Post-Classical Africa

Homework 1/28

No i would not like to learn history verbally like the griots in Africa. First of all i am not an auditory learner, or at least if i learn the material i will forget it the next week. The way I like to learn history and remember it is visually and interactively. For example, making a timeline helped me visualize the progress of the classical societies, and the Mongol Trial really helped us to learn about the Mongols. Second of all, the griots had to learn to memorize eveything, and even though there are methods of memorizing effectively, I do not believe my brain has enough space to hold all of that information.

Mongol Trial

Today was the second day of the Mongol trial. It went well for the prosecution. I was the first witness to be called up today, and although I got my main point across, I did not say everything I wanted to say. Nathan cross-examined me, and I thought he was going to ask me about how the Persian shah beheaded Ghengis Khan's messenger, but he did not. Instead he insisted that the Mongols helped the Persians by improving their trade, but I stuck to my statement that the Mongols did not help the Persians, they annihilated them. 

Mongol Trial Progress6

Today is the first day of the trial. Prosecution went first, and we did very well. We had a strong opening statement from Shivesh. Additionally, I thought that the defense's opening statement was weak. They basically just denied all the murders and crimes they committed, which is historically inaccurate.  Our witnesses held strong against the defense cross-examiners. I did not have time to go. One thing I did notice was that the defense hid behind their definitions, such as "define genocide. Did we wipe out the entire Chinese race? No we didn't, so we did not commit genocide." When I am being questioned tomorrow I will try to find a way to make this backfire on them, and prove that the Mongols did, in fact, commit genocide.

Mongol Trial Progress5

On Sunday, I wrote down all of my information that I would need on an index card. i posted my backstory as a witness on the google doc so that the lawyers could read it and come up with questions. Maya came up with questions for me that she will ask me, and i will be ready to answer them. 

Mongol Trial Progress4

Today I thought some more about my backstory for my witness. I wrote some ideas down that I will have prepared for Monday.

Mongol Trial Progress3

Today in class I talked to Maya, the laywer who is going to be questioning me as a witness, and described to her my story and why The mongol invasion of Persia was so awful. We talked about what the defense side might ask us and came up with answers to potential questions. Tonight I researched more about the actual invasian of Persia and learned what city the conflict took place in. I will use these notes on my index card and describe the seige of the city of Otrar.

Mongol Trial Progress2

Today in class we only met with our groups for about 5 minutes but i decided to change my role as a witness from a Chinese peasant to a Persian citizen. This is because i read about Ghengis Khan's interaction with Persia in my textbook last night and found it more interesting. So today at home I watched a BBC documentary on Ghengis Khan and took notes on the awful things he did. This way I can prepare my story as a witness and explain why the khwarazm shah hated the Mongols, and create a backstory of how my character's life was destroyed by Ghengis khan's revenge.

Mongal Trial Progress1

Today in class we assigned each other roles and I volunteered to be a witness. I chose the role of the peasant. Today at home I read and took notes on most of Chapter 18 in order to prepare for the trial. I paid particular attention to the sections where it talked about Mongol crimes against other races because we will use that information for our prosecution. I looked for sections about the peasants of the Xi Xia, Jin, Song, and Yuan Dynasties because that was who I was supposed to be.