Songs of Dust and Watera novel by M.J. Hydara

Example essays

Twenty-eight readings, fourteen countries

Twenty-eight example essays exploring the novel through books and questions from fourteen countries. They use imagined student voices and a range of classroom tasks, among them A level coursework, the French dissertation, the German Facharbeit and the Russian individual project. One essay in each pair reads the novel as literature; the other tests it against a real problem at home. None claims to speak for a whole school system.

Please read first. These are example essays written for this site to show some of the ways the novel can be studied. The student voices are imagined, and the essays are not approved by any exam board; two are shortened or practice versions of their tasks, as their pages explain. The essays discuss the whole novel, including its ending, so each essay opens only once you say you have finished the book. Quotations are checked word for word against the paperback (ISBN 9798162251088).

United Kingdom

"The centre cannot hold"? Communities and outside power in Things Fall Apart and Songs of Dust and Water

Pearson Edexcel A level English LiteratureWith Achebe, Things Fall Apart2,930 words · Literature
United Kingdom

Can a novel teach development studies? Participation, ownership and accountability in Songs of Dust and Water

AQA Level 3 Extended Project QualificationDevelopment studies: Chambers, Ostrom, Ferguson2,765 words · Social science
United States

Who Is Allowed to Touch It: Systems and Hands in M.J. Hydara's Songs of Dust and Water

AP English Literature and Composition, senior-year research paperMachines and hands2,753 words · Literature
United States

Who Holds the Off Switch? Community Ownership as a Condition for Aid

Practice essay modelled on AP Seminar Performance Task 2, the Individual Written ArgumentShould aid depend on local ownership?2,915 words · Social science
Canada

Where the Story Starts: Records, Recitals and Missing Names in Songs of Dust and Water

Modelled on the Independent Study Unit of Ontario's ENG4UStories, records and Treaty 42,787 words · Literature
Canada

Who Holds the Key to the Water? Community Control and Water Security in Songs of Dust and Water

Ontario Secondary School Diploma, CGW4UWater security and First Nations advisories2,623 words · Social science
France

"Now I carry the money": how Songs of Dust and Water takes apart the Tubab saviour

Baccalauréat général, Terminale, spécialité LLCER AnglaisThe white-saviour figure, with Conrad2,946 words · Literature
France

Can communities protect the environment better than states? The example of Nafawol

Baccalauréat général, Terminale, spécialité HGGSP, Thème 5 "L'environnement, entre exploitation et protection : un enjeu planétaire", taught in English in the section européenneCommunities, states and the Great Green Wall2,856 words · Social science
Germany

Seeing Adam from Outside: Narrative Situation and Withheld Interiority in M.J. Hydara's Songs of Dust and Water

Abitur, EnglischNarrative perspective: Stanzel and Genette2,917 words · Literature
Germany

Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe? Raiffeisen's Cooperative Principles and the Senebian Economic Union

Abitur, bilingual SozialwissenschaftenRaiffeisen cooperatives2,915 words · Social science
Italy

The Oyster and the Rope: Leaving and Returning in I Malavoglia and Songs of Dust and Water

Esame di StatoWith Verga, I Malavoglia2,610 words · Literature
Italy

Nothing Is Free at the Well: Gift, Debt and Reciprocity in Songs of Dust and Water, read with Marcel Mauss

Esame di StatoGift and debt, with Mauss and Danilo Dolci2,961 words · Social science
Japan

Who Holds the Key? Water, Trees and Land as Commons in Songs of Dust and Water and in Japan's Iriai Lands and Irrigation Districts

Period for Inquiry-Based Cross-Disciplinary StudyCommons: iriai land and irrigation districts2,751 words · Social science
Japan

The One Who Serves the Cup: Bearing Witness to Poisoned Water in Songs of Dust and Water and Ishimure Michiko's Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow

Graduation thesisBearing witness, with Ishimure Michiko2,969 words · Literature
Russia

The Keeper Who Stays: Darya of Matyora and Kadiatou of Nafawol

Individual projectWith Rasputin, Farewell to Matyora2,798 words · Literature
Russia

Central Planning or Local Stewardship? The Aral Sea and the Floodplain of Nafawol

Individual projectThe Aral Sea and the floodplain2,732 words · Social science
China

"I am old, not a ledger": Proverb and Number in Songs of Dust and Water

Cambridge International A Level Literature in EnglishProverb and number2,996 words · Literature
China

Stone Lines and Sealed Wells: What the Loess Plateau, Minqin and Nafawol Can Learn from Each Other

Research-based learningThe Loess Plateau and Minqin2,953 words · Social science
India

Who Holds the Rope? Water and Permission in Premchand's "Thakur ka Kuan" and M.J. Hydara's Songs of Dust and Water

ISCWith Premchand, "Thakur ka Kuan"2,942 words · Literature
India

Johads, Stone Lines and the Osusu Pot: Traditional Water Harvesting and Community Institutions in Rajasthan and in Songs of Dust and Water

CBSE Class XII Sociology, project workJohads, the Arvari river and self-help groups2,897 words · Social science
Brazil

Accounts Kept by Other Hands: Words, Cheating and the Poor in Vidas Secas and Songs of Dust and Water

Ensino médio, 3º anoWith Graciliano Ramos, Vidas Secas2,459 words · Literature
Brazil

Convivência or Capture? The Brazilian Semi-Arid and the Floodplain of Songs of Dust and Water

Ensino médio, 3º anoThe semi-arid and the drought industry2,797 words · Social science
Turkey

The Man with the Only Lorry: Ağas, Crews and Land in Memed, My Hawk and Songs of Dust and Water

IB Diploma Programme, Extended Essay, English A: Literature, Category 2With Yaşar Kemal, Memed, My Hawk2,655 words · Literature
Turkey

Who Decides About Water? Konya's Sinkholes, the GAP and Hasankeyf, Compared with a Novel's Floodplain

Year 12 project assignmentKonya, the GAP and Hasankeyf2,472 words · Social science
Senegal

The Pot and the Road: Women Who Feed the Struggle in God's Bits of Wood and Songs of Dust and Water

Baccalauréat sénégalais, série L, AnglaisWith Sembène, God's Bits of Wood2,621 words · Literature
Senegal

A Gate on the Well: Community Ownership of Water in Songs of Dust and Water and in the Sahel of Senegal

Terminale, Histoire-Géographie with philosophyBorehole associations and tontines2,850 words · Social science
The Gambia

The Kora and the Ledger: Keeping Memory in Songs of Dust and Water

Grade 12 Literature in English, school-based extended essayThe griot and the ledger2,948 words · Literature
The Gambia

What Can a Gambian Village Learn from Nafawol?

Grade 12 Social and Environmental Studies, project essaySalt, kafos and leaving home2,929 words · Social science

Download all 28 essays (Word; includes the ending)

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