Project Reflection
We started off this project by reading the book called “Things Fall Apart ” by Chinua Achebe. While reading this book we learned about the wrongful death lawsuit, along with many other things such as different cultures such as the igbo and egwugwu culture. After reading this book for about two or three weeks or so we started to explore on what imperialism meant. Imperialism is defined as a policy of exerting cultural, economic, or political influence over other societies. We also learned about colonialism, the old imperialism, the new imperialism, ideological motivates, religious motive, and exploratory motives. Afterward we gained knowledge on case theory and theme along with who be an effective lawyer, because that was my role in our trail.
In this trial we students got to choose what role we wanted, we were able to choose from being a witness, clerk, lawyers, juror, bailiff, or judge. I choose to be a lawyer, about a week before we did this mock trial I went to watch one of my little sisters exhibition on a mock trial. I was thankful to have seen this exhibition because it gave me a sense of each of the roles that my sister and her classmates played which helped me pick mine. Being a lawyer in my part meant giving the opening statement for the defense team. This was just as important as questioning the witness because having a strong start off can really help your case. These are my first few sentences of my opening statement, “We are here to provide that we were not responsible for Okonkwo's death, he killed himself. Today, the plaintiff presents us with charges of a wrongful death, and we will present our refutations of these charges.” I personally was relieved to not be questioning anyone, this was because it became really easy for people to make objections to the questions if they were objectionable material.
I feel that I have gained strength in a few areas, such as my critical thinking, public speaking, collaboration during this project. In order to have a strong and well done opening sentence I had to use my critical thinking, to form the most reasonable arguments on why the Plaintiff should be guilty of Okonkwo's suicide. Not only did I have to use my critical thinking in order to work one the opening statement but I had to use my collaboration skills. I wanted to write a strong opening so I knew that I would need to have some of my group members help me reword, look over, or add more to my opening statement. I was very nervous to do the public speaking portion on this project, but having done public speaking before really helped me, along with practicing a lot before our exhibition were I would do my public speaking. As I walked up to the podium I started to get light headed, and by the ending of my speech I was more confident. After I finished my speech I realized that being scared or nervous was normal, and everyone gets that way. Messing up is also okay because everyone does, having realized all of this made it easier for me to be confident. I proud of myself for giving a good opening statement and being confident about it, I am also proud of my final product, it was strong and very detailed and straight to the point.
I have a few enduring understanding I will take away from this project. The two main ones that I would like to touch upon are how my perspectives on Africans and the justice and the law has changed. I never really had all that much knowledge on Africans and their way of living. Having read “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe has really made me realize that there culture is really different. There values are very different, an example of this is when Okonkwo the main character in the book wants to have a title by having a farm, yams, and lots of wife’s. In their culture not having those things means that they are of a lower social and economic status. Learning more about their values and ways of living has changed the way I view the people of Umuofia today. It has made me come to the consensus that everyone village or tribe has their own beliefs and values, not matter how strange they may be to me. The justice and the law in the village of Umuofia blow my mind away, the way that the men in the village occasionally beat their wifes broke my heart. Maybe not everyone man in the village beat their wives but Okonkwo beat his wife’s daily, and almost shot his second wife. Even though the law in the village was to that you could not beat anyone during the week of peace, Okonkwo did anyway, and by violating this law, the punishment was said to come from the gods. My perspective on this on this changed from the beginning of the book to the ending of mock trial, because I was on the defensive side of the mock trial I thought that the law was just, as it helped proved okonkwo was a madman.
In this trial we students got to choose what role we wanted, we were able to choose from being a witness, clerk, lawyers, juror, bailiff, or judge. I choose to be a lawyer, about a week before we did this mock trial I went to watch one of my little sisters exhibition on a mock trial. I was thankful to have seen this exhibition because it gave me a sense of each of the roles that my sister and her classmates played which helped me pick mine. Being a lawyer in my part meant giving the opening statement for the defense team. This was just as important as questioning the witness because having a strong start off can really help your case. These are my first few sentences of my opening statement, “We are here to provide that we were not responsible for Okonkwo's death, he killed himself. Today, the plaintiff presents us with charges of a wrongful death, and we will present our refutations of these charges.” I personally was relieved to not be questioning anyone, this was because it became really easy for people to make objections to the questions if they were objectionable material.
I feel that I have gained strength in a few areas, such as my critical thinking, public speaking, collaboration during this project. In order to have a strong and well done opening sentence I had to use my critical thinking, to form the most reasonable arguments on why the Plaintiff should be guilty of Okonkwo's suicide. Not only did I have to use my critical thinking in order to work one the opening statement but I had to use my collaboration skills. I wanted to write a strong opening so I knew that I would need to have some of my group members help me reword, look over, or add more to my opening statement. I was very nervous to do the public speaking portion on this project, but having done public speaking before really helped me, along with practicing a lot before our exhibition were I would do my public speaking. As I walked up to the podium I started to get light headed, and by the ending of my speech I was more confident. After I finished my speech I realized that being scared or nervous was normal, and everyone gets that way. Messing up is also okay because everyone does, having realized all of this made it easier for me to be confident. I proud of myself for giving a good opening statement and being confident about it, I am also proud of my final product, it was strong and very detailed and straight to the point.
I have a few enduring understanding I will take away from this project. The two main ones that I would like to touch upon are how my perspectives on Africans and the justice and the law has changed. I never really had all that much knowledge on Africans and their way of living. Having read “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe has really made me realize that there culture is really different. There values are very different, an example of this is when Okonkwo the main character in the book wants to have a title by having a farm, yams, and lots of wife’s. In their culture not having those things means that they are of a lower social and economic status. Learning more about their values and ways of living has changed the way I view the people of Umuofia today. It has made me come to the consensus that everyone village or tribe has their own beliefs and values, not matter how strange they may be to me. The justice and the law in the village of Umuofia blow my mind away, the way that the men in the village occasionally beat their wifes broke my heart. Maybe not everyone man in the village beat their wives but Okonkwo beat his wife’s daily, and almost shot his second wife. Even though the law in the village was to that you could not beat anyone during the week of peace, Okonkwo did anyway, and by violating this law, the punishment was said to come from the gods. My perspective on this on this changed from the beginning of the book to the ending of mock trial, because I was on the defensive side of the mock trial I thought that the law was just, as it helped proved okonkwo was a madman.
Pictures of the trial: