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EXAMPLES
Example
Website Citation & Annotation:
Topic: African-American
Slave Life
Contributor:
Dan Farring & Sam Farring,
11 May 2000
[Student, Central Oregon Community College, Humanities
299: Student
Perspectives on World & Multicultural Writers, Instructor:
Cora Agatucci, Spring 2000]
Hannah
Valentine and Lethe Jackson: Slave Letters, 1837-1838.
An On-line Archival Collection from the Campbell Family Papers.
The Digital Scriptorium, Special Collections Library, Duke University,
1996.
URL:
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/campbell/
[accessed 11 March 2002].
Annotation: This website offers
a collection of letters written by two U.S. house slaves, Hannah Valentine and
Lethe Jackson. Their owner, David Campbell, was the governor of Virginia
from 1837-1840. The letters cover topics including everyday life, issues
surrounding the War of 1812, and other topics that give the reader an insight
into the slaves' views. You can view photographs of the actual
letters, or you can view a text-style presentation of them. This is a
good source for those who are interested in African-American slave life and
want to review original letters that have not been edited or filtered.
Example
Book
Citation
& Annotation:
Topic:
Imperialistic Travel Writing
Contributor:
Mary Uhland, 1998
[Student, Central Oregon
Community College, Humanities
211: Cultures and Literatures of Africa, Instructor: Cora
Agatucci, Fall 1998]
Rotberg,
Robert I. Joseph Thomson and the Exploration of Africa.
New York:
Oxford University Press, 1971.
Annotation:
Rotberg’s biography recounts the experiences of the Scottish explorer Joseph
Thomson. The author contends that, though Thomson came relatively late to the
exploration of Africa, he made significant geographical and cultural
discoveries for British interests. An enthusiastic participant and supporter
of British imperialism, Thomson influenced policy in Kenya and Nigeria.
Rotberg believes that Thomson was an exception to the traditional European
explorer in that he was a pacifist committed to conflict resolution. The
author claims that the explorer respected Africans and African cultures, and
believed that Africans should be accorded equal status. Rotberg’s accounts
of the intense coverage of Thomson’s activities and philosophy by newspapers
were avidly followed by the general public, and that this influenced colonial
policy in that it mitigated some of the harsher methods by which the British
implemented policy. Rotberg’s biography is well-written and interesting. If
this source is accurate, it provides insight into the power of the explorer to
color and influence popular perceptions of Africa. It is an account from the
perspective of the non-African, but it gives rise to the possibility of a
correlation between the travel writing of explorers, and public/imperialistic
responses.
Example
Journal Article
Citation
& Annotation:
Topic: The
Validity of Christian Missions in Sub-Saharan Africa
Contributor:
Chris Shepherd, 1998
[Student, Central Oregon
Community College, Humanities
211: Cultures and Literatures of Africa,
Instructor: Cora Agatucci, Fall 1998]
Mugambi,
J. N. K.
"African Churches in Social Transformation."
Journal of
International Affairs
50.1 (Summer 1996):
194+.
Annotation:
This
article sets out to examine the role of the church in South Africa as well as
critique the role it played in transforming the social and political
foundations in Africa. A major strength of this paper is that it is written
from a fairly neutral position; it does not contain biased undertones within
the discussion. I feel the paper could have been stronger if more concrete
examples were cited in relation to some of the opinions argued (namely the
arguments of the church bringing major social change during early
colonization). The underlying thesis of the paper is that missions, in
general, have had a growing involvement with the various colonies/countries
they reside in. Mugambi
asserts that missions were originally self-sustaining and free from partisan
ties. In his opinion, missions existed entirely independently of European
colonization during the early arrivals. It is pointed out that missions were
actually punished for starting or assisting in the creation of independent
African churches, which taught Africans to be culturally self-confident. The
paper argues that colonial governments justified their claims to African
territory by early missionary success in converting native Africans to
Christianity. So by either "design or accident," the church was
directly involved in the social and political transformation of Africa. It is
at this point that missions lost their political innocence. Missions created
schools teaching westernized values and religion in return for grants provided
by the colonial governments for health services, agriculture, etc. The paper
continues in a discussion of the present day involvement of the church in
Africa. Perhaps the most dignified remark of the paper was: “There
were missionaries who were racial bigots and colonial bullies, but there were
also others who were excellent pastors, counselors and teachers. Some were
businessmen, and others were diplomats. Thus both the negative and the
positive influences must be acknowledged in a balanced assessment of the
missionary impact in tropical Africa.”
Example
Videotape/TV Program
Citation
& Annotation:
Topic: African
Writers
Contributor:
Cora Agatucci, 1998
[Central Oregon Community
College, instructor of Humanities 211: Cultures and Literatures of
Africa]
Chinua
Achebe: A World of Ideas.
The
Moyers Collection [originally filmed for Bill Moyers' PBS television
series A World of Ideas, 1989]. Distributed
by PBS Video, Public Affairs Television, WNET/New York and WWTTW/Chicago,
Alexandria, VA; 1989. Films for the Humanities, 1994. 28 min.
Annotation:
From The Moyers
Collection comes this insightful videotaped interview with Chinua Achebe,
originally filmed for Bill Moyers' PBS television series A
World of Ideas (1989).
Achebe discusses the role of the African storyteller, one who hears the
music of history and weaves the fabric of memory, one obliged to be the
people's collective conscience--sometimes to offend "the Emperor" in
so doing. "It is the storyteller...," stated Achebe, "who makes us who we are, that creates
history." A man caught between two worlds, Achebe discusses his
observations and criticisms of both African and Western politics and culture,
the stages in his awakening to inaccurate and demeaning depictions of black
Africans in works such as Conrad's Heart of Darkness, to his closing
advice that the West: "listen to the weak."
For more examples of source citations
& annotations:
Africa and
the African Diaspora: Annotated Bibliographies & Critical Reviews of
Sources
URL: http://www.cocc.edu/humanities/HIR/Reviews/Africa.html
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