Advanced Topics
The remaining sections are Specialization Tracks:
- Literature, Arts, and Expression
- Africa and the African Diaspora
- Health, Environment, and Future Africa
These do not need to be studied in any fixed order. They assume you have completed the Core, but they do not depend on one another. You may study one, several, or all of them.
Literature, Arts, and Expression
| Subject | Why study? | Book / Text | Online Resource |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oral Traditions | It teaches how spoken stories, proverbs, and songs preserve history, morals, and knowledge across generations. | Open Access Oral Literature in Africa (Free PDF & eBook) | OAPEN + Cambridge African Orature (Full open-access edition) |
| Modern African Literature | You explore how novels, poems, and stories express African experiences, identities, and responses to change. | — | Yale African literature lectures (Open Yale Courses) |
| Visual Arts | It helps you appreciate sculptures, paintings, and crafts that tell stories about beliefs, history, and creativity. | — | Smarthistory Africa (Free educational articles & videos) |
| Music & Performance | You learn how rhythms, songs, and dances build community, express emotions, and pass on cultural knowledge. | — | MIT OCW Music of Africa |
Africa and the African Diaspora
| Subject | Why study? | Book / Text | Online Resource |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pan-Africanism | It shows how ideas of unity and shared identity connect people of African descent worldwide to fight for rights and pride. | — | Black Past Pan-Africanism archive (Essays & timelines) |
| Atlantic & Caribbean Africa | You understand how the slave trade created African-descended communities in the Americas with lasting cultural influences. | — | Harvard Hutchins African Diaspora (Research projects & resources) |
| Modern Global Black Identity | It explores how people of African heritage today build shared identities across countries through culture and history. | — | MIT OCW Black Matters |
Health, Environment, and Future Africa
| Subject | Why study? | Book / Text | Online Resource |
|---|---|---|---|
| Environment & Climate | You learn how climate change and conservation affect Africa's land, animals, and people's ways of living now and in the future. | OpenBookPublishers – Conservation Biology | Coursera – Climate Adaptation in Africa |
| Public Health | It helps you see the causes of diseases and how health systems work to protect communities across the continent. | — | WHO Africa open reports (Annual health statistics & reports) |
| Population & Migration | You understand how growing populations and movements of people shape economies, cities, and societies in Africa today. | — | World Bank Africa data portal (Population & migration datasets) |