Education Africa

Nigerian novelist and professor Chinua Achebe was acutely conscious that Western views of Africa were inevitably the views of a culture that assumed itself superior. When confronted by what it took to be an inferior culture, the West identified itself as better - materially, intellectually, even spiritually. Achebe believed that even as original and subtle a work as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness - a novel seen by many as a criticism of colonialism and one that Achebe admired stylistically - reflected these assumptions.

Racism and profit were driving forces in the growth of slavery. The transatlantic trade of enslaved people saw millions of kidnapped Africans sent around the world, many of them to the Americas. Even after the importation of enslaved people was banned in 1808, slavery did not end in the US. Listen to this book to learn about the Middle Passage, the triangular trade, and the people who continued fighting for change after the importation of enslaved people was banned.

"The baobab tree story, which I wrote (the church version) is actually based upon a true story, told by Limakatso Nare, a Lutheran pastor who is currently serving a congregation in Louisiana. When he was growing up in his native Africa, he gathered for Sunday school under the baobab tree. Here he learned the Biblical stories of Noah and the ark, Jonah and the big fish, and the parables of Jesus. His Sunday school experiences inspired my story, Under the Baobab Tree."