BICOL UNIVERSITY College of Education Daraga, Albay

I. Topic The African Worldview Life in Our Village II. Objectives Students are expected to: Be introduced to two prominent African authors with their respective literary works; Gain insights on the literary works of the authors and relate this to African culture; Appreciate the diversity of worldviews in the world through the presentation of the worldviews in Africa. III. Procedure a. Motivation The class should be divided into two teams each of which will be asked to solve a word challenge. The two teams will unscramble words then look for those words in the group of letters on the board. These words are the key words that will introduce them to the two literary works that will be discussed. These words are the following: Worldview Personhood Forbidden b. Introduction Once again English Majors, good afternoon! We have gone a long way in our voyage to Africa and its culture, its literature. But still the richness of Africas world is so vast that we have a lot of inspiring and relevant literary pieces to be found in every corner of this continent. This afternoon sit back and relax as we give you two genuine literary works of Africa. c. Discussion The African Worldview To start with, may I ask you, for three points, of what is your worldview about democracy? enslavement? personhood? Okay. My dear listeners, its my big pleasure to give you a background of a man, a great man, a man of thoughts which turned as a man of action. He is no other than the prime mover of democracy in Africa. Village Busia Hide and Seek Democracy Youth Ghana Markwei Enslavement Elders

Kofi Abrefa Busia Kofi Abrefa Busia (1914-1978) was a Ghanaian political leader and sociologist. His life was filled with several milestones. Becoming the first African student at the University of Oxford and later on occupied a chair at the University of Gold Coast. His subsequent career alternated between, and sometimes combined, scholarship, government, and politics. In 1941 Busia returned to the Gold Coast to begin research on the Ashanti political system. In 1942 he became one of the two first African administrative officers in the colonial service. Finding the experience frustrating, he returned to Oxford, where he received a doctorate.Though he suffered through exile, he triumphantly returned to Ghana and became its established leader as prime minister. There are three particular views of Busia that carry the value of timeliness and timelessness, though most of his views do resound with such elements. But for reasons of easier contextualization, these three views are chosen. These philosophical points are reflective of key concepts such as enslavement, democracy, and personhood. Busia on enslavement: Physical enslavement is tragic enough; but the mental and spiritual bondage that makes people despise their own culture is much worse; for it makes them lose self-respect and with it, faith in themselves. Busia on democracy: All men should be equal before the law because this is just; there should be no discrimination against persons on the ground of race, class, sex, or religion. Busia on personhood: Personhood is the reward for contributing to the community and basis of the individuals moral worth is located in an independent source a common humanity. An important condition for achieving personhood is that the agent has the ability to act on the basis of his history. The worldviews of K.A. Busia, an African, is no stranger to you or me, for regardless of race or culture, we all share a common humanity. And that is, our love for the ideals of freedom, democracy and equality. http://teddyscorner.wordpress.com

After knowing such a great man as Kofi Abrefa Busia, may we introduce you to another remarkable man of Ghana, Africa.

Matei Markwei Matei Markwei is an ordained minister, is a recent graduate of Lin-coln University (Pennsylvania) with a scholarship for further study in theology at Yale University.

Life in Our Village by Matei Markwei is an easily understood, childlike , loosely rhyming poem, that expresses a universal truth about youthful love. Life in Our Village In our village When elders are around, Boys must not look at girls And Girls must not look at boys Because the elder say That is not good. Even when night comes Boys must play separately, Girls must play separately. But humanity is weak So boys and girls meet. The boys play hide and seek And the girls play hide and seek. The boys know where the girls hide And the girls know where the boys hide So in their hide and seek, Boys seek girls Girls seek boys, And each to each sing Songs of love.

Activity African Henyo Todays activity is a game. This game is indeed familiar to all of us. If here in the country we have Pinoy Henyo, let us put some African touch on it. We call it African Henyo. The class will be divided into two teams. Each team will have a pair, one who will guess a word (name, place, dates, etc.) placed on his/her forehead. The other one will give clues by answering YES, NO, and IT CAN BE to his partners questions. The team with the highest points win. Enjoy!

IV. Synthesis African people are no different from us. Our history and our culture are two things in which are worldviews are rooted. Whatever the case maybe, it only leads us to one thing: we share a common humanity. We have ideals of freedom, equality, and democracy. Just like them, when we fail to sustain our reverence and love for our culture,

when we do not hold on to our dignity, when we lose our faith to ourselves, we also put at stake the humanity that our nations plead for.

V. References http://divinedelights.wordpress.com/category/adinkra-symbols/ http://pinterest.com/creativeartsoul/adinkra-symbols-from-ghana/ http://www.healingfaithuganda.org/stories-from-uganda/worldview/ http://teddyscorner.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/quick-thoughts/ http://factreal.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/slavery-history-the-african-complicity-africans-capturedand-sold-other-africans-into-slavery/ www.google.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kofi_Abrefa_Busia

Prepared by: Katrin B. Lutao Norlyn Manzanillo (BSEd II-N1)