Bantu Place Names In Alabama

LESSON PLAN: BANTU PLACE NAMES IN ALABAMA

SUBJECT: SOCIAL STUDIES BANTU PLACE NAMES IN ALABAMA

CONTENT OBJECTIVES:

Students will be able to:

Identity the surviving place names of the Bantu in Alabama.
Recognize that the Bantu place names describe human experience, emotion, and action.
Create their own place names using the school environment.
Discuss the story of Cudjoe and the Africans on the last ship the Clothilde, who founded Africa Town U.S.A. in Pritchard, Alabama.
Students will learn about the Clothilde and the town these Africans established.
Today in Africa Town there is a statue of Cudjoe, who was a member of the Clothilde. Students will learn some African names Cudjoe may have been responsible for.

MATERIALS:

Chalk
Book: From Slave Ship to Freedom Road by Julius Lester (1998, Puffin Books).
Large Map of African Slave Trade, which delineates from where the enslaved Africans originated.
Large Map of Alabama, containing the locations of the Bantu Place names
Butcher paper
Pencils
Crayons
Markers
Tape (to adhere group school maps to wall)
Matching worksheets
Word search worksheets
Handout of Alabama map (to be colored)

[Write on Board] TODAY WE WILL LEARN A BOUT BANTU PLACE NAMES IN ALABAMA BY VISING THE SLAVERY WEBSITE [www.slaveryinamerica.org]:

1. Listening to the story From Slave ship to Freedom Road by Julius Lester.

2. Discussing origins and meanings of the place names.

3. In groups, giving a place name to a location in school by using feelings, emotions, and thoughts.

PROCEDURE:

1. Read the story.

2. Display African Slave Trade Map.

3. Display the Map of Alabama, relating it to the African Slave Trade Map.

4. Show Bantu place names on the Alabama Map.

5. Discuss how the Bantu place names originated from feelings and still remain as cities, towns such as Africa Town, and rivers today.

6. Give example of the place name Amabato to describe the meaning of the word, and related it to the story. “Lie on top of each other; be piled up; packed one on top of the other; bodies crowded together (as in the hold of a slave ship).”

7. Have children volunteer their feelings about certain places they remember.

8. Break into groups and have students pick a place (location) in the school and have them share their feelings about it.

9. Have each group make a place name for their location.

10. Have groups draw their own map of the school and locate their place name.

11. Allow groups to share their maps with the class.

12. Have students imagine that they are Cudjoe, and that they are starting their own town and giving places names.