Culture

Interactive Classroom Activities

• 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.

• Multicultural Physical Education Games
  Physical Education teacher Matthew Bassett offers resources to educators interested in teaching students to appreciate physical games and activities reflecting diverse heritages, including games from Botswana, Ethiopia, Guinea, and Nigeria.

• Outreach Program Artifact MapThe Outreach Program Artifact Map contains a catalogue of over 60 artifacts, that we currently hold (in our online library as well), from several regions of Africa including West Africa, Eastern/Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Teachers can use this resource to click on any artifact on the map (images included) and find a list of resources for the classroom about the artifact’s origins, background, and history.

Additional Resources

• Explore Africa’s human geography through this interactive map!
• Teaching African Culture
• Lesson Plan from Deborah Johnson from the Lakeside School in Seattle, WA
  • Travel Blogs Lesson: Students show what they have gathered from a unit of African geography
• The Swahili
  • The Swahili (BBC – The Story of Africa)
• Afrigaget: a blog dedicated to teaching about African ingenuity — great pictures, stories, and videos to use in a classroom
• Image comparisons
• Chantal’s Choice (Video) — Available for Rent
  The story of an African girl grappling with traditional marriage expectations within a modern and changing environment. Written and presented by secondary school students in Burkina Faso.
• Overcoming Stereotypes:
  • How to Write about Africa: Binyavanga Wainaina is a Kenyan writer who  is tired and angered about the ways Africa  is portrayed in the West. He explains why he wrote the piece here.
  • Stereotyping African Men — a response from Kenya
  • Beyond Wildlife
  • Beyond War and Hunger
  • “The Danger of a Single Story”: A TED Talk by Nigerian author Chimamanda Adiche
  • “I Am Not Just an African Woman”: a by Bunmi Fatoye-Matory

• Islam in West African Kingdoms