I used the Teaching East Africa Week concept to introduce students to countries in East Africa and some cultural aspects that students can do some research on. The rationale is borrowing from the Black History Month concept of Carter G. Woodson. Woodson started off with “Negro history week” with a focus on literature as an entry point for individuals who would want to learn more about African Americans in the United States. I saw this as an opportunity for students to look at an East African country of their choice and specifically 4 cultural aspects (Food-Music-social media-Film) as an entry point to learning more about East Africa. 

Students learned about their particular country generally (quick facts that would include population, government to name a few). Most importantly, students got the opportunity to learn about specific cultural aspects of each country and a majority of the class learned new information. Students also realized that they have eaten a dish from a country without knowing it! Here are quotes from anonymous student reflections on their projects:

“This assignment was a genuinely nice learning experience for me. I chose this country to research because most people only think of the movie franchise when Madagascar is mentioned so I wanted to actually learn about the country. For one I didn't know Madagascar was an island and that it's the 4th largest island in the world. I think it's important to learn about East Africa or other countries so that you can be more open-minded as distinct cultures do different things. “

“I enjoyed the overall experience of exploring our black history and culture. Especially East Africa, which is often times in the shadow of West Africa. We constantly hear stories of Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon etc. So being able to highlight East Africa showed me great insight into black culture and heritage.”

“It’s important to learn about other countries to get rid of internalized racism. A lot of Americans think that Africa is poor. In reality, Africa is rich in culture, rivers, and natural resources.”

 by Gregory Hazelwood, Brockton High School

As part of the AP World Unit 6 curriculum, we looked at colonial resistance and focused on Ethiopia. We looked at the importance of Menelik II. I would like to examine in more depth the connection to Bob Marley and the pride this colonial resistance brought to the diaspora. Students learned about historical developments, increasing questions about political authority, and how growing nationalism contributed to anticolonial movements. Students leaarned that anti-imperial resistance took various forms, including direct resistance within empires and the creation of new states on the peripheries.

 by Brian Sheehy, North Andover High School

In my Native American Communities of New England unit, I asked students to compare the Honey gingerbread recipe and Swahili chai and asked students what time of year we associate them with. They said gingerbread and Christmas, but they didn't have a time of year when people drank tea.... people drink tea multiple times of the day. So we looked at where the common spices were originally grown and access (spice islands, India, Swahili and monsoons etc.). Then we looked at how the spices got to Europe (extensive overland/changing hands, yearly trade fairs, the expense, the cultural significance of Christmas and saving the high status foods for that holiday). We then talked about the economic motivations the Europeans had to try to find a new route to the Indian Ocean and they ran into the Americas on the way. 

by Kristen Strobel, Lexington High School, MA

by Dominic Burton, International School of Dakar

My 7/8 class is a human rights class and we learned about the Green Belt Movement and the work of Wangari Maathai. Last week we learned about Bayard Rustin so we compared Rustin and Maathai and how they used community organizing strategies, political pressure and intersectionalism to improve human rights in their countries.  My students learned how the whole world was a participant in World War II and that Ethiopia's defeat of Italy was a meaningful victory for Africa. They also learned that Ethiopia's ancient and religious history crashes into modern times with the birth of Rastafarianism. They loved learning about these connections.  My students learned about key East African leaders, Haile Selassie and Wangari Maathai. They learned about their achievements and legacies not only on the continent, but for the world. My students were able to make connections between human rights- women's rights- environmental rights- and Pan-Africanism then and today. 

My 9/10 class is a World History class and we are studying about WWII. I spent three days teaching about Ethiopia. We covered the the battle of Adwa, other battles with Italy, the rise of Haile Selassie, the diplomacy that Selassie used to win support around the world, the Ethiopian guerilla warfare, and the use of poisonous gas. We discussed the message that was sent around the world about an African nation's victory and how that planted the seed for future resistance movements in the continent. I showed slide shows, photos and videos to bring these concepts to life. I also did an extra lesson about Rastafarianism and how the belief system is founded upon this story of Ethiopia and Haile Selassie. Next week, the new Bob Marley film is coming out and the teenagers are excited to see it. Growing up in Central America, reggae and reggaeton music is very popular. I wanted them to learn about the roots of the music and culture. 

by Anastasia Shown, Monteverde Friends School

I wanted to find space to explicitly cover events in East Africa in my AP World History class. I like the course but feel it doesn't do a great job at spotlighting specific examples of different countries, especially in Africa, so I wanted to make that a specific focus. I chose my Imperialism unit to focus on East Africa. Students would spotlight a specific country, their experiences under imperialism, and their road to independence. They would also compare the experiences of imperialism in different areas. Many students learned about countries they had never heard of before, so that, in and of itself, is a win. They were able to see specific differences and similarities of colonial rule and those impacts in East Africa. Countries highlighted included Egypt, Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania. They were also able to connect their learning to other examples in the unit such as India and French IndoChina. Their responses on a Short Answer Question assignment showed them applying their new content learning to AP style test questions.

 by Amy  Franklin

Xaverian Brothers High School, Westwood, MA

I presented a brief history of the politics of independence in Uganda. I used this history to develop interpretations of the significance of the craft of the African science fiction short story "Yat Madit," by Dilman Dila. In examining science fiction craft, students explored how the imagined technology in futuristic worldbuilding connects to broader themes and modes of social, political, and cultural critique. Students used a brief examination of Ugandan political history to make meaning of the main form of imagined technology in the short story: Yat Madit, a form of communal AI used as the main form of governance, a kind of digital board of elders. The goal was to present students with examples of African Futurism and to connect these aesthetic forms to real-world social commentary and critique.

by Raquel Baker, California State University Channel Islands