The graduate programme in African Studies aims to foster critical thinking among students and to equip them with the resources, tools and methods for an enhanced understanding and appreciation of issues pertinent to African cultures and societies and their development, and to be able to initiate and conduct research in different domains of African Studies. All students are admitted on MA basis and those who excel in the First year course work continue as M.Phil Students.
MA and M.Phil students are offered the same courses with the exception of Seminar II (AFST 650) which is offered to M.Phil students in the second year.
The Courses available for study are the following:
CORE COURSES
| Course Code | Course Title | Credits |
| AFST 601 | Research Methods | 4 |
| AFST613 | Social and Political Systems in Africa | 3 |
FIRST SEMESTER ELECTIVE COURSES
| Course Code | Course Title | Credits |
| AFST 603 | Theories of Development in Africa | 3 |
| AFST 605 | Government and Politics in Early Post Independent Africa | 3 |
| AFST 607 | Africa Oral Literature: An Introduction | 3 |
| AFST 609 | Drama in African Societies | 3 |
| AFST 611 | African Literary Traditions | 3 |
| AFST 615 | Traditional Religions in Africa | 3 |
| AFST 617 | Traditional African Music | 3 |
| AFST 621 | African Historiography and Methodology | 3 |
| AFST 623 | The Slave Trade and Africa | 3 |
| AFST 625 | Coastal States in Ghana in the Seventeenth Century | 3 |
| AFST 631 | Culture and Gender in African Studies | 3 |
| AFST 633 | Survey of African Art | 3 |
| AFST 641 | African Family Studies | 3 |
SECOND SEMESTER ELECTIVE COURSES
| Course Code | Course Title | Credits |
| AFST 602 | Advanced Research Methods | 3 |
| AFST 604 | Issues in African Development | 3 |
| AFST 606 | The Military in African Politics | 3 |
| AFST 608 | Topics in African Oral Literature | 3 |
| AFST 610 | African Theatre | 3 |
| AFST 612 | Trends in African Literature | 3 |
| AFST 616 | Islam and Christianity in Africa | 3 |
| AFST 618 | African Music in Contemporary Perspective | 3 |
| AFST 622 | Ghana since 1945 | 3 |
| AFST 623 | The Slave Trade and Africa | 3 |
| AFST 624 | History of Pan- Africanism | 3 |
| AFST 626 | Colonial Rule and African Responses | 3 |
| AFST 628 | Islam and Christianity in Africa | 3 |
| AFST 632 | Gender and Development in African Studies | 3 |
| AFST 634 | Methodologies for Constructing Art History in African Societies | 3 |
| AFST 636 | Rural Development, Environment and Modernity in Africa | 3 |
SEMINAR PRESENTATION
MA/M.Phil students are required to participate actively including making presentations at the Institute’s seminars.
AFST 640 Seminar I
AFST 650 Seminar II
Credits
Total minimum credit hours required to complete the graduate course in African Studies are as follows:
MA
| Course Work | 25 credits |
| Seminar | 3 credits |
| Dissertation | 12 credits |
| Total Minimum credits required | 40 credits |
M. Phil
| Course Work | 25 credits |
| Seminar I | 3 credits |
| Seminar II | 3 credits |
| Thesis | 30 credits |
| Total Minimum credits required | 61 credits |
AFST 640 - MA SEMINARS
All students in a Department or Programme at this level are expected to attend all seminars specified and be made to give at least one seminar on a review article which, may or may not be in their area of intended research. This should be in the first semester.
In the second semester, each student should make a presentation on his/her dissertation proposal and also attend all seminars at the Department. Both presentations should be graded using a common format designed and should earn each student a total of 3 credits.