African Studies Verbal Arts and Film Archives

What? The curricula of various blended courses (traditional classroom + LMS) include assignments to analyze African-language films (in the original only, or with English subtitles) and incorporate digital audio and video clips into compositions. These are either posted in the course’s Canvas site pages (Discussions for blogging, [Wiki] Pages for collaborative composition and editing) or presented as multimedia Word or PowerPoint files that are submitted via Assignments for assessment and grading. In class–especially sessions held in the Media and Design Studio (former MultiMedia Learning Center or MMLC)–students learn how to edit and embed digital clips from primary sources in the same way that they would make an extended quotation from a literary text in composition. For my Academic & Research Technologies ETTF project, I have been adding content to a Canvas site open to anyone with a Northwestern net ID: https://canvas.northwestern.edu/courses/47861/pages/16-17-african-studies-swahili-and-afst-276-ettf-site. That site offers descriptive curricula for various blended courses that have required viewing lists. In my personal NU Box account, I have dedicated folders that are intended to serve as annotated archives of the required viewings for particular courses.

How? Browse here by thumbnail and click the linked texts in their captions to learn about content in a particular folder on NU Box. Access one or more of these folders by request to lepine@northwestern.edu.  “Backup Contacts”:  Michael Dice, Jr. (michael.jr@northwestern.edu:  University Library/Academic & Research Technologies) or Matt Taylor (mtaylor@northwestern.edu:  Media and Design Studio).

Arusi ya Mariamu (Tanzania, 1985): Swahili 121-2 curriculum
        

novella The Money Order, film Mandabi; Xala novel and film: AFST/CLS 375 “Literature and Its Others” curriculum

 

 

 

Swahili 121-1,2,3: intermediate level, Media and Design Studio lab-classroom-based curriculum, using a dedicated Canvas LMS for each course in the sequence. Access a demo of the Canvas page here:  https://canvas.northwestern.edu/courses/47861. Syllabi for the three courses are available as pdf files in a Course Info module on the site.

A digital capture of Arusi ya Mariamu (640 x 426, 436.5MB, 35:41 min. mov) is in the Swahili-language-soundtrack folder on Box. Other films in the folder are Maangamizi (638 x 354, 1.47GB, 2:16:05 hr. mov), Soul Boy (640 x 480 or 1024 x 436, 715.4 or 586.8MB; 57:21 min. mp4), and Surrender (320 x2 40 174.6MB 27.36 min. m4v). All four films are subtitled in English.

 

 

AFST/CLS 375 “Literature and Its Others”: two curricula available, Ousmane Sembène novels and films, and A Thousand and One Nights texts and films, the latter with focus on Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1974 Arabian Nights. The “Ousmane Sembène” Box subfolder is in the “Lepine: African-language Verbal Arts and Film” folder, and for the comp lit class contains translations of his novella “The Money Order” and the novel Xala in pdf format, along with their film counterparts, Mandabi and Xala. Additionally, there are seven more Sembéne short and feature films in the subfolder and additional documentaries and pdfs. The Arabian Nights feature and some course-used clips from it can be found in the “Pasolini” Box subfolder is in the “Lepine: Euro Film + Christian-Catholic Studies” primary Box folder. Most of Pasolini’s feature films, some if not all short films, and a number of documentaries are in the Pasolini subfolder. The AFST/CLS 375 course focuses on African Studies dimensions of The Arabian Nights in all its versions, so a copy of Pasolini’s film is in that course’s subfolder in the “African-language Verbal Arts and Film” primary folder.