From Ted.com: "Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding."

It is a good idea to teach your units on Islam and medieval West Africa back-to-back, since Islam played an important role in the empires of Mali and Songhai. 

From Boston University, Pardee School of Global Studies​

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"Select from a wide range of topics which you can adjust by reading level from this List of NewsELA articles compiled by Rebecca Silver."

Present this quote to your class to open a discussion:

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In 1963, British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper said:

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"Perhaps in the future, there will be some African history to teach. But at present there is none. There is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness." [1]

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1. Do you agree or disagree with this quote? Why?

2. What evidence do we have to prove or disprove his point?

3. If you could respond to Hugh Trevor-Roper, what would you tell or show him? 

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[1} This quote is from a series of lectures which were eventually published as the book, The Rise of Christian Europe, 1965.

From TedEd: "On the edge of the vast Sahara desert, citizens snuck out of the city of Timbuktu and took to the wilderness. They buried chests in the desert sand, hid them in caves, and sealed them in secret rooms. Inside these chests was a treasure more valuable than gold: the city’s ancient books. Why were they hiding these priceless manuscripts? Elizabeth Cox digs into the literary tradition of Timbuktu."

From TedEd: "Mansa Musa, the 14th century African king of the Mali Empire, is said to have amassed a fortune that possibly made him one of the wealthiest people who ever lived. Jessica Smith tells the story of how Mansa Musa literally put his empire – and himself – on the map."

From Facing History & Ourselves:

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"This discussion strategy uses writing and silence as tools to help students explore a topic in depth. In a Big Paper discussion, students write out their responses to a stimulus, such as a quotation or historical document. This process slows down students’ thinking and gives them an opportunity to focus on the views of others. It also creates a visual record of students’ thoughts and questions that you can refer to later in a course."

From The US Library of Congress:

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"Students can use this simple tool to examine and analyze any kind of primary source and record their responses."

From ECHO (Education Through Cultural and Historical Organizations)

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Students can use this worksheet to analyze a written primary source, especially if it is in narrative form.

This activity is adaptable to any size classroom and will help students analyze primary sources in small groups. Students are put into expert groups and given a primary source to analyze. Then, they are put into teaching groups and will teach their classmates about their source to their classmates. This activity encourages collaboration, research, and leadership skills. 

From TeachingHistory:

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"A guided four-step reading process for primary documents that trains students to read a primary document like a historian. Use this guided process several times until students acquire the habit of reading and thinking like a historian."