been written on this subject.  Audio and visual learning resources can also be easily acquired for teaching this course.  Some books that will be recommended include: Basil Davidson.  The Blackman Burden David W. Shenk, Justice, Reconciliation & Peace Kofi Buenor Hadjor. On Transforming Africa – Discourse with Africa’s Leaders War and Peace in Africa (200) Like any other peoples and nations of the world, Africans also had a history of war and peace.  The history of Africa as presented to the world by Historians from the Western world depicted Africans as a loose tribal stateless group of people.  Yet, Africa had kingdoms and communities that maintained military personnel of various ranks.  Most of African chieftaincy titles were military titles. Warfare in the ancient and Middle Ages times were caused at personal, individual, group, society, tribal, kingdom levels and they were fought for various reasons, such as cultural differences, economic expansion, domination, resistance, self-defense and vengeance. Almost all the factors generally attributed for the causes of wars were also present in the ancient African settings.  Just as there was warfare in history of Africa, there were also peace movements, peace treaties, negotiations, compromise and surrender among various tribes and kingdoms.  It could not be claimed with certainty that Africans would have stopped fighting tribal wars had the European not colonized them, but may be some solutions at reconciliation could have been gradually developed. Today, more and more peace covenants are being enacted and the gospel of peace and reconciliation is being preached with great fervor and intensity. Rationale •        At this juncture it is necessary to introduce the students to the nature and types of warfare that Africans had to fight or participate in on the African soil and elsewhere. •        There were many battles and they varied in purpose, nature, and goal.  Some of the wars were foreign to Africa, yet they were fought on the African soil, perhaps to grab African lands and resources. Some wars were fought in vengeance for past mistreatment. Many wars were fought for political power after independence. •        The student of African Peace ought to have a thorough knowledge of all these wars. •        There are several ways to which one could put the knowledge of wars and peace in Africa.         One of such ways might be to have knowledge and understanding of the geographic spread of the African people.         Another might be to see how the problems of inter-tribal wars were historically resolved among Africans.  These studies might also help to see if there is any direct comparison between the causes of wars in Europe with those of Africa. If similarities can be established, how can one introduce similar solutions that Europe had used in the past to solve her prolonged wars.  If they are not similar, how can one find an African solution to African wars? Who can tell, perhaps, during the course of studying this subject, new ways may be discovered to solve Africa’s perennial tribal violence and skirmishes. Aim The aim of this course is to provide the African Peacemaker with knowledge of important wars that had been fought in Africa and the reasons for those wars.  The student will also be exposed to the measures taken by various concerned agencies at avoiding such wars.  The student will then be able to evaluate how wise, foolish or witless those wars had been. With this knowledge and awareness, the student of African Peace will be able to recommend, support and justify other means of conflict resolutions other than violence in Africa. Objectives The objectives of this course include but not limited to the following: -        Take a survey of important wars in Africa, before, during and after colonialism with a view to analyze them, establish their causes, evaluate their human, economics, ecological losses, and determine whether such wars brought any direct benefit in terms of political and economic stability and development. -        Review the various factors that were responsible for wars of antiquity in Africa and compare them with the wars of the post-colonial era of the last 40 years (1960-2000). -        Studies will be done on specific civil wars, such as the civil war in Nigeria, Congo, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Niger, Liberia, and Sudan, etc. -        Investigate the characteristics of those wars, were they ethnic cleansing in nature? Were they genocidal? Do they respect the international conventions on wars? Were these wars just or unjust?   How were non-combatants, children, women and the aged treated during these wars? What were the external contributions that aggravated these wars? -        Review the actions taken by regional intervention agencies, such as ECONOMOG, the UN Peace Keeping Force, etc., with a view to determine whether such actions ameliorate or aggravate the situation, or whether those actions were timely or untimely. -        Investigate the role of the Church and other NGOs in resolving conflicts in Africa and emphasize the traditional heritage aspect of these initiatives. Audience This course shall be available for students in their sophomore year.  It is expected that some 100 level courses in African history, religion, peace studies, sociology, economics and politics would have laid foundational ground work while the students were in their freshmen year. The Teaching Approach The teaching approach shall be primary through lectures and reading assignments. Learning Resources Literature, journals, documentaries, audio and visuals, could be found in sufficient quantities for this course.  Searching internet and websites for wars in Africa could yield tons of learning resources for this course.  Additional learning resource will include seminars, workshops, conferences, study of special UN and Regional Peacekeeping Reports.  The following books will also be among those to be recommended for class discussions, reading and assignments. Basil Davidson.  The Blackman Burden David W. Shenk, Justice, Reconciliation & Peace Kofi Buenor Hadjor. On Transforming Africa – Discourse with Africa’s Leaders Sociology, Anthropology and Ethnology in Africa (300) In his book, Free at Last? U.S. Policy toward Africa and the End of the Cold War, Michael Clough asked a very important question when he quipped: “Who are the Africans.”   Several reasons might have led Clough to ask this question.  Africans speak thousands of different languages, their cultures are different from one another, in most cases, and they do not even look very much alike, as they appear to have distinctive racial identities.  In addition, they never present issues in one cohesive voice and they appear to always to want to take different routes to reach the same goal, thus dissipating energies and wasting resources, not only of their own, but of people who might be interested in listening to their cases and plights. Though Clough was asking a question that pertains to the Africans of the post-partition, it is the post independent unity by Africans that can answer his question and several others of its kinds correctly.   There is no doubt that Africans speak thousands of languages, but they are not barbarians. They may be people of diverse culture, background and aspirations, yet one thing binds them together, and that thing is motherland Africa. Through the work of missionaries who had translated the Holy Bible and Hymnals into hundreds of African languages and the work of other linguists, it could be proved that every language spoken on earth has some etymological relationships and this is true of the African languages. Rationale •        Communication flows easily and mediators are easily understood and trusted when they speak our language and understand our cultures. •        Attitudes may change, and demeanor improved when conflicts resolution are done in native languages. •        Enmities vanish and hostilities dissolved when a mediator could invoke sensitive cultural values for compromise. Aim The aim of this course is to help the would-be African peacemaker understand the fact that Africans speak thousands of languages and they are of diverse cultures.  However, when closely examined there is always a main dialect that is common to almost languages spoken by the same ethnic group in any part of Africa.  Where such dominant dialect has been discovered, it is usually adopted for the written literature of the people. With this in mind, the student might make deliberate choices in advance of which tribes, language and culture he or she might wish to work and get familiar with them as part of the academic work. Objectives The objective of this course will include the following: -        Introduce African anthropology and sociology from the African perspectives of cultures, family and community lives, gender issues, occupations, and co-existences. -        Introduce the study of African societies through basic sociological concepts and perspectives – culture and social order, social interaction, social stratification, power and organizations. -        Survey the African experience from earliest times, with a view to analyze lifestyles of different periods and peoples by comparing and contrasting current development and modernization of the nations and peoples with their past. -        Attention will be paid to the geographic, historical and anthropological factors underlying African societies and their cultures by looking at the biological, psychological and sociological factors determining sex-role identification and role performance in Africa. -        Analyze social, cultural and political contexts that affect religious institutions and expressions, and upon which religion beliefs and practice have some influence by investigating any direct correlation between Islamic conquest upon the North and the Christian presence in the black Africa, south of the Saharan-Desert. -        Identify the dominating languages, culture, religion and lifestyles of a particular people and how they use them for communication, worship, teaching, government and commerce -        Students will be encouraged to speak more than one African language, at least other main dialect from their own country. -        Some sort of questionnaire will be applied to familiarize students with spoken languages of Africa such as name of the language, total number/percentage who speak it, countries where spoken, the linguistic affiliation, dialects of the language, etc.   -        Efforts will be directed at reducing suspicions among people who speak different languages and yet must live together in the community and as a way of conflict reduction, it will be encouraged that people speak the common dialect or language whenever necessary and as they could possibly do. -        Understanding the society will also be an essential factor to both positive and negative peace in Africa.  A would be African peacemaker will need to understand how the African civil society is constituted and function: ranging from religious groups to professional and pressure groups, the law enforcement, the judiciary, the business and school systems, the legislatures, and the technocrats.   This course will give a survey of agencies and advocacy and human rights groups in the society with a view to understanding how they function and how to enlist their assistance in resolving violation of human and societal peace. Audience This is a 300 Level course and every African Peace student would be encouraged to sign for it. This might be a complex course, but for every high school African, the probability is that he or she speaks and write another African language other than his or her mother tongue. Such students will be encouraged to perfect those languages.  Where a student needs to take a language completely new, all assistance will be provided that will make the task as simple and as interesting as possible.   Teaching Approach The teaching approach to this course shall adapt to standard language courses methods of teaching.  Students will be taught in alphabets, grammalogues, parts of speech, syntaxes, tenses, functions and sentences of the language so chosen.  Since these languages are living languages, all available methods will engaged, such as conversational, debates, worship, interactions, etc.   Lecturers may even invite students to write or report cases of conflict in languages they are studying. Learning Resources For major languages spoken by good percentage of people of any African countries, there are several learning resources in the market for such languages.  Departments or Ministries of Information and Communication of several African countries have provisions for studying languages in audio, visual, etc.  Television and radio houses have hours when they broadcast and teach languages that are in popular demand in their locality.  Advantages will be taken of all these opportunities.  Language classes and language labs may even be arranged to coincide with such broadcasts where possible. For naming languages, the people who speak them, and their locations in Africa, the Ethnologue – Languages of the World , produced by the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc., Dallas, Texas, would serve as a major resource. Several Internet websites that analyze the languages spoken by Africans in different countries of Africa will also be consulted. African Renaissance (400) Following Thabo  Mbeki’s speech in 1996, a few African strategists and intellectuals held consultations with a view to formulating pragmatic operational strategies for mobilizing and networking Africa’s human resources in terms of intellectual wealth and enterprise for an Africa Renaissance in the third millennium.   Having encountered European Renaissance, how much had Africans learn, copy or duplicate from it. No doubt, there is a strong yearning for change in Africa.  To give this yearning for change a chance requires the construction of a real foundation in the African societies that will show why a change is not only possible but necessary. Africans need to develop a moral sense of value.  Security and the wellbeing of her citizens are a moral value that the people and governments of the United States of America are not prepared to toy with.  The US is prepared to mobilize the entire resources of the country to rescue just one American citizen whose life is endangered or in jeopardy in any part of the world.  In this way, the value and the dignity of every American citizen continued to rise when compared with other nations of the world.   Similarly, and using the Islamic religion as a rallying point, the people and governments of the Middle East and the Asian world consider any attack against any Muslim as an affront against Islam as a religion.  Africans, as Africans, need to develop a rallying strategy, something like “Africa, the Future Land of Peace.” The history of Africa in the last 200 years will reveal that through slavery, military conquests, and foreign occupation, diseases and moral rectitude, the African citizen hardly possess much dignity as a human being.  The African citizen has been used and misused, captured and recaptured, and the status of the average African though pathetic 200 years ago, is now worst than it used to be. For Africans to emerge into a true people, its leadership must be prepared to forge a moral sense of value around which all Africans could be rallied.  I know one such rallying point.  It is “Africa, the Future Land of Peace.” Rationale The first question to ask ourselves is •        “Is an African Renaissance possible?” •         What is the role that national governments, regional governments, religious movements, institutions of learning, politicians, the senior citizens, and most importantly, the youth of Africa prepared to play in bringing about an African Renaissance? •         The youth of Africa, for which this course is being designed need to know that no matter how much foreign civilization is presented to them; Africa has to develop her own civilization. •        The grayed haired Africans are fighting for political positions and are killing and wasting the youth in the process.   The youth of Africa should learn to liberate itself otherwise he would be crushed and destroyed. Aim The aim of this course is to prepare the youth of Africa to face challenges of change.  Inspirations for this change will be found mostly from the struggle for independence that occupied the minds of young Africans in the first and second quarters of the 20th century; however the efforts will be directed at liberating Africa from itself and lifting her out of the decadence inflicted upon it by tribal hatred, civil wars, diseases and decay.   Objectives -        Describe the theory of change that could be understood and embraced by the youth.  The students will be encouraged to define what they understand by change and how they hope to achieve it.   -        Forge a moral sense of value and encourage the youth to embrace it and internalize it as the rallying point for all future endeavors. -        Investigate the deplorable conditions of children of the continent of Africa.  Since the students themselves are just few years away from childhood, memories of their childhood difficulties will still be fresh, and since they would soon become parents in a few years time, the course will bring the reality of the issues home to the students and serve as a catalyst for the change of attitude toward the plight of African children. -        Examine the plight of the youth in Africa, by investigating the past, the present and the future of young Africans.  The course will reflect on youth and militarism in contemporary Africa, examine the problems and aspirations of the youth and evaluate the effect that HIV/AIDS is having on the youth population in Africa. -        Discuss the positive and negative attitudes of the youth towards government established and constituted orders and authorities.  Encourage the African youth to make his voice heard through several youth movements, religion, vocations and non-violence. -        Emphasis will be placed on factors that could promote the African Renaissance as recommended by Okumu as follows: •        Political, economic, and social inclusion •        Health in the positive sense of well-being in body, mind, and spirit, and with sound nutritional status •        Equal opportunity to education, healthcare, participation in political and economic decision making •        Justice that not only redresses but rebuilds broken relationships •        Freedom from fear of domination, oppression, repression, discrimination, hunger and malnutrition •        Fairness in the distribution of property and in access to jobs in both the public and private sectors •        Cultural expression through which the African societies will demonstrate their tribal values through literature, music, art, and drama. -        Introduction to environmental peace by encouraging Africans of all sorts of life to treat the environment with more respect.  Environmental degradation could have adverse psychological effect on the peace of mind and health of the people.  An environment that is ecologically peaceful and clean of all forms of pollutions, natural, human and industrial, is more likely to enhance the peace of the people. Audience By design, this is a 400 level course.  It is expected to be one of the functional knowledge with which the student of Africa Peace will arm himself or herself for impact-making in the community wherever they serve. Teaching Approach Though this course will be impromptu and brain storming in nature, the motive would not just be to speculate or generate abstract thoughts.  True case studies about events of day-to-day experiences relating to political, economic, education and the civil societies will be brought to the classrooms.   Each class session will be journalized and outcomes of deliberation documented as communiqués with a view to making them own these as their original thoughts and theories. Learning Resources To obtain sufficient learning resources for this course, both faculty and students will have to work together.  Some contemporary books will be recommended, a tentative list of which is shown below.   Links will be made to other institution of learning for learning resources, notably, the Institute of African Renaissance in South Africa.  If possible course materials will be obtained directly from that institution. Africa, the Future Land of Peace Just like the Renaissance and the Eve of Reformation in Europe, Africa is in the Eve of her peace, greatness and economic emancipation.  A new awareness is now sweeping through the whole world that portends good omen for Africa.  With the end of the Cold War between the United States of America and the USSR, one can be optimistic that peace instead of war will now be visited upon Africa.  The curses and woes of independence that had plagued African nations in the last 60 years are now lifting and their weakening in strength.  With the passing away of the generations of the old politicians who inherited powers directly from the colonialists but lost it to military dictators because of inadequate preparation, stifled opportunities, tribal instead of national worldview, and lack of global vision for development beyond personal aggrandizements, the future looks bright for Africa. Rationale Atola, a Yoruba word, means nearly the same thing as the title of Myles Horton’s and Paulo Freire’s book, We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change.  And late Dr. Tai Sholarin, a Nigerian renowned educationist, asked this question during a television discourse on provision of free education in Nigeria “How can you improve on what you do not have”?  It is very important that Africa gets peace first, and then she can improve on it.  From historical perspectives, Africa has not had peace in the right sense of it.  The rationale for this course therefore is to seek peace, pursue and internalize it. Aim The aim of this course is to encourage, on a progressive and systematic basis, the cultivation of new lifestyle that can promote both positive and negative peace in Africa.  As could be seen, the focal point around which all the courses in this curriculum rallied is, “Africa, the Future Land of Peace.”  It would be naive to think that education alone can bring peace; however, an education designed and developed around peace as its theme can contribute to the promotion of peace.  Having undergone this training, the African Student of Peace shall be able to identify the various causes of conflict and violence in Africa and contribute positively to its avoidance, prevention, reduction, eradication and the healing of the trauma and wounds of violence that plague and forestall future peace. Objectives The objectives of this course include -        Identifying and consolidating the new African constituency who will spend their time and energy to promote the African future land of peace. The Africans of the 20th centuries spent their energies winning independence for Africa; Africans of the new millennium should spend their energies to consolidate liberty for Africa. -        With a concerted effort and harnessing of resources, Africans can now stand up for the liberation an reformation of Africa, economically, politically, socially, and religiously. -        Developing a new geo-political Africa where the focus shall not be for cold war but for economic development and advancement -        Riding the tide of the time for peace.  The Zeitgeist (spirit of the moment) is that young Africans want to live a life of peace.  This should be ethos that should influence the policies of all African government. No sweat no sweet, by providing hope through full employment; African youths will spill their sweat for sweet, and not their blood. -        The goodwill of democracy should be spread abroad Africa.  Every African country should embrace and work out their kinds of democracy. -        Encourage Africans in Diaspora to assist in promoting Africa, the Future Land of Peace. Nowadays, several Africans are in forced and involuntary Diaspora.  They have been scattered abroad as a result of violence and economic hard-ship in their own countries. These Africans are professionals: lawyers, doctors, educators, and students in institutions of higher education. They can make their impact if proper sensitized to the need of Africa in the new millennium. Audience Since this is a seminar type of course, all students of the Peace Academy will participate in it.   Colloquiums, forums, workshops will be organized.  Members of the grassroots peace and love clubs from the grassroots communities, churches, mosques, and educational institutions will be in attendance. Teaching Approach The teaching approach shall major be discussions.  Special guests will be invited from the communities, leaders, men and women of God, security agents, government official, educators, etc. Learning Resources Learning resources will include books, relevant journals, personal experience, current affairs, international reports, etc. James M. Washington, A Testament of Hope – The Essential Writings and Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Deryke Belshaw, Robert Calderisi, Chris Sugden, Faith in Development Kofi Buenor Hadjor, On Transforming Africa, Discourse with