College Resources

Critical Thinking about Africa

  • BINGO!: Stereotype Edition
    Anthropologist Mark Moritz writes about his approach for getting students to recognize how films and media perpetuate stereotypes and myths about African forager groups. The BINGO! format discussed is a great activity for stereotype- and myth-busting for any subject.

History, Environment

  • Nidad: The Maize and Malaria Card Game
    This is a strategy and risk game modeled after the Ethiopian agricultural system. The name of the game, Nidad, or malaria, in Amharic, emphasizes the link between maize, mosquitoes, and malaria as found in the Rockefeller Foundation study lead by Boston University Professor James McCann. Instructions, game templates, and playing cards are all easily printable.

Political Science

  • African Democracy Simulation Activity
    In this simulation, students will study the politics around an upcoming election in the fictional African country of Mambia. In different groups, students will study the perspectives of and represent one of seven community organizations in a national meeting. In this meeting, students must develop collective goals for Mambia’s civil society for responding to the growing authoritarianism of the incumbent leader, President Jones.  This innovative and engaging lesson plan includes procedures, readings, and handouts.

Public Health

  • Exploring Response to Disease in Africa: A Curriculum Guide for High School & College Students
    This curriculum guide undermines biases that imply that Africa is a disease-ridden continent, that help for these diseases only came with the arrival of outsiders, and that disease on the continent continues to a problem that only foreign aid and western ideas can fix. This resource counters these ideas by focusing on the only disease that has been globally eradicated (smallpox); an ancient disease that lingers on today (sleeping sickness); and a disease that has only emerged in the lifetime of your students (AIDS). The resource is available in several parts linked below.

  • Teaching Ebola: Responses, Ethics, and the Future
    Created by Melissa Graboyes, a University of Oregon professor, this curriculum guide focuses on the 2014 ebola virus outbreak in West Africa. Designed for advanced high school students or first or second-year college students, it contains thoroughly-researched readings, classroom activities, and an annotated list of additional recommended resources. The materials explore the logistical scope of the Ebola outbreak and the countries and people affected as well as the role of Western media in its depiction of Africans during the crisis. This resource may serve as an entry point for exploring other topics related to media bias, global health, and disease.

Events for College Instructors

The BU African Studies Center, as part of its National Resource Center (NRCs) mandate, especially aims to serve community college instructors, professors at Minority Serving Institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Every year, we organize an Africa-themed conference in partnership with the Reinhart International Studies Consortium of Georgia Colleges and in collaborations with other NRCs.

2023-2024 Conference: June 14, 2024, online.
Theme: “Repositioning Africa’s Place in the Classroom: Educational Strategies and Approaches.”
See the program and register here.

2023-22 Conference: Theme: “Africa, the Climate Crisis, Engagement & Activism.”
See the program and resources here.