Bergen County Technical Schools

Unit Design Template

Title of Unit: AFRICA

Stage 1: Desired Results
NJCCCS: Strand and CPI
6.1-1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8
6.3-D-1, 2, 6… 6.3-E-3, 6… 6.3-F-1… 6.3-G-2…6.3-H-3
Understandings
What will students understand (about what big ideas) as a result of the unit? “Students will understand that…”(SWBAT) = Students will be able to:
Identify and analyze their individual perceptions about Africa.
Evaluate the power of language and stereotypes regarding perceptions of Africa.
Understand the geographic prominence and diversity of Africa and compare it to other continents.
Understand and analyze the importance of ancient African civilizations and their roles as cultural generators and cultivators.
Evaluate the holistic breakdown of African civilization as a result of slavery.
Evaluate the causes and effects of European imperialism, colonization, and paternalism from both the European and African point of view.
Evaluate the successes and failures of post-colonial African nationalism and Pan-Africanism.
Synthesize their knowledge of Africa when analyzing African current events.
Create development strategies to alleviate African poverty and promote African economies and health.
Essential Questions / Knowledge & Skill
What arguable, recurring, and thought-provoking questions will guide inquiry and point toward the big ideas of the unit?
How have your perceptions of Africa changed?
Are your sources for learning about Africa legitimate?
What are stop words? Are they legitimate?
How big is Africa?
What is Africa’s role in the historical and present global community?
How does slavery affect a civilization?
What are the causes and effects of European imperialism, colonialism and paternalism?
What is the current status of Africa?
Why is poverty so devastating in sub-Saharan Africa? / What is the key knowledge and skills needed to develop the desired understandings and master the standards on which this unit is based?
Mental maps
Perceptions of Africa
Stop words
Political and physical map analysis
Historical understandings; GGS, domestication, north-south axis, Bantu expansion, Khosian peoples, Zulus, Cape of Good Hope, Boer Expansion, sorghum, yams, millet, river valleys, Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Mansa Musa, Timbuktu.
Cultural cultivation versus victimization
Holistic impact of slavery
Imperialism, colonialism, Berlin Conference, paternalism, post-colonialism, apartheid, Nelson Mandela, independence & nationalism, Rwandan Genocide, Burundian Genocide, Sudan & Darfur, Pan-Africanism & African Union.
Demographic trends (pop explosions & pyramids, pop density) infrastructure, poverty, sustainability, self-sufficiency, corruption, family planning, malaria, HIV-AIDS, deforestation, desertification, global warming, carbon emissions
Stage 2: Assessment Evidence
Performance Task Summary (Project) / Rubric Criteria for Project
*DIAGNOSE AND TREAT AN AFRICAN COUNTRY
Self-Assessments / Other Evidence, Summarized (i.e. quizzes, tests, homework, portfolios, etc.)
  • Mental maps
  • GGS Viewing Guide
  • Shape of Africa Questions
  • Alternative History essay on African History
  • Political and conceptual maps
  • Text homework on African History
  • Rwanda DBQ
  • Midterm general questions

Stage 3: Learning Activities
Phase 1: What do you know about Africa?
Draw the outline of the continent and write one word to sum up Africa inside.
Phase 2: GGS in Africa
Part 3 of GGS DVD – The Power of Germs
  1. Create student interest in the lesson by asking students to answers the following questions on a piece of scratch paper.
  2. Most deaths in children under age 5 are due to:
  3. infectious diseases and malnutrition
  4. premature birth/birth defects
  5. accidents
Answer: A (More than 5 million each year die from diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhea combined with malnutrition-mostly in developing countries)
  • True or False: At least 40% of the deaths in children under age 5 that occur worldwide
    each year could be prevented by administering existing vaccines to young
    children.
    Answer: True Of the 5 million + children under five who die each year, 2 million deaths could be prevented by administering existing vaccines and most of the rest would be preventable by other means (i.e. good nutrition, hygiene, clean water, etc.)
  • List what you believe are the 5 most deadly infectious diseases worldwide.
    Answer: Acute Lower Respiratory Infections/Pneumonia (3.7 million), Tuberculosis (2.9 million), Diarrhea (2.5 million), HIV/AIDS (2.3 million), and Malaria (1.5-2.7 million)
    Source: World Health Organization “50 Facts: Global Health Situation and Trends 1955-2025”
  1. Once students have answered each question, facilitate a class discussion and provide students with the correct answers to each question. In the discussion, pose questions such as:
  2. Were you surprised by the answers to any of the questions? If so, which ones, and why?
  3. As a person living in the U.S., would you expect to suffer from the infectious diseases that are the top killers worldwide? Why?
  4. In an age where so much medical technology is available, particularly in the form of medications and vaccines, why do you think so many people are still dying from preventable diseases?
  5. How does it make you feel when you think about people in developing countries dying from these types of diseases at alarmingly high rates?
  6. Who should be responsible for helping to eradicate these diseases? Why?
  1. Focus student attention on the content of Guns, Germs and Steel by reminding students about the question that started Jared Diamond’s research: Why do some societies have so much while others have so little? Remind students of Diamond’s theory that geography determines which societies flourish and grow and which are conquered and lag behind in the development of technology, power, and wealth. At the heart of this theory is the idea that guns, germs, and steel ultimately gave some groups advantages over others.
***(Direct students to the The World feature at to review and document the statistics about disease and poverty rates in the countries described when each portion of the map is engaged.) RESOURCE FOR THEIR PROJECT***
  1. Distribute the Viewing Guide to students. Take time to read over the questions before viewing Guns, Germs and Steel: Episode Three. Segment breakdown:
  2. Beginning of episode to 6:50 (explains European settlement in Africa)
  3. 8:26 to 10:01 (introduction of European diseases to Africa)
  4. 33:50 to 40:53 (describes the effects of diseases native to the tropics on European settlers)
  5. 42:39 to 48:01 (describes how malaria, to which many Africans once had immunity, is now an endemic and the number one health problem in Africa because of the physiological and cultural changes the country has experienced over the last 100 years)
  6. 50:37 t o 52:32 (discusses how other tropical countries have become rich and powerful by addressing the problems that geography and germs caused and eradicating them in order to gain wealth and power in the world)
Homework assignments:
Complete the Viewing Guide. Discuss
Shape of Africa or How Africa Became Black Reading
Phase 3: African Geography
Handout: Blank maps of Africa. Identify countries and where key words and concepts are located in Africa (Maybe give them 2 maps).
Why does it matter that we know how big Africa is?
Percent of Earth’s land: Asia 29.5%, Africa 20.6%, North America 16.3%, South America 11.8%, Antarctica 10.1%, Europe 6.5% and Oceania 5%
Much of Africa is landlocked and devoid of navigable inland rivers.
Key words and concepts:
  • Sahel
  • Sahara
  • Desertification & global warming in the above regions
  • Deforestation in central African rainforests
  • Kalahari Desert
  • Senegal, Niger, Congo & Nile River
  • Horn of Africa
  • Cape of Good Hope
  • Madagascar.
Phase 4: Africa is a Cultural Generator
: African History
Quote for West African Kingdoms - West Africa: “There is a country where gold grows like plants in the sand in the same way as carrots do, and is plucked at sunset.”-Unidentified Arab.
Major Saharan West-African Kingdoms
Ghana (300-1076) Mali (1235-1460) Songhai (1493-1591)
Important Features of West African Kingdoms:
  • Rich in gold (Europe’s main source of gold before its discovery in the Americas)
  • Islamic, Sharia-driven societies
  • Women enjoyed freedom to work, pursue education and own land
  • Educated – Literacy, schools, medicine, Timbuktu university
The Tale of Mansa Musa, King of Mali: A devout Muslim who made a pilgrimage to Mecca carrying 24k of gold in caravan. He gave away vast sums of gold along the way, actually creating inflation back home in his kingdom’s economy. From Mecca, he brought back talented people and established university at Timbuktu.
Major Sub-Saharan East Africa Kingdoms
Important Features of East African Kingdoms:
  • Early contact with Arab, Indian, and Chinese traders and Muslims
  • East African Swahili culture (multicultural). Written in Arabic. Language diffusion from Arabic and Asian. Both Islam and animism practiced by the people
  • Coastal towns grew into city-states. E.g. Mogadishu
  • Early fights with Portuguese in the 1400’s. Portuguese defeated but allowed to trade.
The Tale of Zimbabwe: Construction masters built a city-fort. Rich in gold. Inland community traded with coastal towns and city-states. Kings were gods and the health of the city depended on king’s health. Ill kings were encouraged to kill themselves. They were gold miners and elephant hunters. Portuguese could not conquer it. In 19th century Zulus attacked and city was abandoned.
What is the point in learning all of this? Africa was a cultural generator
Homework: In text, read pages 355-364. Answer question #2 on p. 357, read the “Griots of the Mandingo” on p. 360 and answer questions 1 & 2, answer questions 1 & 2 on p 362, and answer questions 1 & 2 on 364.
Phase 5: Slavery:
This section can be talked about and a slavery cause and effect chart can be on the board:
Slave trade: Slavery between Africans and Africans, Africans and Arabs went on for centuries. New slavery began when the Portuguese arrived. African societies willingly participated.
WHAT IMPACT DOES SLAVERY HAVE ON A GROUP OF PEOPLE? Destroys families, social structures and productivity crumbles. Fertility and defense decreases. Racism ignites.
Phase 6: Scramble for Africa – Imperialism (Reference pages in text: 531-535)
A)Define imperialism: Policy of extending a nation’s political and economic dominance or control over another territory or country.
B)Reasons for imperialism Resources, raw materials for industry, new markets, military bases, national prestige, paternalism.
C)1884-1885 Berlin Conference: French, British, Germans, Italians, Portuguese, Spanish, Belgium carve up Africa. Africans not present. Ethiopia and Liberia remain independent. Ethiopia fights off British, French and Italian forces to retain its independence. Liberia was created and protected by the USA.
D)Colonialism defined: Areas of settlement that are still ruled by the parent country.
Phase 7: Post-Colonial Africa and Independence
African Independence Movements and Pan-Africanism: Read 693-702. Tribalism v. Nationalism: Tribal chiefs want: boundaries based on ethnic and tribal loyalties. Nationalist leaders want boundaries drawn by European powers.
South Africa: Apartheid – ruled by white minority. Sanctions placed on South Africa. Violence escalates. Whites end apartheid. Setup multiracial elections. F.W. de Klerk recognized the ANC and Nelson Mandela as its leader. Mandela had been in prison from 1962-1990. Mandela elected in 1994 de Klerk is vice. Sanctions are lifted.
UBUNTU – I AM BECAUSE WE ARE, WE ARE BECAUSE I AM utilitarianism (Peter Singer reference)
Pan-Africanism: 1963 OAU – Organization of African Unity: to promote unity among newly independent African nations. 2001 became the African Union. Many problems: underfinanced and unarmed. It mediates territorial disputes and aided the ANC. Promoted economic protectionism.
Alternative History Essay: Reverse Africa’s and Europe’s roles during the 1400’s.
Phase 8: Rwandan Genocide: Background and DBQ [Independence playing out after imperialism]
Rwanda: Tutsis – minority – controlled country. Hutus – majority. Belgium backed the Hutus when the Tutsis pressed for independence. Hutus blamed for Tutsi president plane crash death. Hutu genocide on Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
See Rwandan DBQ instructions and documents
(Optional further inquiry: See “Hotel Rwanda” or “Sometimes in April”.)
Phase 9: Performance Task Assessment:
1) END OF POVERTY HANDOUT: AFRICA TODAY AND TOMORROW
2) HANDOUT: WORLD BANK AND IMF
3) PROJECT HANDOUT CONTAINS EXCERPTS FROM A FRAMEWORK FOR CLINICAL ECONOMICS FROM END OF POVERTY
PROJECT: DIAGNOSE AND TREAT AN AFRICAN COUNTRY (Clinical Economics by Jeff Sachs)