Teaching Africa is a project developed through collaboration between Casa África, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), and the Government of the Canary Islands. It has received support from Binter, the Ramón Areces Foundation, the University Foundation of Las Palmas (FULP), and the University Center for International Cooperation and Development (CUCID), as well as the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (Senegal).
Since 2016, the project has also enjoyed crucial support from the Gran Canaria Island Council, through its International Solidarity Service, and is included within the Gran Canaria Solidaria Program.
This educational initiative arose from the evident lack of knowledge about Africa among Spanish teenagers, following previous studies on secondary school students’ perceptions of Africa and its presence in textbooks.
Africa is the closest physical reality to the Canary Islands, yet ignorance and stereotypes are the most common traits that shape our perception of the continent. A negative view of what happens there is almost the only one that exists, especially among students, to the point that the diversity of situations is a feature that is barely considered, as are the positive advances that African societies have made in many areas.
To address this deficiency, this project has created the teaching unit “Teaching Africa,” designed for secondary school students, which aims to present a pluralistic and diverse Africa that, without hiding its problems, emphasizes its positive progress.
The teaching unit consists of a Student Book and a Teacher’s Guide on CD. The Student Book contains short texts, images, graphs, data tables, etc., that encourage reflection through a series of activities divided into eight themes:
- Theme 1 – Plural Africa, Diverse Africa
- Theme 2 – Space and Nation in Africa: History of African Peoples
- Theme 3 – Africa in the World or the World in Africa?
- Theme 4 – The Population of Africa
- Theme 5 – African Culture
- Theme 6 – African Cities
- Theme 7 – African Families
- Theme 8 – Some Challenges Facing Africa
Many schools in the Canary Islands have joined the School Project since its launch during the 2013/2014 academic year by the Directorate General for Educational Planning, Innovation, and Promotion of the Canary Islands Government’s Department of Education. The project aims to implement the content of the Teaching Unit “Teaching Africa in Public Secondary Schools.”
The work carried out by the students within the framework of this project has resulted in the creation of a series of materials (murals, photographs, drawings, comics, texts, audiovisual materials, etc.) that make up these annual exhibitions housed at Casa África in its Sahel room and which can be visited from Monday to Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., until April 30, 2027.
