Liberation, Activism, and the Power of the Media Resources

Resources from the Kansas African Studies Center

Featured workshop book:

• Hector: A Boy, a Protest, and the Photograph that Changed Apartheid by Adrienne Wright. Based on the story of Hector Pieterson, this children’s book recounts heartbreaking student protests in 1976 that woke up the world and helped end apartheid in South Africa.

South African Resources:

Online News Sources:

1. Daily Maverick
2. Mail & Guardian
3. The Sowetan
4. IOL
5. Adrienne Wright: Hector: A Boy, a Protest, and the Photograph that Changed Apartheid
6. Library of Congress
7. Getty Images: Free, as long as they are embedded in your website or blog
8. How to find copyright-free images: Google Image Search
9. Britannica Image Quest (subscription database)
10. The Story Behind Sam Nzima's Photograph of Hector Pieterson 
11. South Africa History Online — Hector Pieterson
12. Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum
13. Britannica Kids — Hector Pieterson
14. Forty years after the Soweto massacre South Africas students can still learn from it
15. The Afrikaans Medium Decree
16. Hector Classroom Guide (.pdf) (The classroom guide is available by request. Please send an email to Charlotte Kukundakwe at kasc@ku.edu). 
17. Graphic organizer Hector photo handout (pdf) (The graphic organizer document is available by request. Please send an email to Charlotte Kukundakwe at kasc@ku.edu). 
18. Graphic organizer blank for photo handout (pdf) (The blank organizer is available by request. Please send an email to Charlotte Kukundakwe at kasc@ku.edu). 
19. Children's Africana Book Awards (CABA)
20. World Area Books Award
21. Association for Library Service to Children: Recommended Books  

Films:

1. Facing the Truth
2. Yesterday
3. Tsotsi
4. Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony
5. Catch a Fire
6. Dry White Season
7. Cry, the Beloved Country
8. The Power of One

Some of these films are available to anyone with a Kansas library card at KU’s EGARC

Books:

1. The Country of My Skull, by Antjie Krog
2. A Human Being Died that Night: A South African Story of Forgiveness, by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
3. Long Walk to Freedom, by Nelson Mandela
4. We are the Poors, by Ashwin Desai
5. Diepsloot, Anton Harbor
6. Hannah Britton, Jennifer Fish, and Sheila Meintjes: Women’s Activism in South Africa: Working Across Divides (The article is free on KU ScholarWorks)
7. Women’s Organizations and Democracy in South Africa: Contesting Authority, by Shireen Hassim
8. Respectable Mothers, Tough Men, and Good Daughters, by Elaine Salo
9. 117 Days, Ruth First
10. Call Me Woman, Ellen Kuzwayo
11. Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane        
12. Strikes Have Followed Me All of My Life by Emma Mashinini
13. I Write What I Like, by Steve Biko
14. Anything by Mamphela Ramphele, Alex Boraine, or Desmond Tutu
15. Unspeakable — Carole Boston Weatherford & Floyd Cooper
16. March Trilogy — John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell
17. Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation — Duncan Tonatiuh
18. The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage: The Fight for Interracial Marriage — Selina Alko & Sean Qualls
19. Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis — Jabari Asim & E.B. Lewis
20. A Plan for the People: Nelson Mandela’s Hope for His Nation — Lindsey McDivitt & Charly Palmer
21. When Stars are Scattered Victoria Jamieson & co-written with Omar Mohamed
22. Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story — Kevin Maillard & Juana Martinez-Neal
23. We Are Water Protectors — Carole Lindstrom & Michaela Goade

Fiction:

1. And They Didn’t Die, by Lauretta Ngcobo
2. Cry, The Beloved Country, by Alan Paton
3. The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay
4. Welcome to Our Hillbrow, Phaswane Mpe
5. Nervous Conditions, by Tsitsi Dangarembga – set in colonial Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), relevant for
6. understanding colonization and white settler societies
7. Anything by Gcina Mhlophe, Zakes Mda, Zoe Wicomb, Nadine Gordimer, or J.M. Coetzee

Global Black Lives Matter – Web Resources and News Articles:

1. How George Floyd's death reignited a worldwide movement: A German perspective on protests worldwide.
2. The Global Fight for Black Lives: “America didn't invent racism, but we do have a particularly egregious system of it woven into our country's DNA. Repeated instances of flagrant injustice within our borders have galvanized a new civil rights movement here—and around the world. These are just some of the women leading the fight in their part of the globe.”
3. Black Lives Matter Official Website: “The official #BlackLivesMatter Global Network builds power to bring justice, healing, and freedom to Black people across the globe.”
4. Perspective of teen who took video of George Floyd’s killing: Washington Post, May 25, 2021.
5. A New York Times series on George Floyd and America, one year after his death
6. A Police Shooting in Hawaii Has South Africans Demanding Justice
7. ‘Coloured Lives Matter’: A South African Police Shooting

Resources from the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies

Book Recommendations:

1. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. Fifteen-year-old Lina is a Lithuanian girl living an ordinary life – until Soviet officers invade her home and tear her family apart. Separated from their father, Lina and her mother and brother are sent to a Siberian work camp. Lina finds solace in her art, documenting these events by drawing. Will strength, love, and hope be enough for Lina and her family to survive? An international bestseller, a #1 New York Times bestseller and a film Ashes in the Snow (ages 12-17 – Lithuania).
2. Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin. The moving story of Sasha, a ten-year-old boy in Stalin-era Moscow, a loyal communist and soon-to-be Youth Pioneer, whose father is arrested by the secret police. Sasha must grapple with losing his parents, becoming homeless, and his conscience – namely, whether to continue to be loyal to Stalin. This novel won multiple awards and is great for a Cold War/Russia social studies or language arts unit (for ages 9 and up – Russia).  For free lesson plans and student handouts, visit the Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies.
3. The Cats in Krasinski Square by Karen Hesse. Newbery medalist Karen Hesse tells a harrowing, true account of a Jewish girl’s involvement in the Resistance during WWII and our passionate will to survive (for ages 7-10 – Poland).
4. KU Cold War in the Heartland Website - A web resource for those interested in discovering the sometimes hidden or forgotten history of this global conflict in the region and learning about the ways the Cold War’s legacies remain relevant today. This web resource brings together primary source documents, landscape case studies, and oral history interviews. It also provides tools for teachers and students to learn more, with guided discussions, activities, and an interactive timeline. Far from being confined to the margins, the Midwest region occupied a central place in the Cold War, and the global conflict had a profound impact on the people, environment, economy, and culture of the heartland.  The 1983 television film “The Day After” (watched by 100 million views and focusing on the residents of Lawrence, Kansas, Kansas City, MO and surrounding farms) dismissed the idea that America’s “heartland” might be spared a nuclear attack because of its distance from the capital and the coasts. In reality, few places were as profoundly shaped by the global trends and conflict of the Cold War as the Midwestern United States.
5. The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming. Read the riveting story of the Russian Revolution as it unfolded – the downfall and murder of the Romanovs – Russia’s last royal family, the plight of Russia’s peasants and their eventual uprising, and the rise of the Bolsheviks to power. Photographs and compelling primary-source material bring it all to life (ages 12-17 – Russia). This superb history won over 20 awards! Find the Educator Guide on the author’s website.
6. My Favorite War, a personal, animated documentary about the director’s childhood memories growing up in Cold War Soviet Latvia. On finding the bones of a German soldier in her sandbox, Ilze wonders what is buried beneath the authoritarian lies and propaganda around her. She sets off on a voyage of discovery. A story from the recent past that resonates with our lives today. “My Favorite War” uses animation as a memoir of finding freedom. Watch the trailer.
7. Flowers for Sarajevo by John McCutcheon. Young Drasko is happy working with his father in the Sarajevo market. When war comes, Drasko must run the family flower stand alone. When the bakery is bombed, twenty-two people are killed. A cellist comes every day for 22 days and plays the most heartbreaking music, to remember each victim of the bombing. Inspired by the music, Drasko is inspired to help make Sarajevo beautiful again. Based on real events of the Bosnian war. The story includes the CD in which Vedran Smailović performs the melody that he played to honor those who died in the Sarajevo mortar blast.
8. King Matt the First  by Janusz Korczak. Young Matt was just ten-years-old when he became king. When three kings declare war on his kingdom, he decides to fight them and, although not an adult and perhaps because of this, he manages to make peace using his good nature and human compassion. One of the most beloved works of 20th century literature. (ages 10-13 – Poland).
9. A Light in the Darkness: Janusz Korczak, His Orphans, and the Holocaust by Albert Marrin. The moving story of Janusz Korczak, the heroic Polish Jewish doctor who devoted his life to children, perishing with them in the Holocaust. Korczak was a man ahead of his time, whose work ultimately became the basis for the U.N. Declaration of the Rights of the Child (ages 12-17 – Poland). 
10. Multicultural and Social Justice Books - Curated Booklists Teaching for Change has carefully selected the best multicultural and social justice books for children, teens, and educators on 70+ topics.
11. I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems from the Terezin Concentration Camp, Czechoslovakia 1942-1944 by Hana Volavkova, editor. Afterword by Vaclav Havel, famous Czech playwright and president. 15,000 children passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp and fewer than 100 survived. In these poems and pictures, we see the misery of these children, as well as their hopes, fears, and courage (ages 10-13).

Pairing the K-12 Common Core Exemplar List with Global & International Literature:

1. The Globalizing the Common Core Exemplar List, created by the Worlds of Words (WOW) International Children’s and Adolescent Literature Library, provides suggested pairings of fiction and nonfiction global literature with the CCSS exemplar list (which is available upon request to Charlotte Kukundakwe at kasc@ku.edu) and Pairing the K–12 Common Core Exemplar List with Global and International Literature.
2. Playing a Part by Daria Wilke. The first young adult novel translated from Russian, a brave coming-out, coming-of-age story. Grisha adores everything about the Moscow puppet theater where his parents work, but life outside the theater is not so wonderful. Life gets worse when Grisha learns that Sam, his favorite actor and mentor, is moving. How Grisha overcomes these trials and writes himself a new role in his own story is heartfelt, courageous, and hopeful. (ages 14-18 – Russia).
3. The Raven’s Children by Yulia Yakovleva. Based on the true story of the author’s family, this novel takes place in Russia in 1938, a time of great terror. A young boy desperately seeks his family after they mysteriously disappear, taken by “The Raven.” He decides to hunt down the Raven, finding help in the most unexpected places but facing more danger than he has ever known. (ages 9 and up – Russia).
4. The Safest Lie by Angela Cerrito. An inspiring account of nine-year old Anna Bauman, one of thousands of Jewish children rescued from the Warsaw, Poland ghetto. The novel’s inspiration is based on the life of Irena Sendler, who rescued more than 2,500 children from the Warsaw ghetto during World War II (ages 9 and up – Poland). For educator guide and lessons/activities, go to: Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies and Angela Cerrito educator guide (the Angela Cerrito guide is available by request. Please email Charlotte Kukundakwe at kasc@ku.edu).
5. Sean’s Russia Blog and Podcast - Sean’s Russia Blog, an invaluable web source that features interviews with writers, filmmakers, academics, and policy figures from Russia, the United States, and elsewhere, is hosted by Sean Guillory (University of Pittsburgh) and provides hour-long interviews that have ranged from Environmental Activism in Russia to the Early Russian Empire. Sean has explored a broad range of political topics in such podcasts as “The Russian Propaganda Machine and Russophobia in America: A Genealogy.” Educators and students will find something for any vector of curiosity: interested in Russian Punk Rock? The Stillbirth of the Soviet Internet? Sean’s Russia Blog and Podcast has also featured several episodes on African and African American history in the USSR, including on the lives of several Black activists (ages 14-18, and higher education, Russia).
6. The Story that Cannot Be Told by J. Kasper Kramer. The story of a girl finding her voice and the strength to use it during the final months of the Communist regime in Romania in 1989. Fearing for her safety, Ileana’s parents send her to live with the grandparents she’s never met, but danger is never far away. Now, to save her family and the village she’s come to love, Ileana will have to tell the most important story of her life (ages 8-12 – Romania).
7. "Sunshine Girl: My Journey from the Soviet Orient to the Western World" by Dildora Muzafari. A Detroit woman, Dildora Muzafari, who emigrated to the US from Uzbekistan, recently published her fascinating memoirs, "Sunshine Girl: My Journey from the Soviet Orient to the Western World". She shares the rich and tragic history of her family which came from a long line of Central Asian intellectuals and was severely oppressed in the Stalinist period.  This book gives a first-hand view of Tashkent and the small Uzbek villages during her formative years, the Earthquake of 1966, life in a closed Soviet city during the Perestroika era, the realities of living in East Germany, a real-life escape to West Germany, the work environment at Radio Free Liberty, an immigrant's perspective on America and, ultimately, the profound transformation of her hometown after the fall of the Soviet Union (ages 14 and up).
8. The Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin. Based on the diary of Lieutenant Georgii Brusilov, who in 1912 organized an expedition seeking a west-to-east Northern sea route. It was later seized by ice and carried to the north of the Kara Sea. The expedition survived two hard winters. An amazing read about brave men, revolution, villians, suffering, the Arctic and love! One of the most popular works of Soviet literature (ages 14-18 - Russia).
9. The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis. Based on the author’s experiences growing up in Prague, Czechoslovakia after World War II, and coming to the U.S. in the 1970s. This remarkable autobiographical picture book is about the making of an artist in a place where creativity was discouraged, free thought was considered dangerous and subversive, and the Soviet Union controlled the government and its citizens. A great book for explaining the difference between a democratic society and a dictatorship (ages 8-12 – Czechoslovakia).
10. The Wilson Center: “Behind the Story: Black Journalists in Russia and Eurasia."  Read about the experiences of Yelena Khanga and Ann Simmons, two black journalists, who have worked in Russia and Eurasia. Yelena Khanga is a Russian journalist, talk show host, and author of Soul to Soul: A Black Russian Jewish Woman’s Search for her Roots. Yelena Khanga has her own YouTube channel.
11. Check out another interesting interview and podcast entitled, “Yelena Khanga: On Family, Growing Up in the USSR, and Black Lives Matter” as part of the KennanX Podcast. In this episode of KennanX, Jill Dougherty speaks with Yelena Khanga about the story of her family, what it was like growing up Black in the Soviet Union, and the Black Lives Matter movement in America.

Sources on the Soviet attack on the Vilnius TV tower, January 13, 1991, and the aftermath and some background:

The event took place as the USSR was beginning to unravel. Civil unrest began in the Baltic states in the late 1980s. The three countries had hosted summer song festivals for years, and in 1988 their push for independence became known as the Singing Revolution. On August 23, 1989, two million Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians joined hands in a 375-mile human chain that stretched from Tallinn, Estonia, to Vilnius.

Mikhail Gorbachev had been the head of state since 1988 and would be forced out on December 25, 1991, after surviving a putsch in August. The Soviet Union ceased to exist at the end of December 31, 1991.

1. The photo is online in several places. Here’s a good photo of the event from Reddit.
2. The political background of the Soviet attack: The Baltic Times, 21 Jan 2010.
3. First-person account of the assault: The Guardian, 14 Jan 91.
4. Video showing soviet troops take press building: ABC World News Tonight, Jan 11, 1991.
5. Video from broadcast inside tower: troops enter, journalist speaks to camera, feed goes dead.

To prepare for a discussion:

1. Anatol Lieven, The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence, 2nd edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), pp. 244–54 in Ch. 8.
2. Background on the building Inside the Vilnius TV tower: Background on the structure (no mention of the assault), 2020 Lietuvos nacionalinis radijas ir televizija [Lithuanian Radio and TV]

Resources from the Center for East Asian Studies

Materials on Tiananmen:

1. “The Gate of Heavenly Peace” featuring an interactive tour of Tiananmen Square.
2. A selection from “The Gate and the Square” by the popular writer Jonathan Spence and other annotated links.
3. “Declassified History of Tiananmen Square” from the National Security Archives.
4. Choices Program-Brown University lesson plan: “Looking at Tankman.”
5. Lesson plan on Chinese censorship of the Tiananmen Square event (the lesson plan is available by request. Please email Charlotte Kukundakwe at kasc@ku.edu).

Materials on Hong Kong Protests:

1. In November 2019, the BBC produced this easy-to-understand summary of the 2019 protests in Hong Kong.
2. Reuters produced this timeline of the 2019-20 Hong Kong protests.
3. Hong Kong has been a site of annual protests on the anniversary of the Tiananmen repression (June 4). This article from the guardian provides some insight into how the PRC is dealing with such protest efforts now.

Materials on Protests Relating to/in Xinjiang and Tibet:

1. This article in Time provides some images as well as a bit of history of protests in Xinjiang in 2009.
2. This site was created by the daughter of Rahile Dawut, a Uighur ethnographer who taught at Xinjiang University and who was detained in 2017. Click on the links on the home page to get more information.
3. Here is an Amnesty International Report on the impact of China's repression of Uighurs on Uighur families and children.
4. CNN takes up the same theme in this report in which it tracks down two affected Uighur children.
5. Here is a CNN timeline of anti-Chinese protests in Tibet from 2008-2012.
6. This Human Rights Watch report on the 2008 protests in Tibet includes some eyewitness evidence and detailed description of actions by Chinese security forces.
7. This Human Rights Watch report on China's 2020 anti-crime campaign in Tibet. The campaign has been used to silence dissent.

Resources on anti-Asian Racism:

1. Jae-yeon Yoo and Stefani Kuo have compiled "A Literary Guide to Combat Anti-Asian Racism in America." This guide provides an excellent list of fiction and non-fiction books that engage with the subject of anti-Asian racism in the United States.
2. In this conversation, Korean American novelist R. O. Kwan talks about an essay she wrote for Vanity Fair and the challenges she faced in attempting to talk with her mother about anti-Asian racism.
3. Divya Victor's book Curb looks uses poetry and prose to explore domestic terrorism against South Asian Americans. NPR has a review of the book Curb.
4. This Huffpost article displays and discusses 14 photos that show Asian-American resistance.

Lesson plans and school-related resources:

1. A comprehensive resource list from the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (the list is available by request. Please email Charlotte Kukundakwe at kasc@ku.edu).
2. Ready to use lesson plans, student activities, and research aids for teaching about Asian American history
3. A guide for schools to combat anti-Asian violence from Education Week.
4. A guide for combatting anti-Asian racism with kids, in relationships, and at work from NBC News.

Resources for teaching about the history of anti-Asian racism:

1. A timeline of anti-Asian discrimination in the U.S.
2. A video about anti-Asian racism in the U.S.
3. Short quotes from generations of Asian Americans about their experiences of racism.
4. 14 photos that show the original Asian American resistance.

Book Recommendations:

1. 12 Children's Books to Celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage.
2. 24 Asian American Kids Books for AAPI Month. 
3. New young adult book about Vincent Chen and the rise of Asian American activism.

Resources from the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Web Resources and News Articles:

1. Opinion- Letter to the Editor: New York Times.
2. Opinion- Letter to the Editor: New York Times. 
3. Opinion- Letter to the Editor: New York Times.
4. Guatemala Laureate Defends My Truth: New York Times.
5. Blunting the Hard Edge of Truth: New York Times.
6. Kansas Missouri Dream Alliance.