Africa+Day+One

Welcome to our Africa Unit. This unit is designed to change your mind about everything you know about Africa. We will eventually get to a truly important novel titled //Things Fall Apart//, but before we do, we will explore the history that inspired Chinua Achebe to write his internationally recognized story of a man named Okonkwo.

It is well known that writing is a powerful tool in influencing perceptions. As well, power is also an insurmountable and intimidating force. When the powerful are also controlling the writing and thus, creating only one single story, the impact is nearly irreversible-nearly, but not impossible.

Africa is a fascinating place with lot of interesting topics. You will need to choose a topic to do a one page min/max research paper about. You can choose anything you like that you think will be interesting for the group. Use your iPad to search for a topic. You will have only five minutes. When you have found the general area you plan to explore (that is unique from any other person at your table), write that down on a note card and hand it to your table captain.
 * Activity One: **

Listen to Mrs. Overly's [|Powerpoint on Images of Africa] Join with one other table to categorize topics as a larger group. [|Let's Save Africa]
 * Activity Two: **

Spend time exploring the University of Iowa's Museum of Art website. This website is one of the best collections of African art and culture on the internet. There were five negative Western images of Africa that we discussed during our powerpoint. As you are reading various chapters, examining art, and viewing videos, draw your own conclusions about what these images suggest as far as what Africans value. Consider how these stories and photographs are contrary to the perceptions of Western media. There is indeed an argument here worth thinking about and I want you to write your reaction to this argument in a 1-2 page soft paper.
 * Activity Three: **

Details: Writing a reaction paper is different than writing an informative paper. For a reaction paper, you are doing just that, forming an educated reaction to what has been placed in front of you (I would say opinion but that will encourage people to use icky personally pronouns). In your introduction, introduce a concept that will establish your topic. Next, in your introduction, you will have to introduce the name of the website and the college that created it so that your entire paper is cited properly (not the URL). You do not need to cite any further in the paper as long as you have introduced that your discussion is based off the information from this site. quickly draw to your thesis. The best way to create a high interest thesis is to pose a question to yourself. For example: What value is celebrated with their heavy emphasis on initiation ceremonies? For example: Is there truth in the idea that Africans are highly sexualized?

Then, answer your own question drawing upon specific examples from the website. Describe the examples and draw connections from what you learned and how it contributes to and validates your reaction.

Of course, the last section of your essay should contain the big 'so what' like we've talked about in class. Remember, you only gain points when you are extending into an area of thinking on the right side of Bloom's Taxonomy or, as a classroom reference, the ends of the branches.

This is only the beginning of your exposure to African culture, literature, and history, but I'm very interested in your first steps out of the ethnocentric lounge chair and into the far less comfortable chair of a globally aware human being. Try your best and if you feel uncomfortable choosing a topic, that's the point. And if you don't know what's going on here. Start from the beginning of our lesson in class and try again.