Given the wide popularity of Eurocentric medieval fantasies, it has never been more important that we teach our students about the reality of the Middle Ages rather than the fictionalized fantasies with which they are accustomed. In order to examine Medieval Studies and expand the “Global Middle Ages” beyond the traditional boundaries of Western Europe, this course will concentrate on premodern Africa. While often overlooked, the civilizations that spanned the vast African continent produced great achievements, in conditions of relative parity with their European contemporaries, before the oceanic dominance of a few Western powers.
This collection of instructional resources contextualize Medieval Africa in terms of its contemporary relationships with the medieval globe as well as its modern impact. All resources have been created by participants in the NHC online course titled "Medieval Africa and Africans".
This is a college-level lesson, one that might take up a week in an upper level undergraduate course. I am designing it to fit within a traditional Romanesque and Gothic course.
Designed for use with Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, but could be adapted for other texts dealing with ideas of African heritage and assimilation.
In this lesson students will investigate the ways that African people have influenced global foodways. Many of us may be familiar with the dominant narrative about “starving people in Africa”. Africa is often characterized as a place of hunger, starvation, and permanent dependency on foriegn aid. This myth of “starving Africa” upholds the logics of global capitalism, racism, imperialism, and colonialism. This introductory lesson will expose the myth of “starving Africa” and allow students to begin to formulate questions about the origins and consequences of the dominant narratives about Africa. Food is an accessible entry point to begin making connections to African history. Many of our own Foodways connect us to Africa, as well as the legacies of the trans-atlantic slave trade and colonialism. Carolina rice, gumbo, mofongo, mangu, akara, jugo de jamaica, horchata, bissap are just a small handful of the foods and drinks that come directly from Africa. Many students might eat African foods every day and not know it! This lesson will introduce students to Africa and allow students to begin drawing the connections between their own culture, Africa, and the globe.
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:fully identify Bete Giyorgis in Lalibela, Ethiopia [date, location, materials, patronage]describe the church’s historical context and symbolic meaningscompare its rock-cut, “subtractive” structure to that of “additive” structurescompare its Greek-cross form and function to that of the Byzantine-era Church of the Dormition at Daphni, Greecebe prepared to write a 5-page paper that compares and contrasts Bete Giyorgis and the Church of the Dormition
This brief lesson is intended to expose students to texts that address the awareness of Africa and travel there during the medieval era. It challenges the assumptions that medieval cultures were isolated and that Africa was unknown to the West prior to colonization.
This article is about looted artifacts out of Africa from the Benin empire to Europe. Some of the artifacts that were looted, were sculpted by Monday Aigbe's great grandfather.
Black Death in Medieval Africa
This resource is intented to be used as a way to build interest and inquiry into the study of Medieval Africa. While this lesson is a stand-alone lesson, it should be incorporated into a larger unit that details Medieval African History and Culture. The intended audience is 4th through 8th grades.
Africa, Europe, Middle East
The Case For Stolen African Artifacts. This is an active lesson on the continuing case about stolen Africna artifacts that are being housed in many European museums. Students will participate in a presentation to the General Assembly of the UN, to make their case for either keeping the artifacts or returning them.
This lesson encourages students to actively alter the inherited single-narrative of fantasy genre fiction, using knowledge of medieval Africa to break away from a predominantly western tradition.
This lesson plan asks students to example the characteristics of an empire by reading the Manden Charter, a document which outlines the laws and morals guiding the Mali Empire. Using a list of empire characteristics, students will read the primary source document to learn more about the Mali Empire, and reinforce their understanding of what makes an empire. Students will create a mind map with their findings.
This lesson is designed as a unit within an undergraduate or upper-level high school course on the Art of the Global Middle Ages, conducted virtually. It would be taught following a unit on Early Christian art. It can be adapted to fit in a more general course by selecting just one or two of the four parts. An assignment is suggested for each part; the lesson can be adapted to select one or two assignments.
This lesson introduces students to the Manden Charter of 13th Century Mali Empire, inviting them to explore the document both to gain insights into Mali culture and to examine the document's place in the global context. Students will compare the charter to other similar law codes, discuss fascinating aspects of the document, learn about the oral tradition through which the charter was passed down, and hypothesize about the charter's contemporary reception by other cultures.
I designed this lesson as the first part of a larger unit on the medieval West African Epic of Sundiata. It allows students to relate the complex role of a West African griot to another example of public, nation-building poetry--Amanda Gorman's poem composed for and performed at the presidential inauguration in 2021.
This lesson is designed for upper level high school or university students. It considers three different versions of the opening pages of the Sundiata epic. These opening moments are particularly important because they often involve the self-conscious acknowledgement of epic's the storyteller (griot or jeli) of their own relationship to the narrative. This passage is also used to examine some of the aspects behind the translation, publication, and presentation of oral epics in written form. The lesson presents a handout for guided analysis and discussion of the three texts, and a potential homework assignment for carrying the insights of the class further.
Resources are embedded in the teacher's notes
This lecture/lesson combination gives students base knowledge of early medieval African encounters and introduces them to the theoretical approaches of post-colonialism and subaltern studies.
This is a comprehensive and detailed lesson plan created for a general 6th grade world history curriculum. In this lesson plan you will find interactive activities to engage students in an in depth understanding of the intricate relationship between culture, art, trade, and economics.
A lesson plan for a medieval English course on literature "Beyond England," designed for a 90-minute time slot.