Early Africa Lesson

Today I did another lesson similar to the one on Judaism. I am particularly excited about this one, because I always found early Africa to be somewhat boring, no matter what I did during the lecture. Again, I had students print off the PowerPoint ahead of time and bring it to class. Here are the questions I gave them:

• How do Nubia, Kush, and Axum each relate to Egypt? (Refer to pictures, too.)
• How were Nubia, Kush and Axum historically important? (How would Africa have been different without them? What do they tell us about Africa?)
• What might possibly explain the lack of civilization for such a long time in Sub-Saharan Africa?
• How is the Nok figurine in the picture different from Egyptian art?
• How did the Bantu migrations help shape Africa today?
• Compare the status of women in Sub-Saharan Africa to Egypt and Mesopotamia.
• What questions do you have from the PowerPoint?

I circulated among the groups as they discussed these questions, and they were SO much more interested than they ever had been in previous semesters. One change I made was to give everyone a few minutes to read the PowerPoint before they formed groups; this way they would have some familiarity with the material before diving in to answer the questions. I feel that my students are beginning to realize that these are not like old-fashioned worksheet questions with answers that may be found word-for-word in the text; rather, they require thought. And thought is what I am beginning to see much more of on the part of my students!