Learning About The African Flavors Of French

By Susan Coney

Paula Greenfield, French teacher and chairman of the world languages department for Newtown High School, and French teacher Myriame Elder had the opportunity April 15 to expose their students to a taste of French African cuisine and culture.

The French III students spent the semester focusing not only on the French language, but also on African French-speaking countries and their rich cultures.

Each student selected a French-speaking African country to research. The students were then asked to write a report and present the information to peers. The report had to be given in French and the students were required to incorporate a poster, visual aid or PowerPoint demonstration as part of the presentation.

Teachers Greenfield and Elder sought the help of culinary arts teacher Brian Neumeyer, who provided the French students with an authentic West African lunch, specially prepared by NHS culinary arts students. The students were treated to a delicious chicken coconut with rice stew, bean coconut potato salad, an avocado cabbage salad and a gooey, caramel, peanut-banana dessert.

After the lunch, students gathered in the lecture hall to hear guest speaker Dr Raouf Mama lecture on the connection between African literature and African folklore. Dr Mama is a grio, which means storyteller. He is an internationally known bilingual storyteller, the only one in the world today who performs in English and French indigenous tales from his native Benin, a French-speaking country in West Africa. Dr Mama performs African and multicultural stories, blending storytelling with poetry, song, music, and dance. He conducts lectures as well as workshops on storytelling, creative writing, and the power of folktales, especially as tools for teaching literacy skills, creative writing ,and public speaking.

A graduate of the University of Michigan with an MA and a PhD in English, he is the author of, Why Goats Smell Bad and Other Stories from Benin, The Barefoot Book of Tropical Tales, and Pearls of Wisdom.

Dr Mama is the recipient of two Connecticut State University Excellence Awards, a Greater Hartford Arts Council Individual Artist Award and an artist fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. He teaches English at Eastern Connecticut State University.