Ed McMahon

The class was interesting but you have a lot of reading to do at all times, the material is very straight forward and the exams are not terrible. If you are interested in african politics or want to learn more about it, I would recommend the course.

This class is really valuable as an introduction to the historic and current political landscape in Africa. Certainly, covering an entire continent in one semester is simply impossible, but professor McMahon does a great job of giving us a general idea of what the political sphere looks like regionally and nationally (on a few selected countries that we discussed in a bit more detail). I personally found this class very valuable for my subsequent studies as well - it was such an interesting class that I sought out more classes that had to do with politics and economics in Africa, which help me achieve a more global view of economics/politics, even if I'm not an expert. Professor McMahon also has a very impressive knowledge base, informed largely in part by his hands-on experience during his diplomatic roles connecting the US with West Africa.

This class is really valuable as an introduction to the historic and current political landscape in Africa. Certainly, covering an entire continent in one semester is simply impossible, but professor McMahon does a great job of giving us a general idea of what the political sphere looks like regionally and nationally (on a few select …Read more

I found this to be much more of a history of Africa class instead of going into the politics. Interesting in some ways but we got very little into contemporary information and spent a very long time talking about early history.