I could not be more in love with the work that we are doing in this class. As I'd previously shared, we are doing a unit on religions in the AfroFrancophonie.
I'm struggling so much with how to cut the videos down, because I genuinely want to share it all. But in this particular lesson we:
Reviewed the results from our survey we'd previously sent out to the school community to see which religions and religious beliefs are represented here. As we received more responses, we asked which numbers went up, which numbers went down, and how any of those results compared to our predictions.
Reviewed a quick Map Talk we'd done on our area, and then on Le Bénin.
Introduced the concept of animism and the origins of le Vodoun among the Fon people in Bénin.
Drew connections between meditation and other mindfulness and spiritual practices.
Compared the Vodoun "trance" with behaviors and practices we see among Black American Christian churches.
Talked about the film "The Princess and the Frog," and the depiction of Vodoun practices in the movie...which takes place in New Orleans...which led us to discuss les Créoles, who are descendants of Haitian refugees (the place often associated with Vodoun), and finally that Haitians are descendants of West Africans.
As I listen back, I realize that I made a decent amount of pronunciation and grammar errors during the lesson..but it is what it is. I'm sincerely so proud of the work we are doing in this and other classes.
The 5 Cs???
Communication...check
Cultures....check
Connections....check
Comparisons...check
Communities...check
We're able to do ALL of this linguistic stuff, while centering Black and Brown people. Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy the lesson! Please let me know what you think.