The Family Field Trip: Africa In the Middle Ages

Welcome

This blog started out as an exploration of field trips by grade level which a family can take to enrich their child's school curriculum. I originally started this for Charter School families, or any family, wanting to supplement with fun family field trips. Since then we have decided to home school, so the bent and flavor has changed. I will still post field trips, but also home school related posts. We have four kids who span 8 years. Two high school and two elementary. Our elementary kids are home schooled.

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Africa In the Middle Ages

Africa in the Middle Ages is something that most curriculum either skip or gloss over. There are some reasons for that, none of which I find convincing or acceptable.
Since I was not able to find a previously written curriculum that adequately covered Africa in the Middle Ages, I put one together on my own.

Some resources I used:
African Studies at Boston University
Africa Success (reading and teaching resources)
Book list 1
Book list 2
Book list 3
PBS Africa- first people
History Chanel- Mankind the Story of All of us

Here I am outlining my unit only on Middle Ages in Africa. I did a previous unit on Ancient Africa not using these books, however if these books have sections pertaining to Ancient or Early Modern/Modern I have noted it in parentheses. The previous Ancient Africa unit does go some into the Middle Ages, but it is an overview, so this is more in depth. You can find the Ancient Africa unit here.

Books:
African Kingdoms of the Past. This book series is my spine. The historical accuracy and scope is fantastic and on the level of a kid in grades 4-8 (and even older kids can use this).
I bought them all used on Amazon. You can buy them new as well. You might consider library or hard back bindings. My soft cover ones have the pages falling out after one read here, though they were used and in fine shape when received.
This series will cover Africa in the Middle Ages well. You will need more to cover Ancients or Early Modern/ Modern.

Egypt, Kush, Axum/ Northeast: pp 77-95 Middle Ages -Ethiopia- (pp 1-76 Ancient Egypt, Kush and Axum); (Modern day Ethiopia is begun in the Epilogue section p 96).

Zenj, Buganda/ East: pp 1-58 Middle Ages -Zenj, Suaheli states. pp 69-81 Middle Ages- Buganda (Ancient: not in this book); (Early Modern and Modern: pp 58-68 and pp 81-97).

Monomotapa, Zulu, Basuto/ Southern: pp 1-23 Middle Ages- Monomotapa; pp 24-34 Middle Ages- Great Zimbabwe; pp 35-40 Middle Ages- Bantu; pp 50-56 Middle Ages- Zulu. ( Early Modern and Modern pp 40-49, 56-99); (Ancient: not in this book).

Kongo, Ndongo/ West Central: pp 1-64 Ndongo and Kongo Middle Ages; (Early Modern and Modern pp 65-97); (Ancient: not in this book).

Oyo, Benin, Ashanti/ Guinea Coast: pp 1-33 - Oyo Middle Ages (Early Modern, Modern pp 33-36); pp 36-48 -Guinea Middle Ages ( Early Modern, Modern pp 49-59); pp 60-69 - Benin Middle Ages (Early Modern, Modern pp 69-92); (Ancient: not in this book).

Ghana, Mali, Songhay/The Western Sudan: pp 1-57 -Ghana Middle Ages; pp 58-79 - Mali Middle Ages; pp 80-89 Songhay Middle Ages. (early Modern, Modern pp 90-96 Epilogue); (Ancient: not in this book).

The notebook pages I created to use with this specific book series can be found here.

This is also a good book for younger kids or a shorter unit:
African Beginnings by James Haskins

Just for Fun:

Trouble in Timbuktu by Cristina Kessler
Ashanti to Zulu; African Traditions by Margaret Musgrove
Africa Is Not A Country by Margy Burns Knight
Moja Means One by Muriel Feelings
Jambo Means Hello: Swahilil Alphabet Book by Muriel Feelings
Travels with Gannon and Wyatt: Botswana (Travels With Gannon & Wyatt) by Patti Wheeler

Folk Tales:

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters (several versions available)
Aesop's Fables by Beverley Naidoo and Piet Grobler (African Version)
The Rat-Catcher's Son, and other stories by Carolyn London
The Lion's Whiskers and other Ethiopian Tales by Brent Ashabranner and Russell Davis
The Girl Who Spun Gold by Virginia Hamilton
The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Rachel Isadora
The Princess and the Pea by Rachel Isadora
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale by Verna Aardema
There are SO many great folk tales. Check out Amazon and your local library and don't forget the funny Anansi the spider stories which are sure to entertain.

Biographies:

Sundiata by DT Niane (several versions available)
Nzinga by Patricia McKissak (The Royal Diaries series)
Mansa Musa: the Lion of Mali by Khephra Burns and Leo & Diane Dillon (several versions available)
Traveling Man; The Journey of Ibn Battuta by James Rumford (several versions available)

I would suggest one of these books with biographical sketches in it:

Africa's Great Kings & Queens (Just for You Productions)
Great Queens and Kings of Africa (real African Writers series, vol 1,2) by Pusch Commey
100 Great African Kings and Queens by Pusch Commey
The Glory of African Kings and Queens by Pusch Commey
Biographies of the Great Kings and Queens of Africa and Notable Black Men and Women by Lee John Smith O. and DeAnna Williams
African Princess: The Amazing Lives of Africa's Royal Women by Joyce Hansen