Accessible Africa : Teaching and Learning About an Unfamiliar Past

Accessible Africa equips educators with the knowledge and strategies to confidently teach Africa’s rich and complex history beyond the narrow lens of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, filling a critical gap in secondary education.

Accessible Africa: Teaching and Learning About an Unfamiliar Pastprovides educators ranging from middle school to high school an accessible account of the major developments in African history, paired with pedagogical strategies and approaches related to teaching the continent’s past. Based on decades of teaching African history at the collegiate and high school levels, it became clear to Cleveland and Panzer that most students had learned very little about Africa – beyond the Transatlantic Slave Trade – prior to arriving in their classrooms. This absence is not surprising, as educators readily admit that they do not feel comfortable teaching about Africa because they feel both unqualified and uninformed. Accessible Africa addresses these issues by providing both accessible content and associated teaching strategies related toroughly the past 5,000 years of African history, up to and including contemporary developments on the continent. Major historical themes include trade routes, slave trades, imperialism and colonialism, decolonization, and modern Africa.