Trimester 3
Africa and Europe Through Each Other’s Eyes
Students began the final trimester of Africa and Europe Through Each Other’s Eyes with a Colonization and Independence in Africa Case Study project, where students formed groups and analyzed the differences between African and European perspectives on colonization, uncovered the core assumptions that underlie each perspective, presented the unique history of colonization and independence of a chosen African nation, and worked diligently in groups to create an organized oral presentation and a meaningful political cartoon. After this in-depth research of African independence movements, students read “Death and The King’s Horseman” by Wole Soyinka. Published in 1975, the work is often studied and performed in colleges and universities, as well as staged worldwide. Death and the King’s Horseman is based on real events in Oyo, an ancient Yoruba city of Nigeria, in 1946. It is five acts, and is to be performed without an intermission. Critics celebrate the play for its critical stance on imperialism, the insights into Yoruba religion and ritual, the range of characterization, and the accomplished prose and poetry woven into the play. Students unpacked the metaphor-dense and proverb-heavy material of the play by creating a Proverb Globe, where students found thirty Yoruba proverbs in Death and the King’s Horseman, described these proverbs in detail, including page number, and their relationship to the characters and the story, and finally drew a circle, a globe, and filled it in with the visualizations of these thirty metaphors. To end the trimester, students read “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare, and studied the dynamics in the play concerning race, power, colonization, patriarchy, feminism, class, and magic, building towards their final choral performance projects, where students performed sections of the play which exemplified their chosen theme.