(1)  Assess the validity of thick analysis in studying historic events. What potential problems does a historian face in using this tool?

(2) Compare and contrast the effectiveness of memory as tool in understanding a historical event or process like the Atlantic Slave Trade versus documenting it. Provide examples to support your answer from the book or from the film about the Gullah people and their ties to Sierra Leone.

3. Assess the extent to which British (or other) colonialism helped or hindered the chances of a West African (or other regions of Africa) intellectual tradition to flourish. Support your answer with examples.

(2) Basil Davidson, who presents the documentary for Week 7, was called “the historian who changed Africans’ perceptions of themselves” by rejecting the colonialist narratives that had dominated African history for more than a century. After watching the film and reading the articles, discuss this quote and what you think it means in relation to the ideas of slavery and nationalism (and colonialism, if you’d like).