African Imperialism: Creative Historians
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Project Reflection:
This particular project focused on the history of imperialism in Africa and how people perceive African countries without an in-depth knowledge. We also looked at the factors that influenced and even encouraged imperialism. After reading both Things Fall Apart and sections from Half a Yellow Sun while studying Nigeria, we saw the ways that historical events have been translated to the historical fiction format. Our task was to choose a country, research its imperialist past, interview someone about its recent post-colonial history and create a piece of historical fiction that uses the elements of fiction we’ve discussed to bring to life a period of history which was to be accompanied by an art piece representing our stories.
Personally, I believe that my story’s strongest part is my use of an extended metaphor to articulate how the French imperialists view the native people of my country (Madagascar). The quote below highlights my metaphor, which I think works powerfully with my story to create a strong emotional response in my reader.
“A shadow fell over Miora. Terror ran through her body like a hot knife. This was it! She wanted to scream but no sound came out. Her mind screamed at her to run, but she just stood rooted to the spot.
Chloé Jorgenson looked fondly around her garden. She loved all the growing things in it, all the new life. The corn, lettuce, carrots, she loved it all. She looked down and grimaced a little. Well, maybe not everything, she thought as she turned towards her accomplices and pointed towards Miora. The guards behind her proceeded to rush into the house, guns barreling. A plea for mercy and kindness shrieked out of the little shack, followed by silence. Weeds, she didn’t like weeds.”
My weakest literary element throughout my writing process was utilizing the concept of “show not tell.” From the beginning, I had every detailed aspect and description of my story in my head and therefore had trouble transcribing them into writing. In order to overcome the obstacle, I had numerous peers critique my drafts and focus on places where I could add more detail and make the scene more accurate toward my country (see the example below).
Before:
“Miora and her friends had been lazily basking in the sun, just laying back and soaking up the warmth, chit-chatting about their husbands, the uprisings, and how everyone’s children were doing in school.
After:
“Miora and her friends had been basking in the sun as they weaved water-baskets from kalanchoe leaves, chit-chatting about their husbands, the uprisings, and how everyone’s children were doing in school.”
Before:
“Chloé Jorgenson looked fondly around her garden. She loved all the growing things in it, all the new life. The corn, lettuce, carrots, she loved it all. She looked down and grimaced a little. Well, maybe not everything, she thought as she leaned down and reached toward Miora. Weeds, she didn’t like weeds.”
After:
“Chloé Jorgenson looked fondly around her garden. She loved all the growing things in it, all the new life. The corn, lettuce, carrots, she loved it all. She looked down and grimaced a little. Well, maybe not everything, she thought as she turned towards her accomplices and pointed towards Miora. The guards behind her proceeded to rush into the house, guns barreling. A plea for mercy and kindness shrieked out of the little shack, followed by silence. Weeds, she didn’t like weeds.”
The two largest revisions I made to my story were making my extended metaphor more clear and providing more details about the location and the culture as talked about in the paragraph(s) above. In order to revise my metaphor, I sat down with my teacher, Mrs. Sara FD, and we talked about what message I was trying to convey and came up with changes in order to make the metaphor more clear to the reader.
Personally, I believe that my story’s strongest part is my use of an extended metaphor to articulate how the French imperialists view the native people of my country (Madagascar). The quote below highlights my metaphor, which I think works powerfully with my story to create a strong emotional response in my reader.
“A shadow fell over Miora. Terror ran through her body like a hot knife. This was it! She wanted to scream but no sound came out. Her mind screamed at her to run, but she just stood rooted to the spot.
Chloé Jorgenson looked fondly around her garden. She loved all the growing things in it, all the new life. The corn, lettuce, carrots, she loved it all. She looked down and grimaced a little. Well, maybe not everything, she thought as she turned towards her accomplices and pointed towards Miora. The guards behind her proceeded to rush into the house, guns barreling. A plea for mercy and kindness shrieked out of the little shack, followed by silence. Weeds, she didn’t like weeds.”
My weakest literary element throughout my writing process was utilizing the concept of “show not tell.” From the beginning, I had every detailed aspect and description of my story in my head and therefore had trouble transcribing them into writing. In order to overcome the obstacle, I had numerous peers critique my drafts and focus on places where I could add more detail and make the scene more accurate toward my country (see the example below).
Before:
“Miora and her friends had been lazily basking in the sun, just laying back and soaking up the warmth, chit-chatting about their husbands, the uprisings, and how everyone’s children were doing in school.
After:
“Miora and her friends had been basking in the sun as they weaved water-baskets from kalanchoe leaves, chit-chatting about their husbands, the uprisings, and how everyone’s children were doing in school.”
Before:
“Chloé Jorgenson looked fondly around her garden. She loved all the growing things in it, all the new life. The corn, lettuce, carrots, she loved it all. She looked down and grimaced a little. Well, maybe not everything, she thought as she leaned down and reached toward Miora. Weeds, she didn’t like weeds.”
After:
“Chloé Jorgenson looked fondly around her garden. She loved all the growing things in it, all the new life. The corn, lettuce, carrots, she loved it all. She looked down and grimaced a little. Well, maybe not everything, she thought as she turned towards her accomplices and pointed towards Miora. The guards behind her proceeded to rush into the house, guns barreling. A plea for mercy and kindness shrieked out of the little shack, followed by silence. Weeds, she didn’t like weeds.”
The two largest revisions I made to my story were making my extended metaphor more clear and providing more details about the location and the culture as talked about in the paragraph(s) above. In order to revise my metaphor, I sat down with my teacher, Mrs. Sara FD, and we talked about what message I was trying to convey and came up with changes in order to make the metaphor more clear to the reader.
My art piece was a visual representation of an ancient Malagasy ceremony conducted by a medicine man where the spirits of the villages past ancestors were believed to walk among the living. This photograph is of a Malagasy medicine man preparing for a ceremony, which I am using to represent the message of my art piece.