The Heart of the Matter Lesson Plan

Looking for Wakanda

Kind of Activity:

Mixed Media

Objective:

Comparing the novel to a contemporary text

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.1

Structure:

The Heart of the Matter is, for its time, a relatively anti-colonialist work. That is, it assumes that the British in Africa were miserable and ill-suited to their jobs. However, the book never examines what the unnamed African country would look like if the British had never invaded and ruled. But many students will have recently seen a new, popular anti-colonialist film: Black Panther, which involves a fictional advanced African country called Wakanda that has flourished by avoiding contact...