What Teachers Need to Know

Africa has long been associated with disease and illness, at the expense of widespread recognition of the continent’s history with healing and medicine. Reports of malaria, yellow fever, ebola, and HIV from travelers, colonial personnel, and contemporary media have long eclipsed an understanding of the continent’s contributions to health and science from its herbal pharmacopeia through 21st century laboratory research. In this episode, we examine the associations with Africa and disease while also recognizing the innovations that are owed to the continent.

Museums make the world of human creativity and expressiveness accessible to the public. It is through curation and display that museums play an important role in constructing meaning and understanding of Africa’s histories, societies, and belief systems. Throughout Europe and the United States, there are museums exhibiting material culture originating in Africa. Yet, the history of “exhibiting Africa” intersects with colonial exploitation and is fraught with problems. From theft and coercion to control over narrative formation, there are numerous critical questions that must be addressed in order to understand what is found in museums. In this episode, we examine the history of how African cultural products made their way into Western museums and discuss the politics and possibilities of reckoning with this history today.

The study of Africa is not limited to one continent. Africa itself is entwined with the rest of the world through politics, cultures, foodways, and technologies. Also, over the course of centuries, African and African descendant people have taken root around the world. The story of the African diaspora intersects with the history and legacy of slavery and imperialism but also with the search for economic and educational opportunity. The African diaspora brings into focus the way people survive, adapt, flourish, forge new identities, and take root, even when displaced from an ancestral home. In this episode, we explore the African diaspora, considering its origins and the way communities outside of Africa maintain a sense of Africanness in their forms of expression and communication.

In this episode, we explore the vastness of Nubian history while also examining the racial politics of knowledge and memory. We focus on the way Nubia has been misunderstood and how classrooms can be sites where Africa’s ancient civilizations can be remembered and appreciated in renewed and dynamic ways.

In the aftermath of violence and oppression, nations face the dilemma of confronting past suffering while also rebuilding and preventing future injustice. There is no formula for avoiding vengeance, soliciting forgiveness, and exacting truth and justice. However, recent history offers examples of societies that have navigated these quandaries. In the wake of apartheid in South Africa and genocide in Rwanda, both societies developed legal, political, and cultural campaigns meant to expose and record oppression and violence while attempting to restore the wounded nations. In this episode, we explore the attempts at healing South Africa and Rwanda. We focus on the pain and hope that are built into campaigns for truth, justice, and reconciliation.

There are over fifty cities throughout Africa with a population of more than one million inhabitants. However, urban spaces tend to be left out of America's collective imagination of the continent. Cities are cosmopolitan places where ideas circulate, people mix and mingle, trends are set, and influences of innumerable origins meld together. In this episode, we explore the experiences of young people in urban settings throughout Africa. We focus on the ways youth cultures can affirm a vision of Africa that cuts against the grain of stereotypes and dominant narratives.

Climate change, habitat loss, and the endangerment of wildlife has brought about international interventions and conservation efforts throughout Africa. However, policies and programs are not without their problems. Throughout Africa, questions of environmental and climate justice are raised when communal lifestyles are threatened by initiatives that are not designed with a mindfulness of the needs of people throughout Africa. In this episode, we explore the human toll taken by climate change and sometimes even by efforts to protect the environment.

In the larger context of development in Africa, often criticized for its colonial underpinnings, African women demonstrate resilience and empowerment in ways that often go unrecognized.

One visible form of empowerment is where women address community needs as leaders and visionaries. In this episode, we explore the intersection of race, gender, and work through stories of women who are creatively shaping their fields and creating change.

African decolonization has a complex history, involving resistance against and liberation from European colonial subjugation. In this episode, we examine the political and cultural interplay between race, resistance, and decolonization across Africa while considering ways to teach about racism in classrooms today.

Episode Acknowledgements:

Thanks to Michael Ralph, Julian Braxton, Linda Morse, and Malcolm Cawthorne for sharing their expertise in this episode.

Thanks to Nico Rivers for audio editing, mixing, and mastering.

Special thanks to the Boston University Africa Studies Center and the Teaching Africa Outreach Program for collaborating and providing support for this podcast.

Participation in democratic society takes many forms but voting holds a particularly central role in the functioning of U.S. political life. However, as esteemed as this right may be, one constant throughout U.S. history has been the contested nature of access to the ballot. For African Americans, in particular, disenfranchisement and voter suppression has interfered with full engagement. Yet, activism has spurred on legislation in the ongoing efforts to fortify a more inclusive and just society.

We spoke to Dr. Marilyn Davis, an associate professor of political science at Spelman College, about the longstanding and ongoing struggle among African Americans to secure voting rights in the United States. In each of these short podcast episodes, Dr. Davis shares her insights into different facets of the vibrant history of African Americans and the difficult reality that political participation has not always been full, fair, or free.