3.2 Food for africa

How important is today?

Suppose that you and a friend were working on a wine and a wheat farm respectively during the eighteenth century. Compile a joint farming programme in which you compare your duties during the year with similar present-day (modern) farming.

Activity 3:

To report on cattle farming

[lo 1.3]

a) Read the following article attentively and then conduct a class quiz on the information contained in it.

The Dutch later crossed the cattle they had brought with them from the Netherlands with cattle traded from the Khoina. The red Afrikaner cattle are representative of the cattle that were developed in those times.

The king of Spain presented two merino rams and four ewes to the Dutch government in 1789. The rams thrived at the Cape and provided wool and meat of excellent quality. Today, approximately 80 % of South African flocks are made up of this race of sheep. There are about 28 million sheep in South Africa!

Some cattle farmers had left the Cape by the eighteenth century to move into the interior. They kept stock for meat rather than for wool. Their food mainly consisted of the mutton obtained from their hardy fat-tailed sheep, beef from the long-horned cattle and venison from the large herds of game. Cream was separated from milk to make butter and fruit was preserved by means of drying or bottling. Sometimes the farmers sowed grains, but harvesting it was not possible when they were obliged to move on to find grazing, or when it was damaged due to wet weather or drought. Bread was baked in anthills or clay ovens. Coffee, tea and sugar were luxury items and were mostly "bought" from itinerant traders ("smouse").

Activity 4:

To differentiate between facts and opinions concerning the present-day (modern) provision of food

[lo 2.3]

Nowadays most people live in towns or cities where they are close to food. Form groups for finding out where the basic foodstuffs that you require come from.

1. Draw the following table in you workbook. Then complete a survey by questioning the members of your family.

b) Now you have obtained specific information from oral sources. Determine whether the following distances represent facts or opinions:

Most foodstuffs are easily accessible.

Most shopping is done close to people's homes.

Most of the above foodstuffs are bought at specific places.

This situation is altogether different from that the previous century or centuries.

Assessment

LEARNING OUTCOME 1: HISTORICAL ENQUIRY- The learner will be able to use enquiry skills to investigate the past and present

1.1 Access the sources

Start asking additional questions on events, artefacts, places, people. They vary in degree of difficulty.

1.2 Use the sources

Able to use page references

Know which sources (books) on specific topics contain information for an assignment / exhibition.

1.3 Communicate information from sources (reporting)

Able to explain information on a diagram, map, chart, sketch

Able to explain an event from the past orally or in writing.

LEARNING OUTCOME 2: HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING – The learner will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge and understanding

2.1 Understand chronology and time

Compilation of an historical time line with BC, AD, ancient, modern.

2.2 Supply reasons why an historical event took place (causes, effects).

Is able to supply proof orally or in written form of causes / effects of events, and to identify patterns.

2.3 Differentiate between different periods (similarities, differences).

Show differences / similarities between situations experienced at present and those of a specific period by making use of written evidence.

LEARNING OUTCOME 3: INTERPRETING HISTORY – The learner will be able to interpret aspects of history

3.1 Be aware of more than one view of the past

Understand that different views of the same issue may be right or wrong.

3.2 Distinguish between fact and opinion.

Distinguish between a fact and an opinion.

Is able to access information from maps, charts, diagrams and graphs.

3.3 Reconstruct the past

Is able to reconstruct events and understand how people feel about them.