I'm thinking a lot about the texts I use when I begin teaching about Africa in the middle part of the school year. I usually begin with Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah Jones because she begins with a beautiful depiction of African people as smart, happy, and independent. I am realizing though that there is so much more room to include African voices in this section of my instruction. I could easily include more art and texts here.
I love that book, Born on The Water. In fact when I first came across it, I cried and then shared it with a white colleague who I went to graduate school with. She noticed how I hated when we would have to go around and share during our Racial Identities class. I couldn't trace my lineage past my grandmother. My grandmother had 9 children and no one knew her mothers name. Meanwhile, the other White people could trace their lineage to Ireland, Scotland, Others could trace their roots to Bob Marley. I told her to read it and said this is how I felt. I passed that book around to so many colleagues because I was glad someone put the emotions of our story down in a book.
Also, this is great to start with kids of any age.