The Dark Child (The African Child) Lesson Plan

As a nonfiction memoir, The Dark Child portrays Camara Laye's life in Guinea growing up, when the country was still a colony of France. It would be wise to discuss the often negative impact of colonization before reading the book, which includes things like oppression, white supremacist views, and human rights violations in general. While these issues don't appear directly in the book, they nevertheless impact Camara's life. Camara also depicts the animistic views and other cultural practices (ritual circumcision, polygamy) that Western readers may not agree with. Reinforce that readers keep an open mind and understand that just because certain cultural practices and beliefs are...