This course examines the nature of colonial rule in Africa and its impact. It is focused upon the violence inherent in this encounter, its different forms and origins. It seeks to understand the conflicts which erupted in Africa after 1989 by developing a historical perspective from the pre-colonial period onward . It is essentially a political history but includes cultural, social and economic aspects. The main thread running through the narrative is provided primarily by the British empire in Africa and Belgian rule. Topics covered include the age of exploration, pre-colonial African kingdoms, the ‘Scramble for Africa; white settler culture and the colonial state;  the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya; the Congo crisis and the assassination of Patrice Lumumba; the rise and fall of 'white' Rhodesia;  the end of the apartheid state; the genocide in Rwanda; the civil war in Sierra Leone and child soldiers; Mugabe's longevity in Zimbabwe; Somali warlordism and the ‘collapsed state’ and Africa's so called world war - the conflict in the DRC in the 1990s. The course finishes by examining attempts at reconciling racism violence and colonial rule at its most historically intense intersection - South Africa's TRC in the 1990s; and also African initiatives to heal post-conflict trauma.