Specific African Countries

Film Guides

• Pray the Devil Back to Hell: A Women’s Peace Movement in Liberia
  Created by high school teacher Frank Swoboda, this film guide focuses on comparative topics like the causes and effects of war and conflict, responses to oppression and violence, nonviolent protest and civil disobedience, human rights, women’s participation in society, and peace-building and peacekeeping.

• Madagascar Resource Overview
  This resource guide served as an introduction to our summer 2018 GEEO teacher trip to Madagascar. It features an overview of teaching resources available for bringing Madagascar into your classroom across subjects and grade levels as well as basic country facts and a crash course in Malagasy.

• Spoken Word Poetry Unit Featuring Malagasy Slam Poet Caylah
  Created by high school teacher and 2018 Curriculum Development Grant recipient Lee Naughton, this unit plan on spoken word poetry emphasizes the importance finding one’s voice in order to affect change. The unit includes an overview of Madagascar and Malagasy Slam Poet Caylah as a means by which to globalize youth issues such as representation and gender rights, among others, and encourage students to develop their own slam poetry in a culminating class project. 

• Kingdom of Mali
  A description of the King of Mali’s visit to Cairo in 1324, written by Al-Umari. The questions that follow the description make it a useful teaching resource to help students better understand the history of Mali and how the King of Mali saw himself.
• Sundiata: An Epic
  A timeline of the Malian Empire, plus a list characters and quotes from the Sundiata epic. A series of questions on each chapter in the Sundiata epic can be used by teachers to help students understand the founding of the Malian Empire.
  • Why this Epic?
    A brief explanation as to why it is important to learn about the Sundiata epic.

• Nigeria
  A list of mixed media resources for teachers to teach elementary level students about Nigerian life and culture.
• Nigerian Proverbs
  A short list of proverbs commonly used in Nigeria. Proverbs are vital to understanding the values and beliefs that a culture holds important.
• Boko Haram: Behind the Headlines
  An excellent teaching resource looking past the media portrayals of the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram. The media can often exaggerate or inaccurately portray events, especially those concerning African countries.
•  My Grandfather is a Magician in the Elementary classroom
  An exemplary teaching resource for elementary students exploring the idea of work and why people work through the fictional text My Grandfather is a Magician by Ifeoma Onyefulu.
• Interview with Nigerian Author Ifeoma Onyefulu
  A video interview with the author of My Grandfather is a Magician.
  This interview illustrates the importance of African Children’s Books to teaching and learning about African countries.

Academic Articles

• The Joola: The Geographical Dimensions of Africa’s Greatest Shipwreck
  Created by the ASC’s 2016 Fulbright-Hays participant Karen Barton, this interactive article explores the untold histories and legacies of the 2002 Joola shipwreck in Senegal, which killed an estimated 1,863 people. Despite more casualties than the Titanic, there has been no academic attention to the wide-reaching impact of the Joola. This article explores the incident through a geographic lens and by doing so, allows the traumatic event and the thousands of people affected to be adequately memorialized.

Case Studies in Colonialism: Senegal

In the video below, Boston University Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the African Language Program Fallou Ngom focuses on the specificities of colonialism in Senegal and how Senegal’s unique history and culture shaped and were shaped by the colonial experience.