Africa's participation in globalization has not simply been a matter of 'joining the world economy.' Rather, Africa's inclusion has been selective, uneven, and partial. This is quite a different proposition than arguing, as many social theorists, economists, and journalists have suggested that the Continent is somehow structurally irrelevant to the process of globalization. This course responds to this debate by retracing the history of globalization, beginning with the Atlantic trade in human beings and concluding with an account of Africa's place in the global circulation of people things, ideas, and currencies in early twenty-first century.