Teacher travels to Ghana and back

Lexington Minuteman, September 6, 2007

Annie Zeybekoglu, an art teacher at Lexington High School, was already deeply interested in Africa before setting foot in Ghana this summer. She was passionate about their arts and cultural traditions, and as an advisor to the Lexington High School Model UN Club, she has been involved in a very practical way with her students to raise funds to build schools and irrigation projects in West Africa.

Zeybekoglu traveled to Ghana with Primary Source — a non-profit organization based in Watertown that specializes in high quality professional development and curriculum resources for K-12 teachers and school communities.

She began taking courses at Primary Source in 2000 during a seminar series on China, followed by a China Summer Institute, and then a study tour to China. She has taught several hands-on sessions at Primary Source on Chinese arts, including brush painting and scroll making.

Deeply interested in world cultures and the arts, Zeybekoglu followed this immersion in Chinese culture with a course on Ghana three years ago. This summer, she was finally able to travel to Ghana with Primary Source, thanks to the generous support of a Lexington Education Foundation Summer Fellowship.

“I was completely enthralled with the West Africa course,” Zeybekoglu said. “I had been extremely interested in the textiles of Ghana, where Kente and Adinkra cloths are such an integral part of the cultural iconography. I’ve also been fascinated with other aspects of their artistic expression, especially music and dance, and the way the arts serve basic utilitarian functions, while they communicate so intimately the history, customs, and traditions of Ghanaian culture.”

This summer she got to see it all when she traveled to a village in the Eastern region known for its intricate Kente weavings, and the Ashanti region, which is known for its cloth production using adinkra symbols — an intricate system of images that the Akan people used to communicate their history, attitudes, and beliefs.

In the Cape Coast region, a visit to slave castles left an indelible and powerful impression on everyone. The lives of slaves from centuries past were brought into sharp focus when the teachers were herded into slave cells and toured the dungeons of the slave holding castles — an unforgettable experience.

Zeybekoglu returned eager to develop an interdisciplinary course at Lexington High School with a fellow teacher, concentrating on the West African slave trade, as well as the traditions of textile design and the visual iconography of Ghana.

“For me, the most compelling aspect of the tour was the opportunity to experience the culture and the compelling artistic expression of Ghana, to talk and share personal experiences with individual Ghanaians; to see first-hand the resilience, pride, and exuberance of the people and to visit the site of the school we hope to help build there,” Zeybekoglu said.

She hopes to return to Ghana next spring with a group of teachers to teach a collaborative course on poetry, art, and music at the Bishop Forson School.

Primary Source’s mission, to promote global education by connecting educators to people and cultures throughout the world, has impacted over 5,000 teachers and about 330,000 students throughout New England over the last 18 years. Originally focused on China and inclusive U.S. history, the organization has now expanded to include programming on Africa, East and Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

Additional information about Primary Source is available at www.primarysource.org.