The theme of movement has influenced the African continent for centuries, from the migration of early man around and out of Africa, to the trade patterns of the ancient empires in Egypt, Kush, Axum and Nubia in the east and Mali, Songhai, and Ghana in the west. Movement influences trade and commerce, religion and conflict. The unit will discuss the push and pull factors that influence migration, immigration and emigration through African history, including the topics of the slave trade, desertification and famine on the continent, the impact of colonial rule (primarily in Africa and the United States), and the back to Africa movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Finally the unit will explore the more recent voluntary migration of Africans to the United States, specifically to the Philadelphia region. Students will explore why African peoples leave their homelands to come to the United States and what affect this has on the continent of Africa, specifically examining the effects of the “brain drain”. The unit will span the course of a semester as students study various topics in an African American History course designed for high school students. The grade level is primarily eleventh. The unit will consist of six lessons based in the prehistoric, ancient and modern eras of history.

This curriculum unit will utilize the geography themes of location, human- environment interactions, movement and regions; and the social studies themes of culture; time, continuity and change; people places and environments, individual development and identity; individuals, groups and institutions; power, governance and authority; production, distribution and consumption; science, technology and society; and global interactions. These themes will be used to examine and explore African migration, immigration and emigration across time. The geography themes explain the absolute and relative position of a place on Earth’s surface, how physical and human characteristics define and distinguish a place, how humans modify and adapt to natural settings, how people ideas and material move between and among locations and how an area displays
unity in terms of physical and human characteristics. The social studies themes will provide the framework for the standards that will be addressed in this unit

Students in the School District of Philadelphia are required to take a course in African American History. Part of this curriculum focuses on the study of Africa, the Atlantic Slave Trade, African resistance and liberation movements and the migration and immigration of African peoples within the continent of Africa and to and from the continent of Africa. This unit will provide students with a practical way to apply the information they are learning. The study of “mobile Africa” will prepare students to chart the migration patterns of Africans during ancient times, the middle passage, the American colonial and reconstruction periods. Students will also chart the “back to Africa” movements and African migrations in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Historical Context

The human story is one of movement and migration. Archaeological and genetic research has shown that our human ancestors most probably originated in East Central Africa within the last 200,000 years. This unit is launched by the ideas of humans’ efforts to survive, thrive and adapt. Geography plays an enormous role in the survival of humans over time. It is the adaptation to one’s surroundings that has made each culture so unique. Africans have survived some may say because of or despite the geography of the continent.

Some time over the last two million years, Africans migrated out of the continent as Homo erectus, going into Asia and then Europe. According to Jared Diamond, Europe’s African ancestors became Neanderthals; Asia’s remained Homo erectus but Africa’s evolved into the progenitors of modern humans, Homo sapiens sapiens. Then, between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, African Homo sapiens sapiens underwent additional changes that transformed them into what scientists call “behaviorally modern” Homo sapiens. These Africans expanded outward again into Asia and Europe, replacing exterminating and/ or interbreeding with the Asian and European hominids and becoming the dominant species throughout the world.1

Later African migrations can be attributed to many different factors. Environmental changes such as the expansion of the Sahara desert and the deforestation of the Ethiopian highlands forced populations to resettle in more productive areas. The development of iron tools and weapons, and the introduction of new food crops enabled African communities to move into previously uninhabitable forest zones. The study of the Bantu migrations provides a good case study of how African innovations in tool-making and agriculture facilitated the spread of Bantu-speaking peoples through much of eastern and central Africa in the early centuries of the first millennium A.D. These migrations show how language has linked various peoples in Sub-Saharan Africa through a common language. Bantu-speaking people all speak languages which have a common word stem
ntu which means person and the prefix ba- which denotes the plural in these language families.

In more recent times,African migration can be related to the disruptive land and labor policies of European colonialism, to the continuing desertification of Africa as the Sahara expands, to the farming and herding cultures of many rural people, and to the post-World War II migration of rural Africans into the large urban centers. As a note, Africa has larger urban populations than many American cities. One such example is Cairo Egypt, which boasts over ten million inhabitants. Many Africans have moved to the cities to follow employment.

While many Africans continue to migrate within the continent itself, emigration to other parts of the world is also a central theme. In recent decades, tens of thousands of Africans have left their homelands for Western countries to obtain higher education. When this occurs they often do not return to their native lands due to the opportunities they find in their host countries after graduation. One of the major problems of this type of migration has been called the “brain drain”. African countries suffer from the loss of professionals to the Western world. Although most of those who migrate send considerable resources back to their homelands and families, their sheer brain power is missed.

The objectives for this unit are for students to be able to understand migration patterns, discuss the effects of these migrations on Africa and construct a mind map of these migrations. Overall, students should learn that there were global implications to migrations of Africans. They will also learn about the ways in which Africans were involved in their own forced migrations and voluntary migrations.

Students will identify regions of Africa from which the majority of Africans migrated whether forced or voluntarily. Over the course of various units, students will create and analyze maps, analyze historical documents and diagram patterns of movement on, to and from the African continent.

In order to accomplish this unit, the teacher will use various strategies. The majority of lessons are designed for cooperative groups within a classroom. The lessons require that the students use graphic organizers, geography skills, critical thinking skills and creative and analytical writing skills. Unless otherwise noted, each lesson is designed for a fiftyminute class period.

Classroom Activities

Lesson 1: African Migration

Objectives: Students will: • Analyze where and why Africans have moved on the continent • .Understand the geography of Africa, and how it affects migration in Africa • .Distinguish between push and pull factors.

Materials: 1. Article: “The Shape of Africa” by Jared Diamond available online at www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0509/resources_geo2.html 2. Chart Paper

Activity:
1. Have students create a K-W-L Chart in their notebooks by dividing their papers into three sections. K stands for “What you know,” W stands for “What you want to know,” and L stands for “what you have learned”. Have students write everything they know about Africa in the “K” column, and everything they want to know about Africa in the “W” column. When the lesson is over have students complete the “L” as homework or review. As a class write what the students know and want to know, on a sheet of chart paper. 2. Distribute the article “The Shape of Africa” by Jared Diamond National Geographic, September 2005 which is available online at www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0509/resources_geo2.html 3. Have students read the article, which gives an overview of how geography and history have contributed to the study of Africa. As students read have them underline, highlight or circle any word or term they are unfamiliar with. Have them define the terms that they do not know. This article will be used as an introduction to the study of the geography, people and migratory patterns of Africa. 4. After students read the article, lead a class discussion about the article to give context to the reading. 5. Have students define the following Key Terms: i. Homo erectus ii. Homo sapiens iii. paleoanthropologist iv. hominids v. Neanderthal vi. Fertile Crescent vii. domesticated viii. push factors ix. pull factors

Students will answer the following Focus Questions: 6. What allowed people to settle in permanent villages? What was the effect of this settlement? 7. What plant species are native to Africa? 8. How long did it take for the domestication of animals to spread from the Mediterranean to the Southern tip of Africa? 9. Based on the reading what would you expect the future of Africa to be like?

Lesson 2: The African Diaspora

Objectives: Students will: • Examine the factors that created the first Diaspora. • Analyze where and why Africans were relocated. • Identify which ethnic groups were involved and where each group was relocated.

Materials: 1. African Diaspora Chart (See Appendix Chart 1) 2. Contemporary Political Map of Africa (See Appendix Map 1) 3. Contemporary Map of the Americas 4. Outline Map of Africa 5. Outline Map of the Americas

Introduction:

The African Diaspora is much larger than the Atlantic Slave Trade; however, for the purposes of this lesson we will examine the Atlantic Slave Trade and its impact on the Americas as well as on Africa. Shortly after Europeans began conquering and settling in the Americas, Africans were exported from their homelands to be the labor force in these regions. It is important to remember that the Atlantic Slave Trade was brought about by numerous factors. As Europeans settled in the Americas they began trading items such as sugar, coffee, tobacco and rice. Although numbers are greatly debated, it is estimated that at least ten million Africans reached the shores in the Americas. Millions more died during the trek across the interior of the continent to the coast. The Europeans that were involved included the British, Dutch Spanish, French and the Portuguese. The estimated number of Africans that arrived in the Americas from 1500-1800 according to Clayborne Carson, Emma J. Lapsansky-Werner and Gary B Nash in their text, African American Lives: The Struggle for Freedom, are Dutch colonies, 490,000; Spanish colonies, 970,000; French colonies, 1,550,000; English colonies, (West Indies: 1,523,000) and (North America: 427,000); Portuguese colonies 3,647,000; totaling 8,607,000 Africans.3 According to Dr Greg Carr of Howard University, “Nearly 85% of those crossing the
Atlantic came from one of only four regions: West Central Africa (36.5%), the Bight of Benin (20%), the Bight of Biafra (16.6%) and the Gold Coast (11%).”4

This lesson allows students to use their analytical skills to examine the numbers of Africans that were forced to migrate to the Americas. NOTE: It is understood by the author that in some cases Africans participated in the enslavement of other Africans and that in 1619 approximately 20 Africans arrived here voluntarily only to find that the laws were changed to permanently enslave them and their children.

Activity:

Students will analyze a chart of the African Diaspora. Give each student a copy of the chart, a copy of a contemporary outline map of Africa, a contemporary map of Africa, a contemporary map of the Americas including the United States, Barbados, British Guyana, Surinam, Brazil, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.

1. Have each student analyze the African Diaspora Chart. Using different colors of colored pencils to represent each of the European and Non-African countries exploiting labor: French, British, Holland, Portugal, France, Spain, and Arab States, have students color in the blank outline maps of Africa to show where Africans were taken from and by which country, and then students will color in the blank outline map of the Americas to represent where the Africans were taken. The students should use the same colors on each map and create a map key on each map to show which colors represent which countries.

2. Have students answer the following Focus Questions: 1. According to the chart, how many different regions were the Africans from? Name each of them. 2. How many different ethnic groups are represented on this chart? 3. What were the African forms of governance? 4. Name the contemporary African countries that were affected by the African Diaspora. 5. How does the information I learned today, affect my view of Africa and Africans?

Key Terms: 1. Nation 2. Governance 3. Contemporary 4. Forced Migration 5. Migration 6. Internal Slave Trade 7. Transatlantic Slave Trade

Have student define each term using a dictionary.

Lesson 3: Sierra Leone

Objectives: Students will: • Analyze the roles of Africans in the American Revolution. • Identify the causes and effects of resettlement of Black Loyalists to Sierra Leone • Analyze and interpret the language used in Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation • Understand the history of Sierra Leone

Materials: 1. Copies of the Transcription of Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation available online at http://asp1.umbc.edu/newmedia/sites/chetah/pdf/nelson_rs4.pdf 2. Copies of Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation in Modern English available online at http://asp1.umbc.edu/newmedia/sites/chetah/pdf/nelson_rs5.pdf

Introduction:

“The first known colonization effort took place in Sierra Leone, home to the Temne, Mandingo, Fulani, Bullom, and Kru people.”2 African slaves were a major factor in the liberation of the colonists from England. These men fought on both sides of the Revolutionary War. Many of the men were enticed to fight by the British Lord Dunmore, who offered freedom to any enslaved man who would join forces with the British. In reality, many of the men were not freed and were re-enslaved by British soldiers. However, many of those who fought relocated first to Nova Scotia and due to dissatisfaction with conditions in Nova Scotia, then to Sierra Leone. Activity: Have students define each term using a dictionary. 1. Treasonable 2, Traitors 3. Proclamation 4. Liable 5 Penalty 6. Confiscation 7. Indentured

1 Each student will be given a copy of Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation. The students will read the proclamation as a guided reading activity. As they read, direct students to highlight or underline any terms they do not know or understand. After reading the Transcription of Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation, give students a copy of the proclamation in Modern English.
Have students compare and contrast the transcription and the modern English. Have students underline the line in the proclamation that speaks directly to the enslaved Africans.

Answer: If you were an enslaved African, would you have taken the opportunity for freedom despite the risks? 2. Have students answer following Focus Questions: 10. What roles did African Americans play in the Revolutionary War? 11. How did Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation affect the status of Africans in the colonies? 12. If you were a British soldier, how would you have felt about Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation? Describe your feelings in a paragraph.

Lesson 4: Liberia

Objectives: Students will: • Sequence the events that led to the creation of the country of Liberia. • Identify the reasons for the creation of Liberia. • Determine the benefits and consequences of migrating to Liberia from the United States for enslaved and free blacks. .

Materials: 1. Sentence strips 2. Markers or colored pencils 3. Information about the American Colonization Society can be found online at 4. Information about Martin R. Delaney can be found online at 5. Information about Henry McNeal Turner can be found online at 6. Information about John Russwurm can be found online at www.slaveryinnewyork.com/lifestories

Introduction:

Liberia, the country of the Vai, Kru, Kissi, Grebo, Bassa, Kpelle, Mandingo and other populations, would become the primary destination for African American immigrants. Due to the involvement of the American Colonization Society (ACS), eighty people who were not content to remain in the United States set sail on a vessel named The Elizabeth in 1820. These people were not able to acquire land in Liberia and took refuge in Sierra Leone.5 In 1821, the ACS was
successful in obtaining land and then carried thirty-three African Americans to what later was renamed Monrovia. Over the remaining century, it is estimated that the ACS transported sixteen thousand migrants to Liberia.

This lesson will take approximately two fifty-minute class periods.

Activity:

Lead a whole class lesson about the American Colonization Society and the founding of Liberia. After the class discussion, students will answer the following questions.

Focus Questions: 1. Describe the role of the American Colonization Society in the creation of Liberia, and in the movement of African Americans to Liberia. 2. Identify the following people; Martin R. Delaney, Henry McNeal Turner, and John Russwurm. Why are they important to the study of Liberia? 3. What obstacles do you think African American immigrants faced once they arrived in Liberia?

Students will create a timeline of the events that led up to the creation of Liberia. Give each student sentence strips. Have them create their timelines using five-year intervals. Students must include events that relate to the American Colonization Society, the founding of Liberia and people related to both.

When students have completed their timelines they will answer the following question: If you were a free African American during this time period, would you have moved to Liberia from the United States? Why or why not? Explain your answer with details and facts that you have learned.

Lesson 5: Pan African and Back to Africa Movements

Objectives: Students will: • Identify Henry Highland Garnet and Martin R, Delaney • Identify Marcus Garvey and analyze his ideas. • Compare and contrast the ideas of W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey. • Analyze the purpose and accomplishments of the first and second Pan-African Congress.

Materials:
Biographies of Martin R. Delaney available online at www.africawithin.com/bios W.E.B. DuBois available online at www.africawithin.com/bios Henry Highland Garnet available online at www.africawithin.com/bios Marcus Garvey available online at Edward Wilmot Blyden available online at www.africawithin.com/bios/edward_blyden.htm Venn Diagram Graphic Organizer

Activity:

1. Distribute and have students read biographies of Martin Delaney and Henry Highland Garnet, 2. Distribute a Venn diagram to each student and compare and contrast the lives of the two men. 3. Then distribute the biographies of W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey. Students will repeat the process of comparing and contrasting the lives of both men 4 After the students compare and contrast the lives of each man, lead a whole class lesson about the first and second Pan African Congresses.

Have students answer the following questions: 1. Were the ideas of DuBois and Garvey similar to the ideas of Delaney and Garnet? If so, in what ways? If not, how were they different? 2. How did the Pan African Congress affect the lives of African Americans? 3. How did the Pan African Congress affect the lives of Africans? 4. List the successes of the Pan African Congress. 5. List the failures of the Pan African Congress. 6. How did the latter part of DuBois’ life exemplify the ideas of Garvey?

Lesson 6: African Immigrants in Philadelphia

Objectives: Students will: • Identify why African immigrants are coming to Philadelphia • Identify which immigrant groups are settling in Philadelphia and in which neighborhoods they live. • Create a chart of immigrant groups that are living in Philadelphia and where they live. Interview a member of the African immigrant community about their experiences.

Introduction: Note: This activity will take approximately five fifty-minute class periods in order to allow students time to research and debrief the lesson.

Activity: Have students answer the following question. Focus Question: 1. What African countries would you list to describe the largest African immigrant populations in Philadelphia?

This part of the lesson is a group activity. It will be necessary to assign students to cooperative groups. 1. Assign students to be a member of a group of six members (based on a class of thirty students) 2. Each group will be assigned one of the five largest African immigrant groups in Philadelphia. 3. Students will research the country they are assigned and create a travel brochure representing their country. In the brochure they must describe the culture, languages, people, economics, politics, and push factors. 4. Using census bureau data and information from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, students will find out how many people from their assigned country have migrated to Philadelphia within the past 10 years. (Students may use data from 1990-2000, although there may be some more recent available information.) 5. After students determine how many people from their assigned country have migrated to Philadelphia, they will then use census bureau data and information from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to determine in which neighborhoods in Philadelphia their immigrant group are predominantly located. 6. Once students have organized all of their research, as a class the students will plot their immigrant group on a large wall map of the city, using colored pushpins to represent their immigrant group. 7. To debrief the lesson have students reform their groups having one member of each group form a new group. In these new groups, have students lead a discussion in which they answer the following questions. 1. Which is the largest African immigrant group in Philadelphia? 2. Which neighborhoods do they predominantly live in? 3. Why do think these immigrants chose to live in these neighborhoods? 4. What were the pull factors that made them move to Philadelphia? 5. In what ways do you think these African immigrants impact Philadelphia? 6. If you were from the country you researched, would you have moved to Philadelphia? Why or why not? Explain your answer.

After students debrief in small groups, have students share their discussion in a whole class discussion.

Extension Activity: – Invite one member of each of the five largest immigrant groups to the classroom to have a “chat and chew” with the students. Have students prepare questions to ask in advance that relate to culture and push and pull factors.

Note: In Philadelphia, there are numerous resources for students and teachers to study African immigration in the region. Additional trips to the Atwater Kent Museum to study Philadelphia and its neighborhoods, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania to do further research on immigrant communities in Philadelphia, and the University of Pennsylvania to research the African countries and cultures from which the immigrants have migrated.

Standards:

This unit corresponds with Pennsylvania History Standards 8.1,2,3 A, 8.1,2.3 B, 8.1,2,3 C, and 8.1,2,3 D.

The standards for 8.1 are Historical Analysis and Skills Development: A – Chronological Thinking B – Historical Comprehension C – Historical Interpretation D – Historical Research

The standards for 8.2 Pennsylvania History and 8.3 United States History: A – Contributions of Individual Groups B – Documents, Artifacts, and Historical Places C – Influences of Continuity and Change D – Conflict and Cooperation Among Groups

The complete standards are available online at: www.pde.state.pa.us/stateboard_ed/lib/statebord_ed/E.HISTORY-web03.pdf Teacher Resources

Cooperative Group Roles

Facilitator: This student makes sure that the group stays focused on the assigned task. Timekeeper: This student makes sure the group stays within the assigned time limits. Recorder: This student writes all information for the group. Reporter: This student speaks for the group and shares the assignment with the class.

See bibliography for a list of books and websites used in this unit.