Unit One: Why Study Africa?

Teacher Discussion:

This exercise, ideally, is meant to be a computer lab exercise. In cases where labs are not available, the images in the exercises can be printed out on transparencies from the Printable Resources. For this activity, students will record their answers on the Module One Worksheet and put it in their Explore Africa Workbooks. If computer labs aren't available, you can use an overhead projector to project the images.

The picture in the center is the most typical image one would most often encounter, of the three, if one were traveling through Africa today. The picture on the left is a caricature of the tragedy of starving children in Ethiopia and other drought stricken areas in eastern Africa. This picture appeared on the cover of a popular German magazine. While one might indeed encounter this image in that region, it is less likely if one were traveling through other areas of Africa. The picture on the right is a western depiction of African "tribesmen." They are men dressed in traditional ceremonial dress. In some parts of Africa, people do such garb when engaging in traditional ceremonies; in other places, such as the rainforests near the equator or the region of the San people of southern Africa, one might see people dressed like this on an average day. But a person would really have to try hard to find such an image in modern day Africa.

The point is that the images we usually see of Africa in the media often look more like these two pictures here, images such as starving children and people dressed in tribal costumes. The prevalence of these images in the media might make us think that this is what Africa is all about, but that’s far from the truth! In most places, people live lives similar to our lives in America; they go to work and school, and spend time with their families. In fact, if traveling in east, west, north, south, or central Africa, a person could find an image like the one in the center, children playing on their way to school, pretty much anywhere you go. That’s why this picture of laughing schoolchildren is the most "typical," because it shows us the ordinary, not the exceptional.