Why Team Hope Should Keep (Its ‘Resources’ About Africa) Out of Irish Classrooms

On Tuesday, the 12th of October, Team Hope launched its annual Christmas Shoebox Appeal; a Christmas Shoebox Appeal Week will also take place from 9th - 15th November.

As part of the Christmas Shoebox Appeal, Team Hope has stated on its website that it also “provides a range of free lesson plans and online resources for schools”.

The subject identified in the Primary Curriculum is Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE); more specifically, the Myself and the Wider World Strand (Developing Citizenship: National, European and wider communities Strand Unit) is the focus area of this subject (please, see below).

It is not clear why Team Hope made the decision to produce materials about Africa for schools; it is worth pointing out, however, that the Myself and the Wider World Strand has been designed and specified for fifth and sixth classes pupils only. 

It is, therefore, difficult to understand why and how Team Hope would have produced materials for pre-school junior infants pupils.

Perhaps, the Team Hope education team might like to consult the NCCA guidelines to confirm the specified age to introduce the study of a non-European context if its objective is to go into the production of educational materials for primary schools? 

Third class (eight year-olds) is the NCCA’s specified class and age, by the way.

The following might also confirm the NCCA’s rationale?

Included in the materials to be found on the Team Hope website are stories about Leah from Kenya, Elimia (sic) from Malawi and Phoebe from eSwatini (Swaziland).

Below, are examples of the ‘resources’ Team Hope has produced for schools:

So, Team Hope thinks the first thing four and five year-old Irish children should be taught about the DR Congo (if they can get their little minds around where DR Congo is in the first place) is that "people live in huts made of mud".

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

William Butler Yeats, Lake Isle of Innisfree

It might be worth noting that Yeats referred to “clay and wattles”, not ‘mud’ as the building materials for his “cabin”.

Whether consciously or not, the words and images we use about a place or people evoke powerful feelings in those they are meant to apply, and the reaction of Professor Plastow’s son is an illustration of this.

Team Hope lists eight African countries, with an estimated total population of 211.5 million people, in which it has a presence. This represents 21% of Africa’s estimated population of one billion. Two of these countries are also Irish Aid Key Partner Countries.

St. Mark’s Primary School, Mbabane 

One of the countries Team Hope has a presence in is eSwatini (Swaziland). The story of St. Mark’s Primary School (below), including the subjects the pupils have to study, might be more interesting for Irish pupils, as well as being more relevant to the learning process? 

St. Mark's Primary School, Mbabane. Founded in 1910

The classroom is the place where learning (including, about places and peoples in other lands) is expected to take place.

So, how does Team Hope's ‘online resources‘ contribute to positive learning about the world around us and, in particular, about the selected African countries?

Having examined the ‘resources’ on the Team Hope website, one can only conclude that these contribute nothing to learning anything useful about Africa.

Indeed, they are not ‘resources’; they are information materials which reinforce negative age-old pre-conceived views about Africa and should never be allowed in classrooms here in Ireland.

At this crucial time in our history, when negative attitudes towards people of African descent are supposed to be addressed, introducing young Irish minds to materials which only add to reinforcing negative perceptions of Africa can only be described as unhelpful?

Trick or Treaty? European Land Acquisition in Africa

This is the title chosen by Peter J. Baxter for his article.

On Halloween 2020, it might be useful to recall this as an important event in the history of European relations with Africa. 

Trick or Treaty?

Rhodes had already tried and failed to get a mining concession from Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, when in 1888 he sent John Moffat (son of the missionary Robert Moffat), who was trusted by Lobengula, to persuade the latter to sign a treaty of friendship with Britain, and to look favourably on Rhodes' proposals.

Baxter:

No record exists of exactly how Moffat approached the matter of a treaty with the British, but it can be safely assumed that he used the fear latent in the amaNdebele that a renewed invasion of Matabeleland by the Boer would be imminent if Lobengula did not place himself under the protection of Her Majesty. This had lately been a decision made by Lobengula’s neighbour, Chief Khama of Bechuanaland, who now enjoyed the safety of knowing that he could rely on the forces of Her Majesty to protect him against the advances of either the Boers, the Germans or the amaPutukezi (Portuguese).

By February 1888 Moffat had convinced Lobengula to commit his mark to a document outlining the principals agreed between these two men. The document itself, copied below, was an innocuous document, offering little and requiring little, other than that the amaNdebele make no firm commitments to any other nation or authority without the prior agreement of Her Majesty. Bearing in mind that this was not an official document, and that Moffat did not speak for the Crown, any specific offer of protection was fraudulent. All that it truly meant was that Cecil Rhodes had managed to second the assistance of three Crown servants acting outside of their authority, and had secured for his future interests and option on Matabeleland.

The text of the Moffat's 'treaty of friendship':

The Chief Lobengula, ruler of the tribe known as Amandebele, together with the Mashona and Makalaka tributaries of the same, hereby agrees to the following articles and conditions...

That peace and amity will continue forever between Her Britannic Majesty, her subjects and the Amandebele people; and the contracting Chief, Lobengula, engages to use his utmost endeavours to prevent any rupture of the same, to cause the strict observance of this treaty, and so to carry out the treaty of friendship which was entered into by his late father, the Chief Umsiligaas, with the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, in the year of our Lord 1836.

It is hereby further agreed by Lobengula, Chief in and over the Amandebele country, with the dependencies as aforesaid, on behalf of himself and people, that he will refrain from entering into any correspondence or treat with any foreign state or power to sell, alienate or cede or permit or countenance any sale, alienation or cession of the whole or any part of the said Amandebele country under his chieftainship, or upon any other subject without the previous knowledge and sanction of Her Majesties High Commissioner for South Africa.

In faith of which I, Lobengula, on my part have hereto set my hands at Gubulawayo, Amandabeleland, this eleventh day of February, and of Her Majesties reign the 51st.

Lobengula: His Mark.
Witnesses: W. Graham & GB van Wyk.
Before me, J.S. Moffat.
Assistant Commissioner.

Moffat had successfully used fears of Boer invasion to invite British protection. However Rhodes needed more than this if he was to achieve his ambitions of a Royal Charter. He needed a concession of mineral rights, and so before the year was out he sent another agent, Charles Daniel Rudd, to persuade Lobengula to sign away his country.

Rudd assured Lobengula that no more than ten white men would mine in Matabeleland, but this was left out of the document Lobengula signed. As part of this agreement, and at the insistence of the British, neither the Boer or Portuguese were permitted to settle or gain concessions in the region. The 25-year Rudd Concession as the agreement became known, was signed by Lobengula on 30 October 1888. 

He was soon to discover, however, that he had been tricked into signing a document that contained few of the assurances promised to him during the negotiations and although he dispatched envoys to England to intercede with Queen Victoria, by then it was too late. The treaty would lead to the annexation of his country.

Why ‘Listening’ Would Have Saved George Floyd’s Life

Credit: Clipart

The George Floyd tragedy in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 25 May can be summed up as follows:

A handcuffed man is seen lying face down on the ground looking distressed as another man had a knee on his neck.

"I can't breathe," Mr Floyd (whose neck was at the receiving end of the knee) said repeatedly, pleading for his mother and begging "please, please, please".

Bystanders witnessing what was going on urged the police officers to check Mr Floyd’s pulse; one of the officers did just that, checking his right wrist, but "couldn't find one".

The ‘knee on the neck man’ was later identified as police officer Derek Chauvin.

The consequence of the inaction by Derek Chauvin, and the widespread public reaction this generated has already been extensively documented.

Anyone who saw the distressing images of George Floyd’s final hours on this earth would also have had two questions which needed answers: “Why was George Floyd not listened to? Why were all those witnesses who intervened to plead on his behalf for medical attention not promptly listened to?”

Listening and Power Relations

It was obvious from the George Floyd tragedy that there was a power relationship involved: a person in authority who decided that the person he was dealing with didn’t deserve to be listened to, leading to the fatal consequences.

This inappropriate exercise of power was also the pattern with practically all the publicised cases from previous incidents which were recalled following the George Floyd tragedy.

The Eric Garner case in New York in 2014 and the publicised cases in Australia of David Dungay Jr. in 2015 and Daniel ‘Danny’ Richards in 2019, all of which involved negative responses by the arresting officers when the victims were heard saying they couldn’t breathe are just three examples.

They all died because they were not listened to by people who had power over them.

Derek Chauvin didn’t react positively because he refused to listen to all the distressing pleas coming from George Floyd.

The Importance of Listening: Listening to Understand 

Listening is an important, if not the most important, aspect of human relations. We listen to what has been said and heard, reflect on this in order to understand each other. There is nothing more hurtful than the feeling that one is not being listened to.

Listening also goes beyond merely hearing: we hear a lot of things, but we don’t dwell on all of them, listening to only some of these. Hearing, combined with attention, means listening and this is the desirable option.

Image Credit: KindPNG

Listening as a Professional Requirement 

Listening is an important professional requirement: in Health, Education, Politics, as well as the other professions (including the retail industry) set up to provide services to the public.

Most of us might be familiar with the slogan “We are listening” during election time, when politicians do their best to try to convince us to give them our votes; politicians know that voters insist on being listened to.

When one goes to see a doctor, the first thing the doctor will do is to listen to what the patient says before going on to carry out an examination and to offer the subsequent diagnosis.

Likewise, the learning process in education requires attentive listening on the part of both the receivers of the knowledge and the givers: pupils and students on the one hand and the teacher on the other.

Hence, politicians, healthcare professionals, teachers and anyone in the business of providing a service to the public would need to remember that listening is an indispensable skill.

The writer and director of The Communications Clinic, Ms Terry Prone, in her book Talk the Talk (sadly, out of print; perhaps, the publishers might consider a reprint run?) set us a ‘Listening’ challenge. Anyone who took up this challenge might be surprised with the results.

There is no doubt George Floyd will be alive today with us if that important aspect of human relations: listening, had been observed.

Let us hope George Floyd didn’t die in vain and that we honour his legacy by remembering to listen to our fellow humans, no matter their background: social, economic or birth (ethnicity / nationality).

Image Credit: PikPNG

“Suppose God Is Black”: Remembering The Late Senator Robert F. Kennedy

On Wednesday, the 17th of June, the death occurred of Jean Kennedy Smith, who passed away at her home in Manhattan, New York at the age of 92.

Born Jean Ann Kennedy, she would be known to most people as one of the Kennedy siblings which included the late US President John F. Kennedy; Robert (affectionately referred to as RFK) and Edward, were two of her brothers who also served in politics.

As US Ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998, Jean Kennedy Smith is remembered for the significant role she played in Ireland's Peace Process.

It might also be significant that her death occurred in the same month as 54 years ago, when a historic visit to South Africa by her brother, the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy took place.

RFK's tremendous work in the area of Civil and Human Rights in the United States, and that visit to South Africa in June, 1966 couldn’t have been more relevant to what is currently happening, as can be seen from the quote from one of his speeches below:

The person responsible for inviting Senator Kennedy to South Africa is Ian Alexander Robertson, the then leader of the National Union of South Africa Students (NUSAS). 

Now living in the United States, Robertson, who himself received a Banning Order signed on the 3rd of May, 1966, by the South African government, recalled RFK’s visit in an article published in The Mercury in June 2016.

US senator Robert F. Kennedy giving Ian Robertson a gift of the book written by his brother, John F Kennedy when they met in South Africa in June, 1966.

During his visit, RFK delivered a series of speeches to students at universities across South Africa. What was described as his most famous speech, dubbed the “Ripple of Hope” address, was delivered at the University of Cape Town to mark the NUSAS’s annual Day of Affirmation.

A Meeting Of Great Minds: During his 1966 visit to South Africa, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy met with anti-apartheid activist Chief Luthuli and later spoke publicly about their meeting. Because of a government ban on media coverage of Luthuli, it was the first news many had of their leader in more than five years.

Today, the Day of Affirmation speech is the resource for one of the programmes in Civil and Human Rights developed to be used by teachers as part of the RFK Legacy Education Project.

As highlighted earlier, the information presented is very relevant to what is currently happening, and which will also widen students’ understanding by placing the events in a historical context.

Teaching and Learning About Africa: The Subject Units and Topics at First and Second Levels

Well done to everyone who took the time to do the Name the Countries of Africa! quiz. Below, are the answers, as well as a political map of Africa.

Subject Units Related to the Study of Africa

The subject units related to the study of Africa at Primary, Junior and Leaving Certificate Levels are illustrated below in a tabulated format:

The next instalment will begin to look at individual Strand Units and Topics in summary as they relate to Africa.

Teaching and Learning About Africa

“The Intercultural Education Strategy (IES) was developed in recognition of the recent significant demographic changes in Irish society, which are reflected in the education system.”

Department of Education and Skills and the Office of the Minister for Integration (2010)

The Twenty-first Century Ireland 

One aspect of this demographic change is in the population profile of Irish society over the past two and a half decades, and including the noticeable increased presence of Africans.

Of course, there had been previous generations of Africans living here, but these were in the main transitional and would also have been higher education students; indeed, there was an active West African Students’ Union (WASU) of Great Britain and Ireland, which was founded in London in 1925.

One significant event organised by the WASU’s Ireland Section was a celebration to mark Ghana’s independence in March, 1957.

History of Earlier African Presence in Ireland 

There has been a historical presence of Africans (or people of African origin) in Ireland going back to the 16th century. The first named person of African origin was ‘Lampo’ (from the Caribbean), who was christened David Ben-Annah on the 8th of April, 1666 as recorded in the Parish Register of St Mary’s in Youghal, Co. Cork.

Before ’Lampo’, however, the poor unfortunate unnamed ‘blackamoor’ executed in Kilkenny in November, 1578, together with thirty-five other people which included ‘two witches’ (pages 59-60), was the first recorded evidence of a person of African origin living in Ireland.

Ireland and Africa

Prior to the demographic changes in Irish society referred to earlier from the IES quote, links between Ireland and Africa has existed for quite a while, and longer than most people might have thought.

One less highlighted chapter in the history of migration from Ireland is that of South Africa being one of the  final destinations. Irish emigrants from Armagh, Cork, Longford, Mayo, Tipperary, Westmeath and Wicklow were part of the British Government’s Settler Scheme in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, in the 1820s.

Until quite recently, most Irish people's contacts with Africans would have been of an indirect nature [and from a considerable distance]: through family members, neighbours or friends who would have been engaged in the religious missions, on working assignment or travelling in an African country.

New Neighbours

These days, many Irish people live next door to Africans, work and socialise with them, while their children would also sit in the same classrooms and share lessons with children of Africans and / or adopted African children.

A ‘United Nations General Assembly’ Classroom In Ireland

The classrooms in Irish schools have therefore, since the 1990s especially, been looking more like the United Nations General Assembly. This is the result of the significantly high number of pupils and students whose parents would have been born outside Ireland and of non-Irish nationality.

As the classrooms in Ireland look more like the United Nations General Assembly, this new situation also raises challenges for teachers; challenges which include having to teach pupils and students from backgrounds different to what previous generations of teachers would have expected or been used to.

New Neighbours: New Ways?

This new Multi-Nationality Classroom is the background to the Intercultural Education Strategy (IES), 2010 - 2015 published in 2010.

New Ways, New Challenges? Teaching in the Multi-Nationality Classroom.

The IES was devised to address the issue of the presence of children of the new nationalities in the classrooms.

What Do We Know About Our New Neighbours?

Our new neighbours may have arrived from other countries, but long before their arrival in Ireland, knowledge about their countries of origin and similar places would have been a requirement for an understanding of the world we live in, and which would also be achieved through the study of selected subjects.

The Curriculum 

The teaching and learning about any subject begins with the curriculum; so this must be the first point of reference.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) is the statutory body in Ireland responsible for the specification and design of the curriculum for both First and Second Levels, hence the place to find out how the teaching and learning about Africa has been addressed.

The result is a curriculum well-designed to address the teaching about other continents, countries, the physical and natural environments of those places, as well as the people who live there, in a very positive and respectful manner.

For this, the NCCA must be justifiably proud.

Curriculum Review 

It might be worth stating here that in terms of the requirements for the study of Africa, there shouldn’t be much need to radically change the existing curriculum content, other than adding a few additional topics and providing the guidelines on how to implement the contents effectively.

Evidence of the importance the NCCA places on the study of the wider world (in a non-Europe context) can be seen from the fact that it has been designed to start from third class at the Primary Level (from the age of eight years); this is also confirmed by the extracts from the Human Environments Strand of the SESE Geograhy Curriculum and Teacher Guidelines below:

Learning About Africa: The NCCA’s Contribution

The objective of these series is to promote the teaching and learning about Africa through the specified units and topics in the curriculum, and to highlight the NCCA’s commendable role and valuable contribution in this effort.

Subjects 

Geography and History are the two main subjects which would be directly related to the study of places and the story of the inhabitants of those places.
Geography will locate the place in a particular part of the world; the heritage of its inhabitants will be collected in their History. Their stories will be told through language subjects such as English, French, Portuguese and Spanish, the European languages which are the adopted official languages of the relevant African countries.
For the North African countries, Arabic would be an additional official language and through which their literature will be accessible.

The following are the other subjects considered relevant to learning about any place and the wider world:
Arts Education (Drama, Music, Visual Arts)
Science (including Agricultural Science)
Civic, Social & Political Education (CSPE)
Environmental & Social Studies (until June 2020)

The subject units related to the study of Africa are illustrated below in a diagrammatic format:

Subject Units & Topics

Individual subject units which have been identified above as related to the study of Africa will be the focus of subsequent articles.

Until the next instalment, here is a little quiz to test ourselves how many of the countries in Africa we can identify.

Covid-19: Can Africa Cope?

The answer to the question is: “Yes, of course! Africa can cope”.

No one is suggesting that this would be easy; but the knowledge required to address the situation is there, and as long as people followed the instructions issued by the relevant authorities, there is no reason to speculate that Africa can’t cope.

Bhopal, India: December 1984

In the aftermath of this terrible disaster, the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme had carried an interview during which the presenter had apparently questioned whether India had the doctors to cope with the situation.

“Of course, not”, was our lecturer’s response during his Media and Society lecture later that day, “Sure, all their doctors are working here in the UK!”

Our lecturer might also have been trying to remind us then of our obligation (perhaps, as future potential BBC Radio 4 Today presenters or even foreign correspondents) not to speculate or make assumptions when it comes to how we talk about certain places (especially, outside Europe) and their citizens?

The World: 2020

The current Covid-19 pandemic has led to justifiable concerns as to how it can be tackled by respective countries. The world-wide nature of the virus has also meant the African continent has not been spared, while trans-national travel has led some people to worry about the risk of the virus arriving in their own territory from an African country.

Unfortunately, the questions being asked, or rather the speculations being made, is whether African countries would be able to cope with the Covid-19 crisis, instead of finding out what already existed on the ground and present in Africa: the knowledge, human capability, the resilience Africans display in the face of adversity, etc.

Science and Technology

Tackling the Covid-19 crisis requires, apart from a good Community-based Health Planning and Services, the intervention of Science and Technology, and the importance of the latter in Africa has long been acknowledged.

Barely one year after Ghana gained its independence on the 6th of March, 1957 from Britain, the National Research Council was established in August, 1958; this was later to become the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in February, 1959.

Below, is a summary introductory history of the CSIR and a list of its thirteen institutes:

Africa Science Week

Africa Science Week is another manifestation of how high a value Africa places on Science and Technology, hence a programme for young people.

Ebola outbreak 2014-2016

When the Ebola virus disease first broke out in three West African countries in 2014, similar speculations were made as to how the neighbouring countries will be able to cope. Nigeria was to prove that such speculation should always be avoided.

Nigeria, therefore, forced us to rethink assumptions commonly made about certain countries’ ability to respond to a crisis, and to respect their knowledge and capabilities.

Ghana, Nigeria’s neighbour [three countries removed west], was one of the countries to take prompt action to address the Covid-19 crisis; the CSIR also identifies Biomedical and Public Health as one of seven thematic areas.

Women in STEM 

Djibouti and Somalia are two countries in the Horn of Africa region which promote STEM among girls and women, thus fulfilling their obligations regarding the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); or rather, dispelling commonly held assumptions regarding attitudes towards girls and women in Africa, and especially in the Islamic societies on the continent.

Africa’s Science and Technology Ambassadors

As the world waits in the hope that this Covid-19 crisis comes to pass sooner rather than later, friends of Africa should rest assured that the knowledge needed to combat the disease, as well as for addressing the Science and Technology needs of its citizens, can be found among Africans themselves; more specifically, in the hands of the ambassadors below:

Science and Technology in Africa

This week sees the return to the RDS in Ballsbridge, Dublin, of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition.

As in previous years, students from schools located in practically every county on this island come together to showcase and explain to fellow students and the general public, the results of weeks of scientific work they have been engaged in.

In Africa, science and technology play the same important role in the lives of people, as well as in the various countries’ National Development Plans same as in any other country in the world.

In Ghana, for example, barely 17 months after the country became independent of British Colonial Rule, the National Research Council (NRC) was established in August, 1958 by the Research Act 21.

The NRC was the predecessor of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which came into existence in October 1968.

Science has also been an important subject in the curriculum in the country’s education system right from the primary school level.

Science Education continues throughout the different levels up to and beyond the third level, with the work undertaken in multiple scientific disciplines in the country’s research institutions.

The West African International Summer School for Young Astronomers (WAISSYA) is one example of an African scientific initiative organised at undergraduate level.

Africa Science Week is Africa's annual weeklong celebration of science and technology with thousands  of individuals - from students to scientists and technologists - actively engaging in coordinated science events across the continent.