Why Team Hope Should Keep (Its ‘Resources’ About Africa) Out of Irish Classrooms

 On Tuesday, the 12th of October, Team Hope launched its annual Christmas Shoebox Appeal; a Christmas Shoebox Appeal Week will also take place from 9th - 15th November.

As part of the Christmas Shoebox Appeal, Team Hope has stated on its website that it also “provides a range of free lesson plans and online resources for schools”.

The subject identified in the Primary Curriculum is Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE); more specifically, the Myself and the Wider World Strand (Developing Citizenship: National, European and wider communities Strand Unit) is the focus area of this subject (please, see below).

It is not clear why Team Hope made the decision to produce materials about Africa for schools; it is worth pointing out, however, that the Myself and the Wider World Strand has been designed and specified for fifth and sixth classes pupils only. 

It is, therefore, difficult to understand why and how Team Hope would have produced materials for pre-school junior infants pupils.

Perhaps, the Team Hope education team might like to consult the NCCA guidelines to confirm the specified age to introduce the study of a non-European context if its objective is to go into the production of educational materials for primary schools? 

Third class (eight year-olds) is the NCCA’s specified class and age, by the way.

The following might also confirm the NCCA’s rationale?

Included in the materials to be found on the Team Hope website are stories about Leah from Kenya, Elimia (sic) from Malawi and Phoebe from eSwatini (Swaziland).

Below, are examples of the ‘resources’ Team Hope has produced for schools:

So, Team Hope thinks the first thing four and five year-old Irish children should be taught about the DR Congo (if they can get their little minds around where DR Congo is in the first place) is that "people live in huts made of mud".

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

William Butler Yeats, Lake Isle of Innisfree

It might be worth noting that Yeats referred to “clay and wattles”, not ‘mud’ as the building materials for his “cabin”.

Whether consciously or not, the words and images we use about a place or people evoke powerful feelings in those they are meant to apply, and the reaction of Professor Plastow’s son is an illustration of this.

Team Hope lists eight African countries, with an estimated total population of 211.5 million people, in which it has a presence. This represents 21% of Africa’s estimated population of one billion. Two of these countries are also Irish Aid Key Partner Countries.

St. Mark’s Primary School, Mbabane 

One of the countries Team Hope has a presence in is eSwatini (Swaziland). The story of St. Mark’s Primary School (below), including the subjects the pupils have to study, might be more interesting for Irish pupils, as well as being more relevant to the learning process? 

St. Mark's Primary School, Mbabane. Founded in 1910

The classroom is the place where learning (including, about places and peoples in other lands) is expected to take place.

So, how does Team Hope's ‘online resources‘ contribute to positive learning about the world around us and, in particular, about the selected African countries?

Having examined the ‘resources’ on the Team Hope website, one can only conclude that these contribute nothing to learning anything useful about Africa.

Indeed, they are not ‘resources’; they are information materials which reinforce negative age-old pre-conceived views about Africa and should never be allowed in classrooms here in Ireland.

At this crucial time in our history, when negative attitudes towards people of African descent are supposed to be addressed, introducing young Irish minds to materials which only add to reinforcing negative perceptions of Africa can only be described as unhelpful?

Do You Remember Something in Particular From Your Primary School Days?

 

Trinity College Dublin Librarian, Therese Mulpeter, does 

She wrote an article about one specific experience in 1969 from her primary school days to accompany documents she was donating to the Research Collections at Trinity which is connected with this experience.

The article recalled how the then six year-old[!] Therese was told to become a ‘god-parent’ to an African girl who was to be given the name Anne. 

Below, is an extract from the article as it appeared online: 

“We all recognise 1969 as the year that man first stepped on the moon but few would recall that it was also the year that Pope Paul VI became the first reigning pope to step onto the African continent in Uganda.

At that time there was a practice in Catholic schools for children preparing to make their First Holy Communion to make an offering to become ‘god-parents’ to children in Africa so that they could be baptised into the Catholic faith. 

At Belgrove National School in Clontarf, my teacher Miss Heid, told us to choose a name for our ‘baby’. I was only six years old and I came up with the name Anne. 

In my young mind I thought that all these babies would be brought to the school and I would get to bring mine home. 

I puzzled over where she would sleep. 

The penny [literally] dropped when I received my god-parent card with my name and Anne’s name handwritten on the back……we would never meet. 

It was simply a very successful fund raising effort to support mission work in Africa. 

Try explaining that to a six year old! 

The only tangible connection I had with Anne was the card. 

In 1969 the Catholic population of Uganda was approximately 3 million and no one batted an eye in Ireland at holding a collection for the ‘black babies’ or of referring to an unbaptised infant as a pagan. Today the catholic population of Uganda stands at around 13 million.”

The god-parent card issued to Therese and the other pupils bore the title: Crusade for Rescue, Baptism and Catholic Education of Pagan Children. 

Sammy the Plaster Figure Black Baby

In his contribution to the subject published in the Irish Independent in November 2006 and titled The Little Black Babies, Rory Egan wrote as follows: 

“In many schools around the country a mandatory collection of a shilling a week was made for the 'Little Black Babies' for which one was given a small card showing a crying child. It is incredible to think that many a young schoolchild thought that it was some sort of instalment scheme and that some day they would be the proud possessor of an African child. 

The ultimate lasting memory of poor taste and misguided marketing was something that could be found in many schools and convents and was called 'Sammy'. Sammy was a plaster figure of a black baby whose head nodded every time a penny was placed in the slot of the box upon which he knelt.”

 

Remote and Alien Pagan Babies  

In a blogpost dated 26 November 2018 and titled Remote and alien pagan babies, John Grenham posted a notice originally produced by the Pontifical Association of the Holy Childhood “On behalf of the Myriad OUTCAST PAGAN BABIES” and which had been published in the Irish Independent edition of April 1, 1939. 

This notice asked for “at least a little crumb from your LENTEN ALMS”. 

“For the modest donation of 2/6 (two shillings and six pence) you can help to save one of these hapless dying babies from the cruelest of fates.” 

Other Countries 

More childhood schooldays recollections about ‘pagan baby’ programmes in the 1950s / early-1960s in other countries can be found online. 

There are testimonies from Scotland, while from the United States of America, stories from the Adopt A Pagan Baby drive have been recounted. 

The following is from ABCtales on the subject of Black baby

“The St Stephen’s Digestive biscuit test was much more exacting. At school break time in the morning we could buy a Digestive biscuit off Mrs Boyle for one old penny. Some, like myself, were often excluded from this experiment because they had lots of brother and sister and too few pennies. But unlike the Stanford experiment Mrs Boyle didn’t offer two -or more Digestives for delaying, or not eating a biscuit we couldn’t afford - she offered salvation, for an old penny. She gave us the option of eating a Digestive, or buying a black baby.

If we bought a black baby for a penny it was ticked down on a sheet and when you got to  a shilling eventually you got to own a black baby and you were given a picture of it. For giving up Digestive biscuits you were sent to heaven. Now that’s what I call delayed gratification.”

Pagan Baby Contests 

Here is another recollection on Pagan Babies, this time from Telling Secrets blogspot: 

Baby Jesus feeding the Pagan Babies  

 I went to Roman Catholic School, so we also had Pagan Baby Contests.   

 It went like this: You had to bring in a dime every week (some of the nuns allowed you to bring in pennies or nickels which you could save up and exchange for a dime) which would then fit into a slot on a poster which had your name on it. When you got to $1, you were allowed to 'name' your Pagan Baby and the money would be sent "to the missions" so "Father" could baptize one of the little Pagan Babies with your name. 

 Sister told us that we were saving the "little savages" Africa or Laos or Cambodia or Viet Nam, baptizing them in the name of Jesus. I know. Hard to believe that we once talked that way - and, meant it.  

There were 30-40 kids in my class. We had Pagan Baby Contests every 10 weeks. Not a bad fundraising scheme, eh? I used to imagine that there was a village in Viet Nam or Africa somewhere with lots of girls named "Elizabeth".

Anyway, even the Pagan Baby Chart and the Pagan Baby Certificate you got were all written in Cursive

Does anyone remember giving your change for pagan babies?

This is the question posed on Facebook and which also received quite a number of responses; perhaps, an indication of how much this childhood memory persisted into adulthood?  

The Unanswered Questions 

So many questions arise from the childhood recollections of those who are now adults today; and who were told to be a ‘god-parent’ to a ‘pagan baby’ during their schooldays. 

“Try explaining that to a six year-old”, was how Therese Mulpeter summed up her own ‘god-parent’ experience in that October 2017 article. 

Therese Mulpeter’s question certainly throws a challenge to all of us to examine and reflect on something which has had quite a profound effect on children’s lives and how, perhaps, it might have shaped their attitudes towards other people; Africans, for example? 

These will be the focus of discussion in the next blogpost.