Content:
“A course on active learning methods at university
level”
“First
impressions: University life”
“First impressions: Village
life”
“Past, present,
and future-oriented world views”
“The world history from an African point of view”
“Many African
authors have written extensively about the consequences”
“The danger of a single story!”
“How to respond positively to the challenge of
suspicion and violence in Kenya today?”
“A distinct difference between Tanzania and Kenya”
“Final thought
on past, present, and future-oriented world views”
During this past June I taught the
first part of a training course on active
learning methods at university level, at Sct. Paul's University in Limuru,
north of Nairobi, Kenya. The participants were university teachers from Kenya,
Tanzania, and Madagascar. The second part of the course is taking place right
now, as action-learning projects in each participant's own teaching. The third
and final part is a weeklong training course in November, again in Kenya.
All course materials (26 handouts, recommendation
& development resources including 15 links, 6 free eBooks and 10 pdf's) are
available here.
If you are interested in the course
manual and how to organize such a course, please contact me at eghedegaard@gmail.com
Following, I share some of my
experiences at Sct. Paul’s University:
First impressions: University Life
Sct. Paul's University is a 1200
student campus situated in the highlands, 30 km north of Nairobi. Several of
the teachers live onsite as well. The campus is green, well-organized, and
well-maintained. The boundary is fenced and guarded as well at the gate as at
specific buildings.
The uniformed guard at the
"Women's Leadership Training Center" (where I stayed) and, the same
guard on guard on a Saturday while her uniform was being laundered.
Previously, the campus was a
theological college for educating priests, in colonial-style buildings and
small houses (from 1930 to 2007). Students lived here with their families and
grew their own crops for consumption.
The library and new buildings still
under construction
Smiles and handshakes occur spontaneously
wherever people meet, even when passing each other. Cell phones are used intensively,
for texting or talking. "Your baby is crying!" ... is what one says
in some parts of Africa, when someone’s cell phone
rings.
First
Impressions: Village life
Across a busy regional road
bordering campus, a village is located. Heavy lorries constantly honking,
minibuses, cars, and pedestrians walking on the shoulders, dominate the road.
The contrast to the campus is evident. The roads between houses in the village are
filled with red mud after the daily rain showers. Most houses are poorly kept,
and many mothers carrying babies are very young.
At first glance, one can compare
the lives on each side of the road. Most students on campus seem to have
lifestyles and hopes for the future that appear rather similar to those to
students in the western world. They appear part of the global village
concerning music, fashion, looks, and idols.
Meanwhile, many of the villagers
have jobs as laborers at the university, and others (not to speak of the
millions in the Nairobi slums) live in absolute poverty, not relative poverty
as in the West.
As I came to know several students,
I learned that some did not have enough money to live on campus. Instead they lived
in the village and cooked their own food on charcoal stoves in their rooms.
These students are very determined even while fighting an uphill struggle to
get an education.
The belief that education is a road
to a better life for you and your family seems to be very strong in Kenya. Whenever
I visited the village and saw the young mothers, I was reminded of the girl in one
of Nadine Gardiner’s short stories. Gardiner’s main
character is a girl with a strong desire for literature, reading, and studying.
She read any piece of newspaper or book she get hold of, but as a young mother
she could only work hard for her kids to gain opportunities that she didn't
get.
Past, present, and future-oriented worldviews
At the beginning of the training
course I used quotes from "Alice in Wonderland", to start discussions
on goals for using active learning methods in teaching: When Alice is lost in
the magic forest, she asks a cat: "What path to take?" The cat answers,
”It depends on where you want to go!” Alice
says "It doesn't matter where I go..." and then the cat says:
"Then it doesn’t matter which path you take!"
It worked to start discussions on
rationales for teaching (and at the same time training of the cooperative
learning structure "think, pair, share")
When the course day ended, I read contemporary
Kenyan literature, and in "The River and the Source" by Margaret A. Ogola
(1994) I was confronted with a traditional African attitude "Where you are
going depends on where you come from". You learn what is right and what is
wrong to do as you are raised.
At first sight the two views are
totally contradictory. The first represent a future-oriented worldview, while
the second represents a past-oriented worldview.
- See introduction to past, present,
and future oriented worldviews as a lecture combined with animation: (video, 15 min.)
- There might be different
priorities in different cultures, but isn't it so that we have to keep all 3
perspectives in mind wherever we are?
The world history from an African point of view is very clearly stated in these lines:
"The world we live in today is
the result of more than 500 years of Western colonial expansion and imperial
design. Broadly speaking, this gave birth to a world system characterized by
unequal power relations between the North and South, witnessed today in various
spheres. These inequalities are realized through racial, class, gender,
religious, pedagogical, linguistic, textual, aesthetic, ecological, and
epistemological power hierarchies." Quote from Dr. Joseph Wandera at (SPU
Blog)
Many African authors have written extensively about the consequences:
- Franz Fanon wrote about the
impact of colonization on the minds of the colonized already in 1961 in “The
Wretched of the Earth” (Wikipedia
article)
- The memoires of Nelson Mandela’s
"Long walk to Freedom" and the new film “Mandela:
Long walk to freedom” based on this biography an inspiring example of how
to fight against these power hierarchies. (Example
of film review)
- Nelson Mandela on his “Mission, to liberate the oppressed and the
oppressor both”.
-
All over Africa native authors have developed excellent literature. One of the
many notable authors in the Kenyan setting is Ngugi
wa Thiong'o. His first novel “Weep
Not, Child” (1964) was the first novel in English to be
published by an East African author. The book is now compulsory reading in
Kenyan secondary schools, and this book is recommended for students everywhere.
Ngugi tells the story of a young man, Njoroge,
who loses his opportunity for further education when he is caught between
idealistic dreams and the violent reality of the colonial exploitation. In this way he
described the specific characteristics of colonialism
in Kenya and the impact on individuals, families, and indigenous cultures.
The colonizers simply stole the
fertile highlands and made it illegal for Africans to live in the area through
the colonial British rule 1895-1963. Dr. Sammy Gituku at SPU showed me a metal capsule,
which his grandfather had to carry in a string around his neck with a written
permission from an employer in order to stay in the area.
The danger of a single story!
In the last couple of years,
writers of African descent, who have experiences from living in the west as
well as in Africa, have focused on the contradictions and dilemmas they
experience in our globalized world, and they also fight against all the
stereotypes of Africa and Africans.
- Taiye Selasi has coined a new
term "Afropolitans" in a text in which she dismantles outdated
perceptions.(Wikipedia
article on the phrase Afropolitans)
- "Taiye Selasi: I'm a multi local
afropolitan”. (video,
14 min.)
-
Chimamanda Aidichie tells about "The danger of a
single story about Africans today". (video,
19 min.)
Two recommendable novels:
- Chimamanda Adichie (2013): “Americanah” (introduction in Wikipedia
article)
How to respond positively to the challenge of suspicion and violence in
Kenya today?
The international news on east
Africa is totally dominated by reports of terror attacks in different parts of
Kenya in general and the Nairobi suburb of Eastleigh in particular.
An example: "Conflict dynamics
on Kenya’s coast" (IRIN
humanitarian news & analysis website)
Christian as well as Muslim
communities are taking initiatives to develop so-called “Diapraxis”,
where leaders of local faith communities communicate in order to find solutions
to questions and problems they have in common.
Definition of
"Diapraxis": "Diapraxis is the practical cooperation between
different groups. The cooperation is meant to tear down prejudices, fear, and
hostility between people. Diapraxis takes place in the border zone between religion
and culture". (source)
One of these initiatives is
"The Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations in Eastleigh (CCMRE)"
which holds workshop and keep communicating across faiths.
During my first evening in Limuru I
met by chance the participants in a conference for elders from more than 40
ethnic groups in Kenya (including followers of the Muslim as well Christian
faiths). They were very committed to keep communicating across differences.
The Tanzanian participants in the
training course voiced, seen from their point of view, a distinct difference between Tanzania and Kenya. Kenyans are first
and foremost members of their local ethnic group while Tanzanians are first and
foremost Tanzanians. They see this as a heritage from president Nyerere, who
was the initiator of this sense of community. Although his ideas of African
socialism organized as "Ujama"-villages did not become successful,
his thoughts have had a lasting impact.
History and heritage of President
Julius Nyerere (1922-1999) (Wikipedia
article)
Julius Nyerere quote: "A
nation which refuses to learn from foreign cultures is nothing but a nation of
idiots and lunatics...[but] to learn from other cultures does not mean we
should abandon our own”
Final thought on past, present, and future oriented worldviews
Finally, these thought reminds me
of a Dalai Lama quote: There are only two days in the year where nothing can be
done. One is called YESTERDAY and the other is called TOMORROW, so today is the
right day to love, believe, do, and mostly live".
This text is "Teach GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP" network newsletter no. 13
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