Introduction to East Africa—the Swahili Coast

By Sharon Myran-Marcotte

 

Theme: This lesson will connect the five themes of geography to articles written about Africa. The lesson serves as an introduction and one method to apply the five themes to articles written about regions.

 

Grade level: 9-12

 

Title: Intro to East Africa—The Swahili Coast

 

Overview: In this lesson, students are introduced to the general geography of Africa with a specific focus on east central part of Africa. Using the National Geographic magazine the students will explore the Swahili coast and apply the five themes of geography to an article.

 

Time: two class periods.

 

Subjects: Geography, World Cultures, Language arts, and Social Studies

 

Required Materials:

Goode’s World Atlas

Africa Today map from National Geographic

Three outline maps of east Africa (use East AfricaMap or enlarge the section from an outline map of Africa.)

National Geographic Magazine, October 2001 or http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/10/01/html/ft_20011001.6.html

Video from National Geographic Africa Series—Episode 7: Leopards of Zanzibar http://www.pbs.org/wnet/africa/about/episode7.html

 

Objective: Upon completing this lesson students should be able to:

1.     Examine general geographical information on Africa by using an atlas and class discussion to view climate, vegetation, landforms, wind, and temperature differences.

2.     Identify the countries of east Africa and their individual unique aspects by comparing student drawn maps that look at major cities, climate, and economic status.

3.     Compare east Africa to various regions in the USA.

4.     Connect the five themes of geography to the Swahili coast by reading an article by National Geographic and classifying the themes to the article.

Suggested Procedure:

I. General discussion on geography of Africa with a special focus on East Central.

            1. Goode’s Atlas (19th Edition) page numbers will differ in other editions.

                                    Pages:

            Climate            10-11                                      

            Vegetation       18-19 or 207

            Landforms       206

            Winds              14-15

            Surface Temp. 12       

            Precipitation   207

 

2. Comparison of size of Africa to the US. Use the MAGE links http://mage.macalester.edu/africa/links/links.html for How Big is Africa? poster that shows several continents within the continent of Africa.

 

Teacher Notes for general discussion:

            1. Note the climates of Africa are primarily in the E-W belts

a.     Rainforest at Equator all year

b.     Tropical savanna with wet summer & dry winter

c.     Steppe (dry grassland)

d.     Desert

2. Note that vegetation is also in belts for the most part, but that they are less prominent in the east because of elevation. Most of Africa is grassland.

 

3. Note that mountains and highlands run N-S along the east side of Africa and E-W along the extreme North and South of the continent. Discuss the effect of higher elevation on the climate and people. (This might be a good spot to discuss the Rift Valley http://www.marekinc.com/GeoOverviewGreatRift.html This site has some good general information and maps). This is a map from the above site  č

 

4. Not the precipitation belts—Point out the average rainfall for your area/state as a comparison. Note also that inches are in parenthesis (20-40). Discuss why in areas of 20-60 inches of precipitation in the US the natural vegetation is forest, but in Africa it is grassland with dry forest.

 

5.     What word is a constant for surface temperatures of Africa? (Hot) Why?

 

6.     Winds blow from high-pressure areas to lows—Can you notice a change in winds around Africa in January and July? What directions are the winds blowing along the East and West coast of Africa in January and July?

 

7.     Colonialism (Goode’s Atlas page 206 or http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/timelines/htimeline4.htm or http://www.newberry.org/nl/smith/teachers/notesafrica.html) Discuss the way in which European powers dissected Africa at the Berlin Conference in 1884.

 

 

II. Central East Africa—mapping activity

1.     On an outline map of East Africa (map 1) identify the countries and major cities between the Horn of Africa and South Africa. (Use Africa Today Map from National geographic for reference).

2.     On map 2 draw in the climate boundaries for this region and describe each using the information provided in the atlas.
Question: Which of these climates are also found in the USA?

3.     Return to map 1 and draw in the annual rainfall (precipitation) boundaries using the map in the African section of the atlas (page 207).
Question: What major African city is in the same rainfall group as Minneapolis? (Mombassa) Atlanta? (Dar os Salam) Denver? (Muqhisho).

4.     On map 3, again name the countries. Now place the per capita income of each inside the country. Using the map on page 207 of Goode’s atlas, identify the main economic activity in each country.

 

III. Swahili Coast National Geographic Article from Oct. 2001. P. 105-119 and Video (NGS) series on Africa—Zanzibar (see required materials above for access sites).

 

1.     Text Box: Terms Dhow Bastion Monsoon Tarab Kanzu As a group, go through the article looking at the photographs and reading the captions out loud. Start on page 109 with the map of Swahili Coast and the Afro-Asian Regions. Discuss the Monsoon winds and historic trade routes shown. Discuss unfamiliar terms as you read.

2.     Review the 5 themes of geography with the class and give copies of definitions to each student in the class. Five themes:
www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/education/themes.html

3.     Assign the class (individually or in groups) to read the article and identify examples of each theme they can find in the reading. Have them note the examples and where they are found in the reading. Worksheet for students: five themes.DOC

4.     Review the identified themes in large group class discussion to ensure that all students have identified the themes.

5.     View the NG African video segment on the Zanzibar Region and ask the students to identify any themes that they see. This should reinforce their understanding of the 5 themes. Possibly stop the video and discuss identified themes as it is being shown.

 

IV. Evaluation

1.     Rubric for mapping may be found at this address: http://www.phschool.com/social_studies/index.html You will need to scroll down until you find "alternative assessment methods", then "rubrics", then "map rubric". Or, you may click the end of this sentence to view the rubric, and print it out in PDF format here. You will need Acrobat Reader on your computer.

2.     Students will be evaluated based on their participation in class discussion, on their written responses to the five themes, and how precisely they are able to connect the five themes to the article.

 

Other Useful Web Sites:

http://www.pbs.org/wonders/fr_wn.htm

www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/

http://www.africana.com/Articles/tt_511.htm

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/10/01/html/ft_20011001.6.html

http://iafrica.com