Prompt: Use sources from Africa’s deep historical pasts (Sunjata, food, or iron) to undercut the stereotypes we listed in Unit 2. Essays must have a thesis, clear organization, and use specific examples from Sunjata (Unit 3). The best essays will cite “1493,” from Lies Your Teacher Told You and connect material from Sunjata to broader themes in Unit 2.
You may choose your own topic, but I suggest you frame it around Achebe’s “Africa’s Tarnished Name”, Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story,” Rathbone and Parker’s “idea of Africa,” or Wainaina’s satirical, “How to Write about Africa.” Note that the critique from “1493” in Lies aligns with the general critique found in each of the readings about the “invention” of Africa as a horrible place.
Consider the following topics:
- Technology and African life in Sunjata
- The roles of women and men in pre-colonial life versus conventional expectations
- The diversity of social and political structures in Sunjataversus the absence of complexity in our contemporary image of the continent
- Material culture (i.e. the tangible things valued in the epic or sources and their importance to political power)
- Religion and spiritual life—what different purposes does religion serve in the epic versus in stereotypes?
- Stagnation versus progress in representations of African societies—How does the epic present a different present a case of progress from a continent commonly associated with stagnation?
If you get stuck, answer this question: What are the differences between internal and external representations of Africa’s deep past?
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