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. 

Camels to Africa? Is This A Case of ‘Carrying Coals to Newcastle’?

There is an advertisement sponsored by an NGO which has been airing on Irish radio over the last number of weeks.

It features a goat asking the question: “are we there yet?”, and the goat being informed that their destination is ‘Africa’!

Image credit: John O’Neill (jjron)

The subject of the advertisement is a project which involves sending animals to the target destination being undertaken by the NGO, and which includes camels!

Really?

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the camel population in Africa is 30.1 million or 86.5% of the world’s total.

The region with the highest number of camels is Eastern Africa with 12.2 million.

Below, are the 2017 FAO figures for selected livestock related to Africa:

So, the question is: where did that camel “going to Africa” start its journey?

Incidentally, Africa’s goat population in 2017 according to the FAO was 423 million or 40.9% of the world’s total.

Image source: https://www.magzter.com/articles/3894/357652/5d2474f819af1

Image source: https://www.africanfarming.com/small-scale-farmers-export-live-goats/

So, perhaps there are enough camels and goats in Africa already?

2019 Booker Prize Joint Winner Bernardine Evaristo’s 1998 Dublin Visit

The BBC 10 o’clock evening news was on. “Bernardine Evaristo has been jointly awarded the Booker Prize (with Margaret Atwood)”, I was awoken from my half-sleep on the couch to be given this exciting news.

My first reaction was to rush to the bookshelf to grab the copy of Lara which I knew was there somewhere.

Back in November 1998, Bernardine was one of the writers invited to participate in the Literature programme of the Africa Festival, which was held in association with the Irish Writers Centre. 

The theme for that year was Identity, with the discussions focused on the many ways in which ‘Identity’ can be manifested. 

Irish-Nigerian poet and playwright, Gabriel Gbadamosi (Limerick mother and Nigerian father), author of the play No Blacks, No Irish, was another invited writer.

Article on Bernardine Evaristo prior to her Dublin visit 

Twenty-one years on, we here in Dublin recall Bernardine Evaristo’s visit with fondness and are delighted to celebrate with her this Booker Prize win.

Special mention of the role of poet and writer Peter Sirr, who was director of the Irish Writers Centre, the co-presenter of the Africa Festival’s Literature Programme.

We look forward to seeing Bernadine back in Ireland soon.

Is Team Hope Making a Statement About the Hygiene Habits of Africans?

Shoebox Appeal 

“You can make a difference too. Every year, with your help, the Christmas Shoebox Appeal sends thousands of gift-filled shoeboxes to children in Africa and Eastern Europe.

The children who receive your shoeboxes are affected by poverty in different ways. Many come from families with very little income, others live on the margins of society or in areas affected by conflict. Shoeboxes are given based on need alone and bring joy and excitement to children living in often very difficult situations. You can help us do that this year!”

The information above, which is to be found on the webpage for this year’s Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal, raises a lot of questions. 

Team Hope’s work has attracted criticism, as well as divided opinions since it started operating in Ireland, and this year marks the 10th edition of its Christmas shoebox appeal. The publicity campaign for 2019 includes posters displayed in Dublin Bus’ fleet.

Irish Times Social Affairs correspondent, Kitty Holland, was the subject of online criticism last year when she wrote that she “had to give in and let son (8) do the Team Hope shoebox at his ... school”.

For the moment, I would like to focus on some specific aspects and issues raised by Team Hope’s activities, in this case, in Africa.

These are the following:

• The contents of the shoebox and the messages that these convey
• How Eco-Friendly are the gifts?
• Materials produced by Team Hope about Africa meant to be used by teachers as learning resources 
• What the NCCA Curriculum requires children to be taught about other lands and the inhabitants of those places  
• Should children, and Irish children in particular, be expected to solve problems created by adults?

Hygiene Items 

Among the items children are asked to put into the shoebox are hygiene products, namely: soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc. Paul in Kenya (below) “can share the soap and other toiletries with his Mum”!

So, how did young Paul and his family maintain their physical and dental hygiene before they received their gifts from Irish children?

Would you like a present of toothpaste for Christmas?

Actually, how would someone in Ireland react to and interpret receiving a present of toothpaste from another person?
What message did Team Hope want to convey to Irish children by asking them to send soap and toothpaste to African children?
Who in Team Hope decided on toiletries as items to send to African children and their families?

Would Team Hope, by chance, be trying to make a statement about the hygiene habits of the African recipients of the shoeboxes?

Soap making in Africa 

With regards to the inclusion of soap as one of the items in the shoebox, it might be worth informing Team Hope supporters that soap production has been an economic activity and an industry which goes back generations in West Africa, for example.
Perhaps, a useful contribution to Irish children’s learning about Africa would have been to design lessons on such a topic?

Soap making is also only just one of the many skills and the wealth of knowledge which the communities in the African countries Team Hope has a presence have to cope with their daily lives.

Eco-Friendly Gifts?

Other items children are asked to put into the shoebox are those meant to ‘wow’ the recipient children. What percentage of the suggested gift items under WOW are eco-friendly? Are the children also reminded of the eco-friendly message?

It should be clarified at this point that this reflection is not a criticism of the concept of ‘help’. Rather, it is about the way we decide to offer our help.

Pupils of African Parentage in Irish Classrooms

Did Team Hope also take into consideration how children of African parentage sitting in the same classrooms as Irish children might feel?

Have the parents of these children or other Africans living in Ireland ever been consulted to get their views on the Christmas shoebox appeal and the other project ideas intended to help Africa which their proponents come up with?

Teaching About Africa: Team Hope’s Approach?

The classroom is where children are expected to be taught about the world and its inhabitants, including those who live in the distant lands in Africa.

So, what contribution does Team Hope make to learning about Africa? Is its presence in the Irish classroom and the ‘teaching materials’ it brings in not merely reinforcing stereotypes about Africa and Africans?

What purpose is being served by telling four and five year-old Irish children that “people live in huts made of mud” in the DR Congo; assuming these pupils can get their little minds to figure out where the DR Congo is in the first place.

The Origins of Stuff 

Even if it was decided that pupils needed to know something about the DR Congo, they could have been told that it is the source of that important mineral: ‘coltan’. Over 50% of the world total is supplied by the DR Congo.

It would also have been more useful to their learning if Irish children are taught that the earth under the “huts made of mud” in the DR Congo holds important minerals the rest of the world relies on.

“Africa is giving nothing to anyone” - Kevin Myers

Teaching Irish children that Ireland might just about be dependent on something from Africa would also be appreciated by their fellow classmates of African parentage, who will also feel that their parents’ home continent’s contribution to the rest of the world is acknowledged.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment 

Over the years, I have researched the contents of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA)’s curriculum for both Primary and Second Levels to find out which units are related to the teaching about Africa.

The result was an NCCA curriculum well-designed to address the learning about other continents, countries and the inhabitants of those places in a very positive and respectful manner.

One example is the SESE Geography Human Environments Strand Unit People and Other Lands for Senior Primary (Third to Sixth) Classes, while the English subject at all levels would provide opportunities for pupils and students to be introduced to literary works by African writers.

The NCCA also specifies that the study of a non-European context in the People and Other Lands unit should start from Third Class, so one is at a loss to understand why Team Hope is producing materials about Africa for Infant Classes!

The unit Global Interdependence in Leaving Certificate Geography, especially 6.1 and 6.3, also offers students the option to study, discuss, question, debate and critically examine the issues around the concept of ‘development’.

Should Irish Children Be Expected to Solve Problems Created by Adults?

There is also the question of whether children should be asked, or even be expected, to get involved in solving problems which would have been, effectively, created by decisions taken by adults in the first place.

Here is a professional’s advice on the matter:

Problems created by adults require adults to find solutions, not expecting children to do this.

As the man said:

“Yes, I have problems, but not the ones YOU think I have!”

United Nations' International Decade for People of African Descent 2015-2024

The United Nations' International Decade for People of African Descent, IDPAD [UN IDPADdoc A/RES/69/16] was launched in the Trusteeship Council Chamber of the United Nations in New York, USA, on the 10th of December, 2014.

"This Decade, for which the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was designated as the lead agency, aims to strengthen actions and measures to ensure the full realisation of the economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights of people of African descent, and their full and equal participation in society.

Under the theme "Recognition, Justice and Development”, the Decade provides an operational framework to encourage States to eradicate social injustices inherited from history and to fight against racism, prejudice and racial discrimination to which people of African descent are still subjected."

The stated objectives of the International Decade for People of African Descent are to:

• Promote respect, protection and fulfilment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by people of African Descent, as recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
• Promote a greater knowledge of and respect for the diverse heritage, culture and contribution of people of African descent to the development of societies;
• Adopt and strengthen national, regional and international legal frameworks according to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and to ensure their full and effective implementation.

The International Decade in Ireland

In Ireland, the lead agency responsible for the implementation of the International Decade is the Department of Justice & Equality's Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration, which held a Public Consultation in Dublin on the 3rd of April, 2019.

The International Decade presents a once in a lifetime opportunity for descendants of people of the African continent to be in charge of the narrative about Africa, tell their own stories to the rest of the world and hope to be listened to accordingly.

Over the coming weeks, this blog will examine and discuss the stated objectives of the International Decade in detail through the Programme of activities for the implementation of the International Decade as outlined in UN Resolution A/RES/69/16.

Please, see also:

International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024)

UN Launches International Decade for People of African Descent (for Buildup to the International Decade)

People of African Descent
Programme of Activities for the Implementation of the International Decade for People of African Descent
Statement by Flavia Pansieri, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights at Launch of the International Decade for People of African Descent, Geneva, PN Cinema Room XIV, 16 December 2014, 5 pm – 8 pm

Team Hope in Africa: Why Team Hope and Ireland AM Should Give Teachers (and Pupils) A Break!

Team Hope in Irish Classrooms: Where is the Learning Aspect?

On the 17^th of September, 2017, Team Hope launched its annual Christmas Shoebox Appeal, with TV3's Ireland AM as the media partner.

"Team Hope and Ireland AM are asking people to double their own impact this year by encouraging their friends, family members or colleagues to get involved and ensure that even more children experience the joy of receiving a gift.

Every shoebox counts, because every child counts and for these children (whose families typically live on less than €1 a day) this gift from Ireland may be the only present they will receive this Christmas." was how the appeal was carried on the Tv3 website on Friday, 20 October 2017.

So, basically, Team Hope (with the support of Ireland AM) thinks children in their selected countries are desperately in need of presents at Christmas and which it sets about to provide through the time and efforts of Irish schoolchildren.

Over the following two months, Team Hope have then gone into classrooms all over the country to ask the children to make up the shoe boxes and fill these with specified items to be sent to Team Hope, together with €4 in cash. These boxes are then sent to the selected named countries.

Source: Team Hope Stories-Pre-Schools

It might seem like the height of ingratitude, if not outright rudeness, to be seen to be critical of an action which is intended to be good or beneficial to the recipients.

However, uncomfortable questions need to be asked about the 'why' we decide to do something for someone and the 'how' we go about doing this, if we are to achieve the outcome which people from the target countries, especially those living in Ireland, would be happy with. "I don't recognise the country Team Hope is describing", was how a national from one of the recipient countries once remarked.

What should take place in classrooms?

The classroom is the place where learning (including, about other places and peoples) is expected to take place. So, how does Team Hope's Shoebox appeal contribute to learning about the world around us, and in particular, about the selected countries in Africa?

Does Team Hope's materials about the countries they work in offer and present new information about African countries or merely confirm old prejudices?

Here is Team Hope's information about the DR Congo prepared for Pre-School children:

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".
Looking at the materials and the narrative Team Hope uses to make the case and to gain the support of schools, one would have to question what its presence in schools is intended to achieve and for whose benefit.

Schools have to follow a defined curriculum detailing and specifying what pupils need to learn, and with teachers given the responsibility of delivering the contents of this curriculum.

Snowfall in Lesotho

Until quite recently, most Irish people's contacts with Africans have also been from a distance.

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

One wonders how the children of African parentage, like Professor Plastow's son, sitting in the same classrooms Team Hope goes into, are made to feel about the kind of information they are given portraying their parents' countries of origin.

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

Perhaps, any person or organisation also intending to go into the classrooms might consider having a look at the Teacher Guidelines of the SESE Geography Curriculum and ask themselves if what they are offering fits in with the requirements of the curriculum, especially the unit People and Other Lands.

Demands on Teachers and the effects on some of the pupils in their care

Teachers have enough to cope with, without having to take on things which contribute nothing to the learning process or better understanding of the world out there. 
Not to mention, how to ensure that some of the pupils in their care are not left to feel like Professor Plastow's son.
Note: Professor Jane Plastow was in Galway in October, 2009 where she co-presented a paper: Africans Don't Use Mobile Phones with her colleague Richard Borowski at a conference organised by the Development Education and Research Network (DERN) at NUI, Galway.

African Cultural Project