Down Under

At a time when African drums and Latin American marachas are giving way to the louder, incessant rumble of revolution, it is unfortunate that the University offers no course in either area suitable for the non-specialist. General Education courses on the Far East, India, and the Middle East have shown that experts can successfully interpret emergent nations for the undergraduate. Soon, Guatemala and Chile, Tunisia and South Africa may drown out the clamor from these traditional noise-makers. To give students a basic knowledge of the areas and to stimulate interest in graduate research, the University should add to the upper level Social Sciences a course dealing with Africa and one with Central and South America.

Harvard is specially suited to offer a General Education course on Latin America. Described in the recent Faculty Report on Behavioral Sciences as "the finest collection of Latin Americana in all of the world's universities," Harvard's resources would lend themselves to the broad historical and cultural approach of a General Education course. The Anthropology Department and Peabody Museum have supported specialized research, and the history Department has even set up a professorship for the region filled by visiting lecturers from Latin American universities during the last two years.

Despite Harvard's resources, the courses presently offered by the History Department are much too specialized for students with only a short time to study "south of the border." The broadest course includes the history only of the West Indies and Carribean since 1492. The visiting lecturer each year should certainly be qualified to give one course with wider objectives--a course which would discuss the fundamental causes of Latin America's unique blend of communism, fascism, and democracy.

In contrast to its Latin American research, Harvard's interest in Africa is almost as underdeveloped as the continent itself. While it should not try to specialize in African studies--especially since Boston University has recently started such a program--it should, nevertheless, offer undergraduates a chance for basic study in the field.

No faculty addition would be necessary for a General Education course on Africa. A British Empire historian, a Government Department expert on nationalism, an anthropologist, and a geographer could easily combine efforts to produce a valuable course. Graduate students from Africa might give occasional lectures. Perhaps the College could acquire a lecturer from Boston University to direct the course, a valuable extension of Harvard's interest in interuniversity cooperation.

Careful coordination could bring together adequate facilities for pioneer courses in the world's southern continents. Unlike newspaper commentaries on current events, the two courses could probe deeply into two increasingly important frontiers.