Postgraduate Diploma in African Studies

The purpose of the qualification is to provide an intensive year of multidisciplinary studies focused on different aspects of the study of this continent. It also provide the learners with Postgraduate level knowledge and understanding about Africa that integrates Indigenous and Imported Systems of knowledge and skills for dealing with issues in modern life. Social institutions, the sciences, the arts, sports and games of and in Africa shall be surveyed, analysed and examined in both their historical and spatial contexts.

Rationale

The qualification aims to equip the learner with the skills that will enable him/her to serve the national community at large better as Teachers, Nurses, Doctors, Psychiatrists and Priests, Chiefs and Judges, Policemen and Police Women, extension workers in health and agriculture, tour guides and operators, museum and heritage curators. The qualification aims to provide learners from disadvantaged backgrounds, who have shown promise in becoming future Postgraduates, with training in reading primary and secondary research sources and also web based material, with the purpose of equipping them to continue with their studies.

Entry Requirements

The minimum entry requirements for this qualification is

• Bachelor of Arts or an Advanced Diploma with a major in History; Archaeology; Anthropology; Museology/Museum Studies, National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 7.

Qualification Rules

This qualification comprises of compulsory and elective modules at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 8 totalling 130 Credits.

Compulsory Modules, Level 8, 78 Credits

• Causes of European Migration, Nature of their Settlement, Colonisation and Dispossession of Africa, 13 Credits.
• Women and Men's Roles in the Family: Kingship Structure and Ubuntu, 13 Credits.
• Indigenous, Scientific and Technological Principles, Productions and Products, 13 Credits.
• Men and Women's Participation in Communal and Individual Economic Activities then and now, 13 Credits.
• Women and Men as Priests, Diviners, Healers, Medicine People and Curers, 13 Credits.
• Nature of Kingship in Ancient Egypt, The Great Lakes Region and Southern Africa, 13 Credits.

Elective Modules, Level 8, (Choose 4) 52 Credits

• An elective from any department related to African Studies or has vocational relevance, 13 Credits.
• Historical and Cultural Heritage Holdings and Sites and Touristic Attractions of Southern Africa, 13 Credits.
• Dance and Dances, Music and Musicians, Songs and Song Stars among Southern African Communities, 13 Credits.
• Any elective from any department that is related to African Studies, 13 Credits.
• Rock and Wall Paintings: Ethnic Handcrafts in Southern Africa, 13 Credits.
• Gendered Indigenous Education, Rites of Passage, Games and Sports, Personal Social Maturation, 13 Credits.

1. Acquire an informed and integrated knowledge of African indigenous and modern culture.
2. Awareness of African contributions to world civilisations will be demonstrated.
3. Demonstrated the consciousness of the impact and consequences of the encounters between the African and external world.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of imperialism, colonisation, racism and apartheid.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 1

• Know the importance of forming an informed self-image as an African.
• Impart and adopt a Pan African sense of being.
• Ensure students understand Africa in a historical perspective.
• Knowledge of a consciousness of African traditions in their historical perspectives.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 2

• Unique features of the African heritage in their homogeneity and heterogeneity.
• Self-critical attitudes towards the African heritage.
• Holistic understanding of the nature of African civilisations.
• Introduce students to philosophical concepts and practices of Africans such as Ubuntu.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 3

• Military expeditions and external/internal migration.
• Relate how the military superiority of the invading Europeans helped in the subjugation of the African, his conversion to Christianity, and loss of freedom.
• Learn the value of painstaking search for "influences" and "survivals" (or absence of them) as far as ancient Egypt and other parts are concerned.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 4

• Explain the rise of Islam, its forceful spread in North and Northeast Africa.
• Military expeditions and external/ internal migration.
• Relate how the military superiority of the invading Europeans helped in the subjugation of the African, his conversion to Christianity, and loss of freedom.
• Learn the value of painstaking search for "influences" and "survivals" (or absence of them) as far as ancient Egypt and other parts are concerned.

Integrated Assessment

Integrated Continuous Assessment, project essay, written and oral examinations. At the end of the qualification, learners will produce a research project in which they will have to demonstrate that they have learnt, the skills and the material required by the qualification. Specifically, learners produce a long essay in the form of a take-home examination, including web-based elements and they will have the opportunity of submitting a paper. Learners may have the opportunity of collaborating on research projects with learners from other institutions, in Africa and abroad.