Health & Disease

Covid-19 Articles about Africa

• What Might Africa Teach the World? Covid-19 and Ebola virus Compared 
  In this informational article from African Argument, lessons learned from limiting the spread of Ebola in Africa enlighten the ways the world now can protect itself from Covid-19. Featuring a useful infographic on the history of pandemics, strategies for reducing transmission at the family level are discussed.
• Coronavirus in Africa Tracker
  African Arguments tracks up-to-date numbers of affected cases in each African country, and features a number of informational articles on the impact of the virus on the economy, on food systems, on financial markets, and more. These useful short resources can be used with high school students to connect the study of the features modern African countries (economy, culture, food production, health, politics)  with this new global pandemic.
• History and Geography of the Covid-19 Pandemic, a Lesson Plan from NCSS. This lesson plan that focuses on the global pandemic, focuses on both historical and geographical elements. Starting with a comparison with the Spanish flu in lesson 1, it turns to geographic diffusion in lesson 2 and global political and economic impact. While not directly focused on Africa, teachers can pair it with the resources on Covid-19 in Africa above to analyze the situation of the epidemic on the continent.
• The World After Coronavirus: The Future of Africa. In this 5 min video, hear Professor Woldemariam discuss the future of Africa after Covid-19 from a political science perspective.

Interactive Classroom Activities

• Nidad: The Maize and Malaria Card Game
  This is a strategy and risk game modeled after the Ethiopian agricultural system. The name of the game, Nidad, or malaria, in Amharic, emphasizes the link between maize, mosquitoes, and malaria as found in the Rockefeller Foundation study lead by Boston University Professor James McCann. Instructions, game templates, and playing cards are all easily printable.

Resource Guides

• Exploring Disease in Africa: A Curriculum Guide for High School & College Students
  This curriculum guide undermines biases that imply that Africa is a disease-ridden continent, that help for these diseases only came with the arrival of outsiders, and that disease on the continent continues to a problem that only foreign aid and western ideas can fix. This resource counters these ideas by focusing on the only disease that has been globally eradicated (smallpox); an ancient disease that lingers on today (sleeping sickness); and a disease that has only emerged in the lifetime of your students (AIDS). The resource is available in several parts linked below:
  • Part One: Introduction
  • Part Two: AIDS
  • Part Three: Sleeping Sickness
  • Part Four: Small Pox
  • Part Five: Appendix
  • Part Six: Excerpt: First Footsteps in Africa

• Teaching Ebola: Responses, Ethics, and the Future
  Created by Melissa Graboyes, a University of Oregon professor, this curriculum guide focuses on the 2014 ebola virus outbreak in West Africa. Designed for advanced high school students or first or second-year college students, it contains thoroughly-researched readings, classroom activities, and an annotated list of additional recommended resources. The materials explore the logistical scope of the Ebola outbreak and the countries and people affected as well as the role of Western media in its depiction of Africans during the crisis. This resource may serve as an entry point for exploring other topics related to media bias, global health, and disease.