Relearning History through the Study of Africa

-Jillian Rubin
In-depth Education Story

"Working to eliminate race, class and disability as predictors of student success," says the Ithaca Central School District Equity Homepage. The Instructional Specialist for Educational Equity of the Ithaca Central School District, Barry Derfel, has been a long time advocate for creating and maintaining equity within Ithaca's schools.



(Barry Derfel, taken from the Ithaca Central School District Equity Homepage).

Derfel serves as a mentor to the teachers within the Ithaca district, guiding them in the right direction toward establishing educational equality. He stresses the use of a multicultural approach in education - exploring all perspectives and giving them equal weight in what and how things are taught.

I guess the students of Ithaca College taking the Introduction to African Diaspora course were not introduced to this multicultural approach to learning history in their schools. The course, taught by Professor Sean Eversley-Bradwell, introduces students to a completely different perspective of American history, African history, and the combination of the two.


(Students of Introduction to African Diaspora actively engaged in Professor Eversley-Bradley's lecture).

The first block of the semester revolved around defining the concepts presented in the readings that were assigned. Such concepts included diaspora, antiquity, African diaspora and an Afrocentric educational approach to history. Every single one of these terms were completely foreign to each student in the class - both black and white.

Christine Estevez, a junior journalism major at Ithaca College and a student enrolled in Professor Eversley-Bradley's course, reflects on her study of history in elementary school:



So why weren't we ever taught this in elementary, middle, or high school? In Molefi Kete Asante's The Afrocentric Idea in Education, he says that it is necessary to put students "within the context of their own cultural references" in order to understand other cultural references. History was written from a white, Eurocentric point of view, excluding non-white students.

Later on in the interview, I had asked Christine if she felt that the history she learned, from elementary school through high school, felt like a waste of time after relearning history in the Introduction to Diaspora class:



But Ithaca is making a valiant effort in attempting to encompass all cultural perspectives within their historical curriculum. Although I was not able to enter one of Ithaca's schools, Christine told me of the diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds present in the Beverly J. Martin school of Ithaca, NY. This school was named after Ithaca's first African-American school administrator. Martin devoted herself to multicultural education and mentoring the idea of diversity. She set a precedent for the idea of equity that Derfel is advocating for currently.

For further information as to what the Ithaca community and Ithaca schools are up to in relation to educational equality, visit the district website , which links to all of the elementary, middle, and high schools within the district. Also, the active Ithaca village gives equity reports of progress of the equity movement within the schools and the advocacy for equality among the community.

I leave you all with a defining symbol of the study of Africa and African-Americans: The relationship of the New World to the Old World:



The Sankofa: One must know one's past in order to look forward (taken from the Sankofa International Championing Female Education Website).