Gettin' Crazy With Curricula.

As I sat down to craft my unit plan for this final project, I wanted to focus on an issue in African history/society/literature that we didn't get into much in this class. One perspective that we didn't get from the books we read was that of the white African experience. With that in mind, the novel I chose to use in my unit plan is The Syringa Tree, written by Pamela Gien, a white South African native now living in the United States. It tells the story of a young girl named Lizzie whose affluent family clandestinely works against apartheid, at great risk to themselves.

It's easy to demonize all white people in Africa as carpetbagging imperialists or missionizing fanatics. And during the colonial period, this was too often exactly the case. However, there are many people of European descent who are native Africans, and I wanted my unit plan to show instances of different ethnicities working together for issues of social and political justice. To that end, in addition to The Syringa Tree, I also used journalist Donald Woods' nonfiction book Biko, about his friend, murdered anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko. After Biko was killed in police custody, Woods was forced to go into exile after his anti-aparthied stance and support of Biko's cause made it too dangerous to stay in South Africa.

Every good unit plan or lesson encourages students to think for themselves. I hope that by challenging preconceived notions of race and racial conflict in Africa, my unit would, if used in a classroom, do just that.

Jubilee

Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.

For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. (Leviticus 25:9-13)

Every fiftieth year in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the ancient Israelites observed a celebratory year in which indentured servants were freed, the land was allowed to lie fallow, and all debts were forgiven. During the years leading up to the 21st century, a loose coalition of groups from over forty countries formed to work toward the cancellation of third world debt. Called Jubilee 2000, this organization was supported by many famous people whom you have heard of and possibly respect, such as Bono, Quincy Jones, and Muhammad Ali.

After the year 2000, Jubilee 2000 split into various regional and national organizations devoted to third world debt relief; Jubilee USA is the branch in the United States. According to their website, the group is composed of "more than 80 religious denominations and faith communities, human rights, environmental, labor, and community groups working for the definitive cancellation of crushing debts to fight poverty and injustice in Asia, Africa, and Latin America." Sounds alright to me! There are comparable NGOs all over the world, including the Drop The Debt campaign in America's overseas doppelganger, the United Kingdom, and Jubilee South, composed of coalitions from many African, Asian, and Latin American nations.

Side Note: A friend of mine was married to a woman from Australia who once said, after seeing U2 perform, that Australians have a wonderful slang term for people like Bono: "tossbag." I don't know exactly what it means, but I have several unpleasant guesses. Anyway, say what you want about Bono, The Edge, and whoever those other two guys in U2 are, and I'll often agree with you. But he's passionate about social and economic justice around the world, and that's important and honorable. However, in this photograph he looks as if he's auditioning for a supporting role in a low budget vampire movie.