• Whether coping with massive urbanization, developing new kinds of politics, or inventing original literary and theatrical genres, Africans have been active and resilient makers of their own fortunes. The range of African societies today and in the past is enormous: from egalitarian communities to elaborately hierarchical empires. There are extremes of wealth and poverty; ancient oral cultures exist side-by-side with old traditions of literacy and state-of-the-art electronic media. The departments teaching programs are grounded in Africans own views of the continent and the world.
  • Most of the students enter the African Studies program at the University of Birmingham with an enthusiasm for, and interest in, either Africa or Anthropology, but few have studied these subjects at school or college.