Author Bio: Although there was no written author of this primary document, the editor, Paul Halsall, is an editor and originator of "The Internet Modern History Sourcebook". He translated the primary source document for teaching purposes. The document provided the guidelines that the Organization of African Unity would follow from the interpretations of Paul Halsall which makes this specific document a secondary source.
Date/Context: This document is from 1963 when the Organization of African Unity was first established. During this time, many African countries had just recently gained their independence from their European colonists so this group was aimed toward unifying many of the new independent countries with new governments and leaders.
Summary: This document was created by the Heads of African States and Governments when they gathered together in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. It outlined the basics of the purposes for the group, the parts of each member state that needed to be harmonized, the rights of each member state, and other general policies for the organization. The purposes of the Organization of African Unity was to promote the unity of the African states, cooperate with each other in order to create a better life for all African peoples, to get rid of all forms of colonialism in Africa, and to promote international cooperation. They also strived toward equality for all members of the organization meaning giving them all equal rights and equal responsibilities. Any independent African state has the right to join the organization so they can create peace throughout Africa.
Key Quotation: "Convinced that it is the inalienable right of all people to control their own destiny;conscious of the fact that freedom, equality, justice and dignity are essential objectives for the achievement of the legitimate aspirations of the African peoples;"
To begin, I really like how you explained why the article was created at that certain point in time. I feel that your explanation of the establishment of the article shows that you really understand the concept and it really helps the reader understand the main purpose for writing, and I did not notice that when I read the article myself. Also, I think your key quotation really sums up the article. You picked the quote that most thoroughly explains the entire piece in one sentence. I thought it was excellent of you to pick such a perfectly suitable quote. Thirdly, I like the fact that you explain small details that most people tend to leave out. Things such as naming the capital of Ethiopia and writing the full title of all organizations (compared to abbreviating them), really puts you apart from other writers and shows that you pay attention to small ideas, which is a crucial part of this class.
ReplyDeleteI do have some small critiques for you that could potentially help you in the future. First, try to steer away from words such as "general" and "basics". You use them in the summary of the PDP, and as I read the article I realized there was a lot of information based on your explanation, and it would help to go into more detail explaining what exactly those concepts are. Also, I noticed small grammatical errors, such as comma placement in the middle of sentences. I may be reading your statement wrong, but in your Author Bio, I would have written your sentence as "...interpretations of Paul Halsall (comma) which makes this specific document a secondary source." Lastly, I felt that you should have touched on co-operation in order to get a bit of all the information in your PDP. I understand your summary and feel that you made a lot of fantastic points in it, but the idea of two co-ordinate concepts really stuck out to me when I read the article.
Overall, I thought you did a really great job summarizing and analyzing the piece!
Halsall was the editor of the collection of primary sources. The charter was written by the heads of the 32 African states assembled at Addis Ababa.
ReplyDelete