Mending the Map: Grade 7 Humanities Disproves Hegel

From Brae Sullivan, Esteban Monge, and Jean-Philippe Chemineau, Middle School Humanities teachers:

"What we properly understand of Africa is something isolated and without history; still completely submerged in the natural spirit..." — George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 

The 19th-century philosopher G.W.F. Hegel once famously claimed that Africa lacked a rich, interconnected history prior to European colonization — but our Grade 7 Humanities students are here to prove him completely wrong! 

For their final project of the year, students across our Spanish, French, and English Humanities classes put a full year of historical research to the test. Their objective was to critique a 1897 colonial map of Africa by Samuel Rawson Gardiner and physically mend it to reflect the continent's true, vibrant history.

Relying on concrete evidence and primary sources, students used intentional design choices to showcase the complexity of pre-colonial African civilizations. For instance, students integrated sand and salt textures to represent the highly organized Trans-Saharan trade routes, applied gold accents to highlight the immense wealth and scholarship of empires like Mali, and used physical elevation and layers to give prominence to the governance systems and oral traditions that thrived long before colonization.

Spanning all the Humanities classes, our Grade 7 historians approached this work from a uniquely global perspective. Whether analyzing documents in French, Spanish, or English, they engaged in the vital work of deconstructing colonial narratives. By layering historical truth over a flawed 1897 map, our students beautifully demonstrated that Africa's history is undeniable, rich, and deeply complex — and we couldn't be prouder of their hard work and creativity!