An Alternative Summer program: A pilot project of BIPOC leaders. A Reason to Believe

The BIPOC community leaders were wondering why our children aren’t enjoying the summer program. Every year, there is low participation among our kids, with some being afraid of their parents and others making excuses to stay at home. This issue stems from non-consideration of the input or perspectives of the youth from leaders who design the summer program. So, how can we fix this?

In early September 2022, leaders from the BIPOC community, including organizations like Cultural Diversity Resources (CDR), Baraza La Afrika (B.L.A), Ps & Qs Etiquette (Ps & Qs), New American Development Agency (NADA), and Minnesota State University of Moorhead (MSUM), gathered to address this issue. They brainstormed ways to design a program that reflects the desires of Horizon Middle School students for change (program link).

We are grateful to MSUM and their DEI Jerad Pigeon for providing meeting space and pledging $10,000. However, money alone is not the solution. The youth themselves are the ones who can create a better program. To encourage participation, a survey was developed, and pizzas were offered as incentives.

The pilot program focused on Moorhead Schools, specifically Horizon Middle School, and targeted New American and BIPOC kids. A diverse group of 7th and 8th graders participated in the survey, answering questions such as their vision for the summer program, what they disliked about traditional programs, and what activities they would like to see included.

The results were amazing. The kids proposed incorporating STEM learning through interactive methods like blocks, as well as learning about African, Black, Indigenous, and Spanish history, world geography, cooking from different cultures, and engaging in activities like basketball, volleyball, and soccer. The Alternative Summer program schedule for 2022-2023 ran for six weeks, from June 12 to July 27, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Baraza La Afrika focused on educating the youth about Africa, introducing them to the continent’s complex history. Teaching this knowledge to middle school kids presents unique challenges but is an essential goal.

History and Geography of Afrika

Cleophace Mukeba representing Baraza La Afrika started this unit by quoting a great political strategist-Richard Haass from his book entitled- The World In Brief Introduction.

From The Preface

In high schools, the situation is even more pronounced, in that many schools do not even

offer basic courses in international relations or global issues. My purpose is not to

explain how all this came to be, although I would say high schools have increasingly

given short shrift to civics and social studies because of resource limitations and

pressures to satisfy mandates related to science, technology, engineering, and

mathematics, also known as STEM. Another explanation is the difficult in reaching

agreement as o what should be taught (p. XVI).

And then there is the fact that approximately one-third of Americans who graduate from

high school do not attend any college and that only some 40 percent who do achieve a

degree. All this, however, is a conversation for another day. What matters here and now

is that an increasing number of young people in the United States and elsewhere are

essentially uninformed about the world they are entering (p. XVII).

My aim in this book is to provide the basics of what you need to know about the world, to

make you more globally literate. “Global literacy” as used here is not about the number

of people around the world able to read. (In case you are interested, though, it turns out

that some 85 percent of adults worldwide are able to read, a number that sounds better

that it is because it still means 750 million men and women cannot.) Rather, global

literacy for our purposes has everything to do with how much (or little) people know

about and understand the world. Global literacy is essential, because we live in a time in

which what goes on outside a country matters a great deal. Boarders are not

impermeable. The United States is bordered by two oceans, but oceans are not moats.

For better and for worse, the so-called Vegas rules-what happens there says there-does.

Not apply in today’s global world (p.XVIII).

The Afrika unit began with a knowledge test on the continent. The presenter provided a map of Afrika without country names, and students had to correctly identify and place the countries. It was impressive to see a few students perform exceptionally well, and Baraza was proud of their achievement.

To understand the history of the Afrikan continent, the instructor introduced how the scramble started in the 11th century when Arabs dominated sub-Saharan Afrika. Then, in the 1400s, Portuguese exploration extended westward through Central Afrika. The scramble for Afrika took place in 1884-85, followed by a period of colonization by European powers such as France, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Italy. Afrikan countries gained independence between 1956 and 1965. The course also covered the current crisis in the great lakes region of Afrika, known as the First Afrikan World War, which included the Rwandan genocide and a prolonged crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in the loss of millions of lives and a large portion of internally displaced people. To help students understand this history, The instructor asked about the different languages spoken in their classrooms, illustrating the impact of the crisis and the presence of children from various parts of the Afrikan continent.

The geography component highlighted the size of the continent. Using a second map, the instructor compared the size of Afrika to the United States, Canada, the European Union, and China. Students learned about the 54 countries that make up the continent, including their capital cities. Afrika is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Indian Ocean to the east. The continent is home to numerous rivers and lakes, such as Lake Tanganyika in Eastern Congo, which spans four countries (Zambia, Burundi, Tanzania, and the DR Congo) and ranks as the second largest lake in Afrika and the fifth largest in the world. Students also learned about longitude, latitude, altitude, the Equator Line, and the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. It was essential to emphasize that whenever the continent of Afrika is mentioned, the significant island of Madagascar should also be acknowledged, as it is an integral part of Afrika.

This was a valuable opportunity to share knowledge with our children, and hope that Baraza La Afrika contributed to a successful campaign in training and modeling future global leaders.