YeshuaNgome

You are definitely right in your supposition about languages after the second getting easier. Part of this could be if the languages are related but I think part of it is just knowing how you best learn and doing that. Your plan and goals sound totally doable. I'm a first year Africanist. All programs are different but in my own, I need an African and European language (only a reading test at the outset). I had taken Swahili previously and had worked on French for reading so was able to get both of those out of the way off the bat. I am actually continuing with both though because I am focused on the Congo and thus need both. French on my own and Swahili in a class (an advanced class so conversation and discussion rather than classroom learning). I added Lingala as well this semester so I am attempting to juggle the three with around 1 to 1.5 hours per day in each. Working so far!

As a 1st year Africanist focused on 20th century Congo, this is glorious news!

Hi thekatieladybird, I'm a first year PhD in African history and focused on the Congo. I am most interested in African languages and their political impacts in the 20th century Congo. There aren't many Congo focused people within African history. I actually stayed in Goma for a few months in 2015 and am hoping to go back this summer. Your interests sound fascinating. I know a lot of political science people focus on conflict in Eastern Congo but not so much historians. Lots of room then. Best of luck with your application season! Also hello to the other Africanists here. It's cool to see a thread! I came here when I was doing my applications last year but haven't really come back.

If anyone is still waiting on Yale, I emailed my POI this week and he got back after checking with the graduate school to say that my application is still under review. I'm not entirely sure what that means but he had a friendly tone with the email, so I can't complain.

Congrats Josh, been cheering for you in this thread!

Hey fortsibut, sorry about the slow response. That is awesome about your background with the Central African Republic. From what I understand, admissions committees will look favorably on your extensive experience of the place you want to study. I can imagine the last several years have been pretty difficult for you with all of the violence. I just read an article about them having a good election there so that I hopefully a step in the right direction! In terms of your interest in the history of missions, I did some really fun research for a paper in my undergrad on a missionary surgeon to China who lived through Japanese occupation in WWII and wrote extensively about her time there. I personally am Christian and have done some missions work in a couple of Middle Eastern countries. My connection to Congo is also missions related as I spent two months in the Eastern DRC this year as a English teacher/missionary with a local organization. This has been my only experience of actually living there. I can definitely send you my undergrad thesis but it is pretty long (105 pages) and not as cleaned up as I'd like. I also totally agree about Central Africa being understudied from a history point of view. Your picks for PhD programs seem very solid from what I gathered in my own research for this years application rounds, except I wanted to stay in the Northeast and thus only did Yale, BU and UMass. In terms of my interests historically, I am very interested in the DRC's political history, especially during and after colonization. Belgian colonization seems me to have been a unique breeding ground for significant ethnic tensions escalating into major conflict. The DRC, Rwanda and Burundi have all had massive ethnic conflict throughout their histories. I could certainly study the political dimensions of this. For me the most interesting span in African history is the period immediately surrounding independence in the early 1960s. Two topics I would like to move toward for a potential dissertation are: American covert interventions in the Congo from 1960-1965 and the effects of these interventions on the (mis) development of the DRC's political system and the perspective of everyday Congolese on independence, Lumumba's time in power and his removal/murder. I feel like the Congo crisis is often approached only through its geopolitical implications and not for the impact it had on Congolese individually and corporately. Anyway, I am sure there are many great discussions we can have given our overlapping interests. I will pm you.

I have also not heard back from Yale. I am assuming a rejection at this point because its been a week since they sent out acceptances according to the results posted on here. I was actually thinking Yale was my best fit coming into this process due to my own research and my emails with my POI but I got in at my other schools and not at Yale. I guess I can chalk it up to the size and strength of the applicant pool.

Mainly regional. I live in the Northeast and would prefer to stay there for grad school. Also, I returned from a few months in the DRC in mid November and the December 1st deadlines of Michigan and Wisconsin Madison were a little too soon for me to make sufficiently strong statements/applications. I went to UMass Amherst for my undergrad and have come to know and love the history department there. My primary interest is in 20th century political history in the Democratic Republic of Congo. For my honors thesis, I worked under Prof. John Higginson and wrote a biography of Patrice Lumumba. Prof. Higginson used to focus on the Congo before the political challenges of the 1990s made it difficult for him to continue there. He shifted to southern Africa but still has a major wealth of knowledge and experience regarding Congo. Also, Prof. Christian Appy is an expert in American Vietnam War history, which has some tie-in with the Congo due to the Cold War mindset and intervention which the US brought to the Congo in 1960 and during the whole decade as they covertly propped up different governments centering around Mobutu. Is there a specific field in Central Africa you are most interested in?

Hey guys, I got an early acceptance from Boston University! My focus is Central Africa. Seems like an awesome program. I tried to limit my applications to only a few programs and it seems to have worked. I got in at UMass Amherst and now BU, both schools I would love to go to and have a strong fit with. Now just waiting with many more of you for my results from Yale, which at this point I assume is not a likely acceptance.

Hey guys, I've responded in this thread a few times. I am a student interested in 20th century African history with a focus on the Congo. I got an acceptance letter from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst today! It was my school for undergrad and I have had an amazing experience with the history department there and my adviser. I am still waiting on responses from Yale (joining the club) and Boston University (which I think is a little on the later side). Best of luck to everyone!

Well, I submitted my first application. I contacted my POI a few months ago while in the Congo working with an NGO (I replied to this thread in June and plan to study Congolese history). He seemed very interested in my experiences and research. I went through around eight drafts of my personal statement (in the end completely tailored for this school). I also decided last minute not to apply to another school which has a good name but nobody completely aligned with my interests. I found the process of applications challenging and time consuming but also valuable. It forced me to really come to terms with what I want to study and has helped me to process my time overseas. All in all, a pretty great process! I have one more great fit school with a January 15th deadline so for now I can relax a bit.

Hello everyone. I am fully new to all of this. Anyway, I am a recently graduated history student looking to apply to phD programs in African History. I specifically want to focus on the political history of the Belgian Congo culminating in independence, western intervention and the Congo Crisis. There are numerous topics within this area which I believe are insufficiently covered. This is a highly specific focus and I realize that I am fairly limited in terms of people which I can work with. I am deeply passionate about history in general and pre/post-independence Africa specifically. I graduated this spring with a bachelors from a mid-tier public university (top 30 university) with a 3.68 GPA and am taking the GRE later this summer. I was not sufficiently serious about my undergraduate studies but hope to create a unique and interesting application through my own profile as a student. The elements I hope to rely on in my application process are firstly a university wide undergraduate research award I won this year for archival, primary source research. Secondly my mentor and thesis advisor, who was formerly a significant name in my field before changing to a closely related field and who has a very high view of me as a student and writer. Thirdly I am able hope my commitment to language learning will demonstrate my passion and engagement with the subject area. I am rapidly becoming proficient in reading French and am learning Swahili as well. My fourth area where I hope to demonstrate strength is through my passion for travel and learning about other cultures through teaching. I taught English last summer in Oman (where I was able to study a small amount of Arabic as well) and am traveling later this summer to the Eastern Congo to again teach English and additionally to further practice my Swahili (!). For my application, I hope to use some fairly original research I did for my undergraduate thesis on Patrice Lumumba (the iconic, assassinated first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo). I will use this research in a new paper, specifically for the application process. In adhering to the advice I have received, I will try to rely as extensively as possible in this process on French language primary sources. I have targeted 7 programs to focus on, based on a program quality, POI and location (East Coast). These are Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Boston College, New York University, Cornell and University of Connecticut. I specifically have three professors who I want to contact and potentially to meet with in person: Harms at Yale, Diouf at Columbia and Cooper at NYU. From my understanding, Cooper and NYU are likely my best fit but I am going to engage with the process as best I can in hopes of succeeding on my first dive into the application cycle.