AFRICAN STUDIES AFS152 EXAM PREPARATION PACK
(TOPICS 1 TO 6)
“Your Comprehensive Guide to Succeed in African Studies – AFS152”
Compiled By:
Mr. Silas LepaaKu
Cell: 072 439 6681
Email:
Address: 52 Garthview, Klieprivier, Garthdale AH, 1871
TOPIC 1 AND 2
AFS152: HISTORICAL BARRIERS & AFRICAN CONSCIOUSNESS EXAM PACK
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PART A: SUMMARISED NOTES FOR TOPIC 1 (PAGES 2–22) AND TOPIC 2
(PAGES 23–33)
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TOPIC 1: HISTORICAL BARRIERS (pages 2–22)
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1.1 Introduction (p.2)
,• Focus: Explores how early human origins and colonial influences
created barriers in Africa.
• Key Point: Archaeological and historical evidence shows that Africa has
a long, complex history.
1.2 The Cradle of Humankind (pp.2–5)
• Location: About 50 km northwest of Johannesburg in South Africa;
known for many fossil sites.
• Taung Child & “Mrs Ples”: Important early hominin discoveries
(Australopithecus africanus) proving Africa is the origin of humankind.
• Little Foot & Australopithecus sediba: Later finds that further confirmed
the rich fossil heritage in South Africa.
• Importance: These discoveries show that humans have very ancient
roots in Africa.
1.3 Slavery (pp.5–10)
• Definition: Involuntary servitude where people are treated as property.
• Impact in Africa: Span of more than 400 years, involving transatlantic
and local slave trading.
• In South Africa: Slavery introduced soon after the Dutch arrived in 1652.
Slaves came from Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar, and Southeast
Asia.
• British Abolition: In 1834, Britain abolished slavery in the Cape, but
formerly enslaved people still faced severe restrictions.
1.4 Pre-Colonial States and Culture (pp.11–14)
• Stone Age Divisions:
– Early Stone Age (ESA): Hominins using heavy stone tools.
,– Middle Stone Age (MSA): More refined stone tools; fire, hunting, and
possibly early language skills.
– Late Stone Age (LSA): Hunter-gatherer communities like the San with
distinct art and cultural practices.
• Pre-Colonial Africa: Included structured societies with kinship systems
and clan leadership.
1.5 Imperialism and Colonialism (pp.14–20)
• Colonialism: Foreign power extending control over another region for
resources, prestige, and strategic reasons.
• Reasons for Colonisation in Africa:
– Economic (raw materials), humanitarian (missionary activity), prestige,
and strategic control (e.g., shipping routes).
• Berlin Conference (1884–1885): European powers divided Africa among
themselves, ignoring local boundaries.
• South Africa: Colonised mainly by the Dutch and later the British;
conflicts arose over land and labour.
• Lasting Impact: Economic, political, and social structures were
dramatically changed by colonial policies.
Summary (p.21)
Topic 1 highlights Africa’s ancient heritage (including the Cradle of
Humankind), the terrible legacy of slavery, and how colonialism
reshaped socio-economic and political systems across the continent.
Self-Assessment Questions (p.22)
• Focus on the significance of Little Foot, slavery laws, Stone Age phases,
and reasons the Dutch and British settled in the Cape.
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TOPIC 2: AFRICAN CONSCIOUSNESS (pages 23–33)
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2.1 Introduction (p.23)
• Key Aim: Explains how Africans developed a sense of collective identity,
partly to overcome the historical barriers discussed in Topic 1.
2.1 Pan-Africanism (pp.23–26)
• Definition: Movement seeking unity among people of African descent
worldwide, aiming to resist racism, oppression, and colonialism.
• Key Leaders:
– W.E.B. du Bois: Advocated education, reform, and working within
existing systems.
– Marcus Garvey: Pushed for Black pride, economic self-reliance, and a
“Back to Africa” ideology.
– Kwame Nkrumah: Led Ghana to independence, promoted continental
unity.
– Robert Sobukwe: South African leader who championed African
nationalism (PAC).
• Pan-African Congresses: Influential meetings that shaped strategies to
fight colonialism and promote African self-rule.
2.3 National Consciousness (pp.27–29)
• Definition: A shared sense of identity among people in one country,
recognising common culture, language, or values.
(TOPICS 1 TO 6)
“Your Comprehensive Guide to Succeed in African Studies – AFS152”
Compiled By:
Mr. Silas LepaaKu
Cell: 072 439 6681
Email:
Address: 52 Garthview, Klieprivier, Garthdale AH, 1871
TOPIC 1 AND 2
AFS152: HISTORICAL BARRIERS & AFRICAN CONSCIOUSNESS EXAM PACK
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART A: SUMMARISED NOTES FOR TOPIC 1 (PAGES 2–22) AND TOPIC 2
(PAGES 23–33)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TOPIC 1: HISTORICAL BARRIERS (pages 2–22)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1.1 Introduction (p.2)
,• Focus: Explores how early human origins and colonial influences
created barriers in Africa.
• Key Point: Archaeological and historical evidence shows that Africa has
a long, complex history.
1.2 The Cradle of Humankind (pp.2–5)
• Location: About 50 km northwest of Johannesburg in South Africa;
known for many fossil sites.
• Taung Child & “Mrs Ples”: Important early hominin discoveries
(Australopithecus africanus) proving Africa is the origin of humankind.
• Little Foot & Australopithecus sediba: Later finds that further confirmed
the rich fossil heritage in South Africa.
• Importance: These discoveries show that humans have very ancient
roots in Africa.
1.3 Slavery (pp.5–10)
• Definition: Involuntary servitude where people are treated as property.
• Impact in Africa: Span of more than 400 years, involving transatlantic
and local slave trading.
• In South Africa: Slavery introduced soon after the Dutch arrived in 1652.
Slaves came from Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar, and Southeast
Asia.
• British Abolition: In 1834, Britain abolished slavery in the Cape, but
formerly enslaved people still faced severe restrictions.
1.4 Pre-Colonial States and Culture (pp.11–14)
• Stone Age Divisions:
– Early Stone Age (ESA): Hominins using heavy stone tools.
,– Middle Stone Age (MSA): More refined stone tools; fire, hunting, and
possibly early language skills.
– Late Stone Age (LSA): Hunter-gatherer communities like the San with
distinct art and cultural practices.
• Pre-Colonial Africa: Included structured societies with kinship systems
and clan leadership.
1.5 Imperialism and Colonialism (pp.14–20)
• Colonialism: Foreign power extending control over another region for
resources, prestige, and strategic reasons.
• Reasons for Colonisation in Africa:
– Economic (raw materials), humanitarian (missionary activity), prestige,
and strategic control (e.g., shipping routes).
• Berlin Conference (1884–1885): European powers divided Africa among
themselves, ignoring local boundaries.
• South Africa: Colonised mainly by the Dutch and later the British;
conflicts arose over land and labour.
• Lasting Impact: Economic, political, and social structures were
dramatically changed by colonial policies.
Summary (p.21)
Topic 1 highlights Africa’s ancient heritage (including the Cradle of
Humankind), the terrible legacy of slavery, and how colonialism
reshaped socio-economic and political systems across the continent.
Self-Assessment Questions (p.22)
• Focus on the significance of Little Foot, slavery laws, Stone Age phases,
and reasons the Dutch and British settled in the Cape.
, ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TOPIC 2: AFRICAN CONSCIOUSNESS (pages 23–33)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2.1 Introduction (p.23)
• Key Aim: Explains how Africans developed a sense of collective identity,
partly to overcome the historical barriers discussed in Topic 1.
2.1 Pan-Africanism (pp.23–26)
• Definition: Movement seeking unity among people of African descent
worldwide, aiming to resist racism, oppression, and colonialism.
• Key Leaders:
– W.E.B. du Bois: Advocated education, reform, and working within
existing systems.
– Marcus Garvey: Pushed for Black pride, economic self-reliance, and a
“Back to Africa” ideology.
– Kwame Nkrumah: Led Ghana to independence, promoted continental
unity.
– Robert Sobukwe: South African leader who championed African
nationalism (PAC).
• Pan-African Congresses: Influential meetings that shaped strategies to
fight colonialism and promote African self-rule.
2.3 National Consciousness (pp.27–29)
• Definition: A shared sense of identity among people in one country,
recognising common culture, language, or values.
