Transcript Bananas in Africa

Bananas in Africa
Constructing & Evaluating Arguments
SWBAT:
Develop arguments to explain the spread of food crops in Africa
in the first millennium CE.
Explore connections among regions and themes, using
foursquare organizer.
Show the existence of other exchanges parallel to the
Columbian Exchange
Show economic connections among peoples all across the
African continent, including in areas without large states.
Explanation:
 The content of this lesson focuses on an
aspect of agricultural exchange not
commonly discussed in detail in world
history textbooks; however, it is potentially
important for determining how African
societies were connected to each other and
to other parts of the world in the
Foundations era.
 Bananas (and plantains) arrived on the
Indian Ocean coast of Africa from
Southeast Asia and spread through much of
sub-Saharan Africa, especially during the
first millennium CE.
Task #1:
 Working individually, study Handout
1A, including the map, and acquaint
yourself with the history of the spread
of the banana throughout Africa
 Read, code, underline vocab, etc.
 You have 10-15 minutes!
Task #2:
 Now that you are familiar with the
information on bananas in first-millennium
Africa, begin your analysis using your
foursquare, Handout A2.
 In the center of your foursquare, write the
main point: that bananas spread from
the Indian Ocean coast to many parts
of sub-Saharan Africa in the course of
the period from the year 1 to the year
1000 CE.
 Politics, economy, culture, and biology
appear in the four corners of the graphic-a
completed sample of a foursquare is
provided on the last page of your packet.
More on the foursquare…
 In the space provided between the center
and each of the four sides, list your ideas
about:
 How the movement of bananas affected politics,
the economy, culture, and biological patterns;
 How politics, the economy, culture, and biology
each affected the spread of banana cultivation
You may use text, arrows, or other graphic devices
to represent the relationships you envision.
You have 15-20 minutes!
Task #3:
 Use your completed foursquare to construct
a one-sentence historical argument for
each of the following points on a separate
sheet of paper:
 Show how bananas might have spread across
the African continent.
 Argue that the spread of bananas shows African
participation in world history processes.
 Argue that this change in agriculture led to
changes in the size and location of population.
 Argue that this change in technology of
agriculture led to changes in African social
structure.
Task #4:
 To conclude your work, you should select
the best of your arguments and summarize
it in 3 sentences, written on the same
sheet:
 The statement of the argument
 The side of the foursquare on which the
argument is centered
 The connections among sections of the
foursquare indicated in the argument (e.g.,
politics OR culture at the local or global level)
Task #5:
 Review: Time to share! How does
your foursquare reveal your
arguments?
 What will it take to prove or disprove
the arguments?
 Submit your foursquare and
argument sheets to the inbox for your
class 