Boston University African Studies Center 270 Bay State Road Boston, Massachusetts 02215 (617) 353-3673 email: africa@bu.edu www.bu.edu/africa

Geography:  teaching resources on Africa

3 essential understandings:
1. Africa is diverse
2. Africa is "regular" - i.e., not unusual
3. Africa is "real" - a living, vibrant continent of people

Good pedagogy on Africa generally benefits from:

1. Compelling visuals esp. because their visual 'bank' on Africa is distorted
2. Recognizing both the depth and breadth of student misconceptions
3. "Meeting" Africans - ie., hearing African voices because this makes Africa "real" but even more because many Americans tend to think of Africans as somehow less articulate
4. Going for depth rather than breadth because the continent is vast and students retain what is deep

*********************************************************************************************

Details on the 3 essential understandings, with additional information on teaching resources:
I. Africa is diverse
       in every imaginable way:
                  religions
                  economy - including crops grown
                  physical geography: terrain, climate,
                  wealth/poverty in land or resources
                  culture
                  political systems
                  history, etc.
      Use this as a theme or a backdrop for your own list.
      Teaching vehicles for diversity:
             1. "How Big Is Africa?" map + guide [available from the above organization]
             2.    videos: (details in video section below)
                              "Understanding Each Other"
                               "Lagos: Rich Man, Poor Man"
                               "Nigeria: Two(Farming) Families"
             3. Take a closer look at several disparate countries - e.g. S. Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Mali, Egypt, Senegal . Look at              comparable data in e.g., Global Studies: Africa (publ. McGraw-Hill/Dushkin)
             4. Africa: Map Skills (a wonderful set of 16+ colored overhead covering Africa's geography)

II. Africa is "regular" - not unusual

1. Focus on typical social groups, economic functions, etc
                avoid focus of wildlife, tiny minority groups
2. Use "regular" language - e.g. home or house, rather than hut; a people or ethnic group, rather than a tribe
3. Have students "meet" Africans and hear/read primary sources:
                        * through stories or poetry by African writers
                        * through visuals, incl. film
                        * through school visits from Africans
 4.  Follow the same themes or key concepts as you do for the rest of the world: e.g. movement of peoples, cultures + goods; environmental gifts + problems; changes across space + time. If you discuss problems in Africa, be sure to discuss problems in Europe, Asia, etc.
 5.  Useful teaching vehicles for making Africa ‘regular’:
          "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" by H. Miner (a wonderful, short spoof article in which an
                    anthropologist looks at Americans [Nacirema spelled backwards] as if we were a weird foreign                               culture.  For a copy, google the title online).
            short stories such as African Short Stories, ed., Achebe & Innes
            film - but thoughtfully selected to avoid the atypical
            Through Africa Eyes, v.1 only.  ed. Leon Clark. gr 7+up; a compendium of primary sources: from epics,                     key documents, vignettes, fictional writing, etc. covering the period C.E. 800-1960.

Some Outstanding Teaching Resources
(In addition to those mentioned in the above outline)
Websites
       http://www.bu.edu/africa/outreach for teaching
       http://www.allafrica.com for news from African newspaper
       http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/guide3.html for many things
       http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/teachers/curriculum for mid. sch. lesson plans
       http://www.africaaccessreview.org for children & YA book reviews
       http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/AfricaFocus for sights & sounds (4,000 in database)

Videos: some great teaching videos for geography:
       "Understanding Each Other" Altschul Group/United Learning; superb.  gr. 6-10. 15 min.
       "Africa" series. esp.the episode ëLeopards of Zanzibarí from National Geographic. grades 6-adult (be aware though that the videos include too much wildlife in terms of Africans' lives, probably due to joint sponsorship of the show w/ the "Nature" channel,)
       Lagos:  Rich Man, Poor Man  (Films for the Humanities)
       "Nigeria: Two Families"  (Films for the Humanities)
       "What Do We Know about Africa" (Boston Univerity --- contact information is above)

Literature is a good way to get kids connected with Africans:
       see http://www.africaaccessreview.org for a database of such books for different grades
       Use this website to find the list of those titles which have won the coveted Children’s Africana Book Award, recognizing the best books on Africa published in the United States.