The purpose of this course is to introduce graduate and advanced undergraduate students to the exciting, current state of business, politics and social interactions in Africa. Those with prior knowledge also are most welcome. This course does not qualify for undergraduate “Diversity” requirement purposes but is cross registered with the African Diaspora Program. Attendance is mandatory unless absence is excused in advance.

For the first time since wide-spread African political independence more than one half century ago, economic independence is beginning to assert itself on the continent. The purpose of this course will be to trace the progress being made throughout Africa for it to take its place among world-wide, self sufficient economies with sophisticated infrastructure, innovative industries, stable political systems and a developing export sector.

Course Instructor

Frank J. Parker has been at Boston College since September 1969. He currently holds the rank of tenured full professor and teaches graduate level real estate development and international business courses in the Carroll School of Management. For 23 years, he also was an adjunct full professor at Boston College Law School where he taught a variety of international law courses. He is a practicing attorney and licensed real estate broker in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Frank J. Parker is a graduate of Holy Cross College (B.S.), and Fordham University Law School (J.D.)

He specializes in counseling and representing clients of all religious denominations, educational entities, other not-for-profit organizations and governmental agencies within the United States and overseas. He also was Administrator of Real Estate for the Society of Jesus of New England, Inc. and was Chairman of the Board of Schools for Children, Inc., a State supported enterprise for emotionally disturbed children, in Arlington, MA. Recently, he has been one of seven real estate professionals charged as The Real Estate Advisory Committee of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston with the selling of 47 parishes for in excess of $60 million in the wake of its recent lawsuit settlements.

For over a decade Professor Parker was a member of the Real Estate Roundtable serving on their Real Estate Policy Advisory Committee. He is an active member of The American Society of Real Estate Counselors (ASREC); The Urban Land Institute (ULI), and the Appraisal Institute (MAI). He was a short-term Fulbright Professor in Business Administration in four French speaking African countries in 1977, and has been a real estate consultant at Duke University, Clark University, Weston College School of Theology, Duquesne University, Regis University and Tougaloo College.

He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of RTC Real Estate for Warren Gorham and Lamont, where he wrote a column each issue on “Ethics in Real Estate”. He was the author of Law and the Poor for Orbis Books; co-author of an MBA textbook with Norman P. Schoenfeld, Modern Real Estate for D.C. Heath Co. and a contributing Author to Alvin Arnold’s Real Estate Investor’s Desk Book and to Alvin Arnold’s Real Estate Syndication Manual, both for Warren, Gorham and Lamont.

He served for nine years as a Trustee at Regis University in Denver, Colorado. He served as President of the Center for International Visitors in Boston, MA and served as a Director of the Massachusetts Government Land Bank on appointment by then-Governor Michael Dukakis. He has been a board member of Greater Boston Legal Services, The Massachusetts Governor’s Legal Services Advisory Committee, The Massachusetts Bar Association Legal Aid Committee (Chair) and the Boston Theological Institute (Finance Chair).

He has lived and lectured in a number of African countries, and has been widely published on African affairs and has served on U.S. Delegations at the U. N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva and at UNESCO in Paris. Finally, Professor Parker was the first foreign consultant employed by the Government of Bermuda starting in 1994 to act as a consultant to assist it in closing the 2500 acres American Naval Bases on the island and redevelop the 10% of the land mass involved as commercial, residential and recreational space.