Imperialism on trial
What did we do for this project?
For this project we took what we had learned while reading Things Fall Apart and turned it into a mock trial against the other class. In the book the main character was oppressed by the british to a point that he killed himself. My class was the british side and the other class was the main characters village, Umuofia. The trial was the town of Umuofia blaming the europeans for Okonkwo the main character killing himself. I enjoyed this project because first of all it was somewhat a group project with the entire class and I also enjoyed that it was a competition against the other class so it gave me more motivation to do a good job.
What role did you play in the trial?
In this trial the role that I played was a witness. I had the role of the district commissioner on the European side. I had to write a testimony and prepare to be asked questions both by my class and the opposing class. For answering the questions on my side I had questions from my lawyer to read and prepare to answer in a way that would help my side in the trial. During the trial the hard part was not knowing what kind of questions the other side was going to ask. Being prepared to answer them with responses that would hopefully help my side out was difficult because my character was not a very nice guy and did not have respect for the Umuofian people.
How did you strengthen your skills in this project?
I strengthened a few skills during this project. Probably the most important one being public speaking. Although I was only answering questions that my lawyer was asking me I think it was still good practice talking in front of a decent amount of people. Another skill that I improved during this project is just learning the function of a courtroom. Before now I really didn’t know anything about the function of a courtroom except for what I had learned from TV shows. I thought this was really interesting learning how many different people it took for a courtroom to function and each step it takes to complete a case. I also thought it was interesting learning the rules for Objections.
What enduring understanding will you take away from this project?
One thing that will stay with me after this project is an even deeper understanding of how the white men did a lot of damage to africa and African culture. One thing I did not know before this project is that the white men thought they were helping in a way. I always just assumed that the white men simply went to africa to discover more land and to capture slaves. After reading this book and doing research on british colonization of Africa I learned that the white men had taken it upon themselves to help the Africans. Teach them to be civilized, show them a new religion and teach them new ways and new laws. Although this did not work out very well and the african people already had their own ways of living it shows that not all the colonizers truly had bad intentions.
For this project we took what we had learned while reading Things Fall Apart and turned it into a mock trial against the other class. In the book the main character was oppressed by the british to a point that he killed himself. My class was the british side and the other class was the main characters village, Umuofia. The trial was the town of Umuofia blaming the europeans for Okonkwo the main character killing himself. I enjoyed this project because first of all it was somewhat a group project with the entire class and I also enjoyed that it was a competition against the other class so it gave me more motivation to do a good job.
What role did you play in the trial?
In this trial the role that I played was a witness. I had the role of the district commissioner on the European side. I had to write a testimony and prepare to be asked questions both by my class and the opposing class. For answering the questions on my side I had questions from my lawyer to read and prepare to answer in a way that would help my side in the trial. During the trial the hard part was not knowing what kind of questions the other side was going to ask. Being prepared to answer them with responses that would hopefully help my side out was difficult because my character was not a very nice guy and did not have respect for the Umuofian people.
How did you strengthen your skills in this project?
I strengthened a few skills during this project. Probably the most important one being public speaking. Although I was only answering questions that my lawyer was asking me I think it was still good practice talking in front of a decent amount of people. Another skill that I improved during this project is just learning the function of a courtroom. Before now I really didn’t know anything about the function of a courtroom except for what I had learned from TV shows. I thought this was really interesting learning how many different people it took for a courtroom to function and each step it takes to complete a case. I also thought it was interesting learning the rules for Objections.
What enduring understanding will you take away from this project?
One thing that will stay with me after this project is an even deeper understanding of how the white men did a lot of damage to africa and African culture. One thing I did not know before this project is that the white men thought they were helping in a way. I always just assumed that the white men simply went to africa to discover more land and to capture slaves. After reading this book and doing research on british colonization of Africa I learned that the white men had taken it upon themselves to help the Africans. Teach them to be civilized, show them a new religion and teach them new ways and new laws. Although this did not work out very well and the african people already had their own ways of living it shows that not all the colonizers truly had bad intentions.