Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. With the collapse of many of the world’s empires in the mid-20th century, most African colonies declared their independence. Consider the geopolitical context during this era. Why did collapsing empires allow former colonies to become independent during this time? What were the new dynamics between newly independent societies and their former colonizers? Share relevant examples from this era.

Teaching Suggestion: This question orients students with the geopolitical context of colonialism and postcolonialism in the mid-20th century. At the end of World War II (WWII), the combination of the financial stress of the colonizers with the rise of the self-determination ideology in the colonized regions resulted in the European nations of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and the UK relinquishing their control of colonies. As a result, many African nations declared their independence between 1945 to 1965. While these newly formed countries were no longer formally attached to their colonizers, many maintained special relationships with their metropoles involving political, economic, and educational ties.

These new countries were considered a part of the “Third World,” or a sphere of the world that was not aligned with either the “First World” capitalist countries (e.