3. What was the essay writer’s personal connection to the Year of Africa? How did he or she draw meaning from the events of 1960? How did those events affect the writer and the writer’s family?
4. What political or cultural impact did the Year of Africa have on particular African countries or the continent as a whole, according to Ms. Getachew or the essay writer?
5. What was the impact of colonialism on Africa, according to Ms. Getachew or the essay writer? How are the effects of colonialism still present on the continent?
6. What is the legacy of the Year of Africa for the continent and the world? What can we learn on its 60th anniversary?
Going Further
Choose one of the following activities.
1) Analyze and respond to a photo featured in the article.
David Adjaye, a Ghanaian-British architect and the designer of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, wrote in his essay:
It is fairly easy to describe what the eye sees, but it is the invisible aspects of a photograph that can transform our understanding of a person, a place and a moment in time. Photos show us how people in the past saw their world, and they help us imagine the future.
Photographs contain a diverse set of particulars, each of which can arouse new interpretations and themes. Photography arrived in Africa in the middle of the 19th century, when the medium was still experimental. The pictures here, taken a century later, hold fragments and memories of some of the most crucial events in the continent’s recent history.
They understatedly capture moments when countries were gaining independence. While the images themselves may be familiar or expected, it is their hidden layers that are the most captivating. They are meaningful time capsules of early nation-building — the making of monuments, buildings and infrastructure.
Such sights influenced future generations’ thinking about how to rebuild the continent in the context of emerging African modernity — continually documenting, and in turn constructing, history in a dynamic fashion.
Look through the photographs in the article. Select one and consider some of the following questions from our Critiquing a Photograph worksheet.
What is the subject of this image? What is the setting?
What draws you to this image? How does it engage the viewer?
What feeling or feelings does it evoke? What ideas or themes does it suggest? What mood or tone does it set?
What story does the image tell about the Year of Africa? What does it “show us about how people in the past saw their world” and how might it “help us imagine the future”?
2) Research an aspect of the Year of Africa through a deeper look at one of the 17 countries that gained independence in 1960.
In an interview in Times Insider, Veronica Chambers, the editor of “A Continent Remade,” describes her goals in compiling the ambitious article and notes:
What I hope that readers will take from it is a sense of possibility on the continent that I believe continues to this day. A sense of beauty, a sense of community. And I hope, interest: I hope they will continue to read some of the writers that we have. It’s really hard to capture a continent, and 17 countries and 50 pages, but I hope that it whets readers’ appetites for more.
The article and its many essays only scratch the surface of an incredibly complex year and the many complexities of the 17 countries they feature. Among the many rich areas for further research topics and themes and exploration, here are two to help you dig deeper.
Cultural legacy of the Year of Africa then and now: If you’re interested in the cultural ideas, themes and movements discussed in the essay, you might research one of the artists cited in the article, such as the Malian photographer Malick Sidibé, or Sanlé Sory of Burkina Faso; investigate Nollywood, Nigeria’s film industry, which generates about 2,500 movies a year, making it the second-biggest producer in the world; or learn more about trends in television, street art or music in Senegal.
The legacy of colonialism in Africa and a continuing struggle for full independence: The novelist Imbolo Mbue writes in her essay:
But from whom are we independent?
What good is independence in the age of neocolonialism? Europe still plays the flute and our government dances. We owe billions to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Western nonprofits arrive at a steady speed to improve our education and health care systems. Chinese interests have descended on our resources, taking away the livelihoods of many.
If you are interested in the social and political themes raised in the article, you might want to research contemporary efforts to pay off debts in the countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad; reclaim artistic treasures stolen by Europe during the colonial era in Nigeria and Benin; gain control over colonial-era currency in former French-controlled countries like Ivory Coast, Niger and Togo; and protect lands and resources in the Central African Republic.
For additional New York Times resources, visit the Times Topic page for Africa, which includes up-to-date news on the continent, as well as links to archived articles.
Related Learning Network Resources:
Lesson Plan | Unexpected Africa: Investigating New Ways to Think About the Continent
