|
When studies come to life
A group of pupils and teachers from Hull visited Ghana to see how the country was affected by the slave trade.
For many pupils in Hull, learning about William Wilberforce and his role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade is a cornerstone of the school curriculum.
The subject has gained extra focus this year as the city marks the 200-year commemoration since Wilberforce passed an Act of Parliament to ban the trade.
But a group of pupils and teachers from four city schools took their classroom work a huge step further by visiting Ghana, an east African country that had been directly affected by slavery.
It brought their studies to life while giving them a taste of contemporary African life and culture.
Ten pupils and eight staff from Southcoates and Westcott primary schools, and David Lister and Malet Lambert secondary schools, made the trip earlier this summer.
Ambassadors for the city
“The pupils had a fabulous time and absorbed everything they saw,” says Ted Chamberlain, head teacher of Southcoates Primary School in east Hull. “It was an experience that I have no doubt will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
“They also showed respect to the places they went and the people they met and were great ambassadors for Hull.”
The Hull schools’ party visited the Ghana International School where they met Ghanian pupils and teachers, sat in on assembly, and took part in geography, history, biology and French lessons.
Then they had a tour around the country’s capital city, Accra, where they went shopping for bargains at a local market and visited sights such as the mausoleum of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, who led the country to independence from British colonial rule.
The tour continued with a look around the Elmina Slave Fort – a disturbing and haunting place set amid the picture-postcard scenery of the Ghanian coastline. It was where men, women and children were held by force before being loaded onto ships for a life of slavery overseas.
“For many of us who made the trip, the highlight was looking around the slave fort,” adds Mr Chamberlain.
“It was a place of no return for countless African people. We were very humbled and moved by what we saw and the whole experience really complemented our ongoing work in school.”
But it wasn’t all work as the pupils and teachers made time to visit Kakum National Park where they crossed rope bridges suspended above the Ghanian jungle below.
The trip was made at no expense to the pupils or their families as a grant from Hull City Council and fundraising carried out by the schools covered all travelling and accommodation expenses.
In our own words …
“I have mixed emotions about Ghana. It was a wonderful place to see but there is poverty which brought a tear to my eye - in fact it did to everyone's. The experience was just out of this world.”
Kieran McCloud (14) from David Lister School
“We visited a church in Accra where 8,000 people gathered for the Sunday service. When we walked in and there was loud music booming and a group of people were on stage singing and rejoicing. It was a brilliant sight and very different to our churches in England.”
Gareth Westmoreland (14) from David Lister School
“As soon as I entered the slave castle my emotions changed from enjoyment to sadness - even though slaves have not been kept there for two hundred years. I felt proud that the man who abolished the trade came from Hull.”
Katie Smith (14) from David Lister School
|
