Eyes on Africa: Engaging with a Continent through Art

Introduction + Teacher’s Guide

It can be challenging to find time to engage students with the complexity, diversity, and long history of the African continent. Works of art offer an opportunity to investigate all manner of influences upon human activity in a particular time and place—including the physical environment, spiritual belief systems, societal organizational structures, and interactions with other cultures through encounter, trade, or domination.

The five objects featured here touch on different eras in Africa’s long history, from Ethiopia’s encounters with the ancient Roman empire, to the splendor of the medieval kingdom of Mali, to funeral traditions that have emerged in Ghana in the last half century. They also represent a diversity of geographic origins, from Mali’s position at the edge of the Sahara Desert, to Tanzania’s hub on Indian Ocean trade routes, to the relative isolation of the central Congo River region.

In-depth exploration of these five objects offers students of World History and World Geography the chance to practice applying historical thinking skills to a variety of primary source materials—other artifacts, traveler’s accounts, historical photographs, contemporary practices, and insights offered by new technology. Whether students have time to explore just one object or all five, these explorations will help them appreciate the complexity of forces that shape human experience, in Africa and around the globe.

Lesson Plans:

• An Agent of Empire A rare wooden carving offers a glimpse of the splendor and might of the ancient kingdom of Mali.
• A Persistent Tradition A painted icon of Mary and Jesus is a reminder that Ethiopia is one of the world’s oldest Christian nations.
• A Coastal Blend A carved door from a Swahili house on the Indian Ocean coast reflects a long history of exchange with the Arab and Indian traders.
• Protected by Spirits This figure is just a shell without the elements that made it powerful for the people who made it– the supernatural effects of substances and rituals believed to engage ancestral spirits.
• Tradition Re-imagined Cultural practices are constantly evolving, as demonstrated by this “fantasy coffin” from Ghana.

Download a reproducible student worksheet to guide student exploration.

 

Object Guide:

Access object stories and get a deep dive into their histories.

 

Objectives and Standards:

Learn what students will learn and how those learnings apply to state standards.