TAFAEPS75U Optional course: Elites and Power in Africa

This course is about elite formation, power and social networks in Africa. It looks at elite formation in a broad perspective. We look at a variety of domains, such as the business sector, political parties, social clubs, religious institutions and major families in Africa’s cities and rural areas. Moreover, we focus on the role of social networks to capture the relationships between people and the power they draw from these relations. We look at, for instance, how different public figures (chiefs, religious leaders, politicians, and family heads) interact with one another and we pay attention to the different cultural expressions and manifestations of what it means to be part of an elite. The course begins with a discussion of the conceptual landscape of elite formation and power, and then goes in depth with topics such as ‘elite formation in colonial Africa’; ‘elite making and the role of schools / education’; ‘elites, politics and power’; ‘elite making and the role of grand families’; ‘elite formation in a transnational space’; ‘cultural manifestations of elite status’ and ‘elite formation in a religious field’.