African Studies Outreach K-12 Resources

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Introduction

In an effort to accommodate the growing number of schools, faculty and students using the World Wide Web as an educational and research tool, the African Studies Program is placing some of its curriculum materials, as well as links to other useful sources, in this electronic format.

General Information on Africa

• Country-Specific Information - From the University of Pennsylvania's African Studies Center. This site has information on individual African countries, with maps, flags, and the languages spoken in them all nicely outlined. Many of the country sites also have additional links of interest.
• Flags of African Countries - Excellent full-page color pictures of African national maps.
• Heads of State - A list of African countries and their rulers. Maintained by the UW-Madison African Studies Outreach.
• Benin - a collection of photographs, video clips and other websites focusing on Benin.
• Masifunde Sonke - Book project of South Africa Partners with a collection of 25. children's book from South Africa. Click here for more information on the project and organization.

Annotated Teaching Resources on Africa
Compiled in 1999 by Marie Kruger, UW-Madison African Studies Outreach Project Assistant, these resources can be found in the African Studies Program office and/or UW-Madison campus libraries.

Bibliographies
Compiled by UW-Madison African Studies

Africa Curriculum Units on the World Wide Web

• Aspects of African Culture, resources for teaching about aspects of African culture retained or transformed in the Americas. (This is also linked as "African Diaspora" under the Annotated Teaching Resources on Africa heading above.)
• Cultural Comparisons Through Literature, using African autobiographies to compare cultural experiences and break down some of the pervasive stereotypes about Africa.
• L'école en Afrique francophone: Rencontres culturelles. For advanced French language students.
• Identifying with Africa, a multicultural unit focusing on the importance of names in African contexts. The subunits deal with: the meaning and importance of names; a study of families (primary level); in-depth of a selected African country (upper elementary level); and a study of autobiographical accounts and poetry relating to apartheid and South Africa (secondary level).
• Land as a Theme in the Study of Africa. A lesson plan for high school students using African literary texts.
• Meanings of Symbols in Adinkra Cloth has pictures and explanations of these designs made by the Asante people of Ghana.
• Morocco's Imperial Cities.
• Oral Traditions in Africa Today. A lesson plan on teaching about oral traditions that could be used for grades K-12.
• Un safari-conte.
• Using "Tribe" and "Tribalism" Categories to Misunderstand Africa. An article about the misuse of the terms "tribe" and "tribalism."
• West African Novels. A lesson plan for grades 10-12 using Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter.

Visual Materials Available for Short-term Loan from the UW-Madison African Studies Program

The African Studies Program lend its video collection and its Mayibuye Poster Series out to Wisconsin and other Upper Midwest teachers. Requests from teachers outside this region will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Call 608.262.4461 or email outreach@africa.wisc.edu for more information, or click on the following link to read more about our lending policies.

• African Studies Program Video Collection [in pdf format]: Feature films and documentaries can be borrowed for up to two weeks. This is not a complete listing of available films. Write or call for additional details or listings.

• Posters from the Mayibuye Center in Cape Town, South Africa: These three poster series - Nelson Mandela: His Life in the Struggle; A Pictorial History of the ANC; and Women Under Apartheid - bring to life the courage and resilience with which South Africans opposed the apartheid state. For additional information about each series, including sample photos, click on the above titles. Additional information on the Centre itself can be found at http://www.museums.org.za/mayibuye/.

• African Studies Slide Collection. One may borrow from our collection of 6000 slides which include slides of maps and of 56 African countries and/or islands. 3600 slides are digitized in AfricaFocus http://africafocus.library.wisc.edu. African Studies can mail the slides to you after you choose them by topic and/or country. We ask that the borrower pay return postage. For more information, contact 608.262-2380, or email asp@africa.wisc.edu.

Artifacts Available for Loan from African Studies Outreach

To borrow artifacts for your school or educational program, contact us by fax, mail, or phone at least three business days in advance. Make a copy of the artifact list and indicate which regional basket or individual items you would like to borrow. We are located on the second floor, Room 205, of the Ingraham Building on the corner of Charter Street and Observatory Drive. Metered parking is available in the lot for Bascom Hall next door on Observatory Drive. If you need to pick up or return materials beyond normal business hours (M-F, 8am - 4:30pm) please let us know so we can make special arrangements.

National Resource Centers (NRCs) for African Studies

Like UW-Madison, these centers have funding from the US Department of Education to support outreach to K-12 teachers and their students.

• Boston University
• Indiana University
• Michigan State University
• Ohio State University
• Ohio University
• Stanford University
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of Florida
• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• University of Pennsylvania
• Yale University
• Outreach Council of the African Studies Association

For Additional Information

A list of articles, maps and other reference materials for teaching Africa and the African Diaspora is available upon request from the African Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Please write to African Studies Outreach, 205 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706 (or email us at outreach@africa.wisc.edu) to request this list.

And visit the UW ASP's own Africa-related links worldwide for additional resources in all fields and disciplines.