Search

Eric Campbell, an English teacher, spent most of his working life in New Guinea and in East Africa, where he lived in the shadow of Kilimanjaro. He now lives in England and writes about Africa. People could expect an objective, and perhaps, a dispassionate account or depiction of African children and adults--their individual lives and sociocultural functions in a true geopolitical and sociocultural milieu in the 1990s--from a British writer and teacher reminiscent of another British teacher and writer, William Golding. But what a reader finds particularly in reading "The Year of the Leopard Song" is a disappointment. This paper discusses and analyzes Campbell's 1992 novel for children. The paper sees the novel as a deliberate continuation and revival of the misplaced old stereotypes of the barbaric and evil Africans. It states that in a children's literature course students can learn more about ideology and how the aesthetic practices of literary representation transform culture than in any other course they may take--they see how ideas of capitalism and imperialism get welded to moral imperatives in turn-of-the-century boys' adventure fiction, creating an ideal imperial subject itching for travel and conquest in the services of God and country. The paper notes that the functional nature of children's literature is to bring the world together in true brotherhood and sisterhood. It finds that international understanding and cooperation cannot be possible through "racist books" like Eric Campbell's "The Year of the Leopard Song." (Contains 12 references.) (NKA)

Historically, the Black Church was culturally responsive to the needs of their community. In order to meet the needs of African American adult learners, the church had to assume many roles one of which was that of educator. Like many informal institutions of learning, the Black Church has been overlooked as a site for adult education research. Ten sermons of African-American preachers were analyzed to identify culturally relevant themes and their applicability for use in adult education classrooms. These five themes that relate to different aspects of African American life were revealed: (1) self-ethnic personalities/experiences; (2) self-ethnic social experiences; (3) self-ethnic psycho-cultural; (4) Africentric affirmations; and (5) self-ethnic metaphors. These conclusions were drawn from the thematic analyses: (1) African American sermons can provide adult educators with culturally relevant names that reflect self-ethnic personalities with which learners can identify; (2) negative self-ethnic social and psycho-cultural experiences of learners can be mitigated by educators made more aware; and (3) the polyrhythmic cadence of African-American sermons grow out of an oral tradition; and (4) affirmation themes are one way to mitigate against negative self-image. (A glossary of the five themes is included. The bibliography lists 27 references). (AJ)

A study explored whether high school readers respond significantly differently to African novels in which unfamiliar cultural elements are presented "aggressively" than to those with an "assimilative" presentation of unfamiliar cultural elements. The three novels are set in Africa: Nancy Farmer's "A Girl Named Disaster," Buchi Emecheta's "The Bride Price," and Richard Rive's "'Buckingham Palace' District Six." Two of the authors (Emecheta and Rive) write from their own experiences of living within a particular African culture, and one (Farmer) explicitly translates an African culture that is outside of her experience. Participants, eleventh-grade students from a mainly white, middle-class Canadian suburb, had few life experiences to bring to these African texts, and the assumption was that they would consider themselves "dislocated" readers of these works. Students did a blind reading of the first chapters of the novels and responded in writing to questions of language, voice, and cultural translation, commented on the intended audience, and speculated on the possible relationship of the author to the culture being described. Of the 25 students in the class, 23 suggested that Farmer's book was intended for young adults in Western countries, supporting their opinion with references to the way language is used in the text. Almost all students commented on a contrast in tone and intent between Emecheta's and Farmer's novels, suggesting that the tone of Emecheta's novel was "richer" and "more complex." Rive's novel was recognized as having been written by an insider to a culture--South Africa. Students appeared most satisfied with the texts in which the unfamiliar culture was presented as "normal" and not translated for them. (NKA)

"Africans in the Diaspora" refers to peoples of African origin dispersed throughout South America, the Caribbean, and North America as a result of the Atlantic slave trade carried out by European nations from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. The paper first provides an historical overview of the Diaspora. It then discusses the "Children's Readers on Africa Series," books that introduce young African American children to their cultural heritage. The Series depicts aspects of African culture through language, folklore, rhymes, songs, games, and proverbs. The Series focuses on Nigeria and its languages, not only because it is the most populous African nation but also because there are perhaps more persons of Nigerian origin in the United States than of any other African nation. The paper briefly discusses the geographical location, history, and culture of the following Nigerian peoples: Efik/Ibibio, Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba. The Series aims to give the children of Africa and the African Diaspora the beginnings of a collective value system of sharing and working together in harmony and peace. (BT)

This publication presents a collection of research projects presented at the Annual Research Forum at Wake Forest University: "The Use of Group Work as an Effective Teaching Technique in Lower Level Spanish Classes" (James Blackburn); "What Are the Real Factors behind Student Motivation?" (Matthew Grey Burdick); "Can Students Communicate Mathematical Reasoning?" (Mary Elizabeth Cassells); "Establishment and Practice of Religion in the American Public Classroom: A Teacher's Predicament" (Angell Caudill); "A Study of Anxiety in the Secondary Spanish Classroom" (Summer Colucci); "The Use of African and Caribbean Francophone Literature To Teach Culture" (Katherine B. Farley); "The Writing Process in Secondary Level Spanish Classes" (Nancy A.M. Feider); "The Effects of Teacher Self-Disclosure in a Classroom That Addresses Controversial Ethical Topics" (Mary Beth Ferrell); "Student and Teacher Attitudes toward Technology" (Abdul Azeez Guice); "Immediate Corrective Feedback and Classroom Performance" (Andrew R. Hano); "Students' Perspectives of Title IX and High School Athletics" (Tricia Hester); "Classroom Seating and Student Anxiety" (Candi Lavender); "How Use of Multimedia Affects Student Engagement and Attitudes in English Literature" (Lori Lloyd); "A Study of Academic Motivation of High School Students" (Amy Marchell); "Classroom Culture and Psychosocial Environment" (Katherine Martin); "Gender Dynamics in the Classroom: A Study on the Effects of Single-Gender and Mixed-Gender Groups on Student Achievement and Attitude" (Maureen C. Miller); "Division of Fractions: Procedural versus Conceptual Knowledge" (Laura M. Nagle); "High School Coaching and College Academic Success" (DaLawn Parrish); "Technology in the Foreign Language Classroom: How Do Teachers Use It to Enhance Instruction?" (Allison R. Pratt); "Student Engagement in the Secondary Science Laboratory" (Jared M. Rashford); "Student Attitudes towards Using the Internet in Class as a Function of Class Time Spent On-Line" (Michael Riley); "Teaching Methods: Seminar versus Lecture" (Benjamin E. Sankey); "Female Science Students: A New Perspective" (Geoffrey C. Stewart); "Dialect Bias in Questioning Styles in the Standard English Classroom" (C. Lyn Strickland); "The Teaching of Evolution in North Carolina: A Study of Teacher Beliefs and Curriculum Decision-Making" (Kira Taylor);"Assigning Good Writing" (Emily M. Tierney); "Encouraging Social Action among High School Students" (Robb Warfield); "Standard English, Grammar, and Writing: Case Studies of Three Teachers" (Peter Wilbur); "Relationship of Musical Experiences and Mathematics Achievement" (David Williams); and "Why Do Students Misbehave in the Classroom?" (Brian Wolverton). (SM)

David Wisniewski's 1992 picture book version of the African epic of "Sundiata, Lion King of Mali" and the actual historical account of the 13th century Lion King, Sundiata, are both badly served by Disney's "The Lion King." Disney has been praised for using African animals as story characters; for using the African landscape as a story setting; for using African artwork as design motifs; and for using African-American actors as the voices for the film characters. If the film succeeds in having African culture accepted by people usually resistant to recognizing any other culture but their own, then it deserves to be noted for this small breach in the racial divide. Nevertheless, in the larger sense, the film diminishes the culturally rich heritage of history and story from which it derives. Sundiata was the 12th son of a king of Mali, and he was viewed by the king's "griot" as destined for greatness. He grew to manhood in exile, but he returned to fight the evil forces of his brother and return the kingdom to its rightful sovereignty. The film converts the real hero's private pain and struggle against truly wrenching physical and political disabilities into a screen situation of sentimental, tearjerker shallowness. An interdisciplinary approach would allow English and social studies teachers to present the epic from a historical and literary perspective. Study of African history texts may be augmented with research in encyclopedias under such entries as Sundiata, Sumanguru, and Mali as beginning leads. (TB)

The works of women African writers such as Bessie Head, Mariama Ba, Buchi Emecheta, and Flora Nwapa have become increasingly familiar to North American college students during the past decade, largely through their inclusion on feminist reading lists. Because the pedagogical value of these texts lies in their presumed ability to speak for African women, the texts are to greater or lesser degrees decontextualized from the material circumstances of production. Rather, they are interrogated with apparently oppositional questions. In identity-based questions, the African woman presumably defined by such questions is, according to Michelle Rosaldo, an image of "ourselves undressed." This exposes the author, cast in the role of spokesperson for the African Woman, to interrogations about her own authenticity. Conversely, another range of questions deconstructs identity-based assumptions and ultimately resists the imperialist politics of representation and authenticity. Both approaches attempt to keep cultural assumptions: both attribute a primal illiteracy to the speakers of "mother tongues" and assume that deconstructive literacy is deployed only in western languages. To use any text as a bridge between academics and African women, it is necessary to be attentive to what degree the factors that shape western notions of literacy are operative in Africa. Such considerations as the traditional privileging of written over oral narrative and culturally encoded interpretive reading practices have crucial implications for the way texts written by women African writers are"consumed" in western classrooms as cultural products. (SAM)

Choosing texts, media, and literature about Africa is a difficult task for school librarians who have not studied Africa in detail; however it is possible to evaluate the available materials on the basis of several important criteria. These include the authority of the author, the dates of preparation and publication, and the accuracy of illustrations. Blatant biases can be easily recognized, but attention should also be paid to the more subtle forms of bias in the use of stereotypes or evaluative labels to typify whole groups. Over half of the children's materials on Africa appear in publishers' series, most of which use a European conceptual framework in the discussion of economics, history, religion, and social life. Such a viewpoint distorts the presentation of African life and invites negative comparisons to western life. African materials should present the African perspective and values and avoid overgeneralization about this very diverse continent. Many of the available books are fiction or folklore for which there are additional considerations: the authenticity and provenance of the tale; and human dignity in characterization, dialog, and plot. A selected list of new materials is appended. (Author/SL)

While African literature appears to be firmly established in American colleges and universities, its expansion, and in some cases its continuance, is threatened by two factors: racialism and departmental conservatism. As demands for courses in black literature can be met by an increased supply of scholars in Afro-American literature, fewer schools see a need for anyone to teach African literature. This is made easier by the convenience of the racial label "black literature" which is used ambiguously to cover all the literature of black peoples, including African, Afro-American, and Caribbean, thus hiding cultural distinctions behind political desires. Since the parameters of a traditional department are threatened by courses such as African literature, such courses will be tolerated only as long as political necessities force departments to offer them--or until these departments come to realize a humanistic necessity. Scholars have themselves all too long ignored these problems. The formation of an association of those interested in the field will serve not only as a symbol of commitment to the discipline, but also as an effective means of pooling and channeling energies toward defining long-term aims and defending the necessity of research and teaching in African literature. (Author)

Within the Afro-American studies program, the study of African literature is invaluable in demonstrating the relationship between black Americans and Africa; it contributes to the sketchy glimpse of what black culture is and reflects the affective experience of colonialism and neocolonialism. This paper explores the values of an African-literature course for black Americans and focuses on the following goals as important for such a course: demonstration of both the irrelevance of the concept of alienated artist and the compatibility of individual genius with the concept of artist as communal spokesperson, understanding of the character and importance of oral art, introduction to the literature about African literature, and indication of the great variety of modern literature--in many languages and genres--from Africa. The paper concludes with a request that the academic community generate three kinds of materials: more accurate, definitive bibliographies; glossaries for individual works or authors, which explain topical allusions and translate all foreign-language terms; and more nonevaluative, nonsubjective criticism. (JM)

Six months of observation--at two universities, at a drama festival, and with several independent theatre companies--form the basis for this evaluation of theatre in Kenya, Africa. While Kenyan dramas deal with a variety of themes, the majority are topical rather than universal in their treatment of issues. In many, the emphasis is on the supernatural and on the conflict between the old and new forms of religion. Although the positive influence of the British educational system is acknowledged, this study illustrates how the traditional and innate African forms of theatre have been stifled. The paper indicates a need for secondary schools to stress that Kenyan dramatic origins within the tribal context are equal in importance to the literary classics of the western world. (MAI)