A Teacher's Travels & Search for Math/Science Theorems that aren't Named after White Men |
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A Teacher's Travels & Search for Math/Science Theorems that aren't Named after White Men |
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'Mholoweni! Sawubona! I'm back in Botswana but am awaiting the government shutdown to end so that the US embassy can give me security clearance so that I can start visiting schools. In the meantime, I'm reading, exploring (sort of...it's 98 degrees/39 degrees and a sprawling city without a car).
"When you return to Botswana, please don't say, 'fokoff'" The rest of my time in Cape Town was exceptional.....sure Cape Town is exceptionally beautiful...where else are you surrounded by mountains, painted in flowers and in front of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans? Nowhere else. But no, Cape Town was exceptional of course because of its people. I navigated Cape Town through the eyes of my dear friend, sister even, who I just met last week--Mandisa (wrote about her in previous post), a Xhosa woman and lecturer at University of Cape Town, one of South Africa's best universities and through Sarah Henkeman, a conflict and social justice researcher who put together a beautiful book, Disrupting Denial: Analysing Narratives of Invisible/Visible Violence & Trauma. As well as through the eyes of Sarah's son, Josh, who is my and Mandisa's age, and Sarah's many friends, who contributed to this lovely, important book, which eloquently and authentically does work to decolonize the narratives of apartheid that were dished out in the West. As we know in the US, institutional racism does not simply dissolve with new regimes, black presidents and the collapse of monuments. Trauma runs deep and this book explores those traumas in South Africa. PLEASE BUY THIS book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GCT7L12/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 "Good night! I love you." Mandisa, perhaps the warmest, most sincere, lovely person I've ever met (absolutely no hyperbole), as I've mentioned before is from Port Elizabeth and fell in love with Cape Town at a young age before she recently settled there. Her Cape Town is a complex place that one must navigate with the most optimistic eyes, the most open heart and always using public transit. She shows me Kirstenbosch, and its gardens, her favorite trees, while accurately criticizing who gets to access its surrounding community. She shows me how to collect stunning purple shells on the beaches of Muzenberg, while observing the ways in which the beaches are divided, and which beaches are considered safe. She takes me West African drumming on Long Street, points out its trendy restaurants and shares with me her observations of how the street and its life changes based on the time of day and the laborers' schedules. Mandisa also accompanies me to Khayelitsha to visit Molo Mhlaba, a network of Pan-African girls schools (previously wrote about). On the way, she points out her noticing that it is impossible to get to Muzenberg beaches, relatively close to Khayetlisha, with less than three buses, which makes me think of redlining in my own city and ways white supremacist societies keep black people out across the world. Seeing Cape Town through the eyes of Mandisa is a treasure. Molo Mhlaba : "As black women, we don't have land. So the name, in a way, is about us taking the land." More on Molo Mhlaba---molo mhlaba in Xhosa means, "hello land" or "hello earth." The interior walls of the school are a deep magenta, and as far as schools I've been, it's relatively quiet but not oppressive like a "level zero" charter school. Little girls in pink and purple smile and greet us as we come into their classrooms, and teachers seem incredibly happy too. Things seem to run smoothly, even though the school year has just begun. I love this school, and I love the black women who conceptualized the school, who run the school, who fundraise for the school, who teach in the classrooms, and who cook for the children. This school and its model should be replicated and then of course the leadership of these schools should be given to black women local to the communities in which the schools will sit. Please support them: https://molomhlaba.org/get-involved/ "They're mostly from the white group" Getting to know the people of mixed race, classified as "coloured" during Apartheid, most set my experience in Cape Town apart from the other cities I visited. I climbed Table Mountain with a guide, put in that group, who grew up in District 6, whose residents were forcefully removed during apartheid. He shared with me his experiences of spending time in the mountains as a child and his father's activism during apartheid. I was his only client that day, and he expressed that he was happy to get to climb with another person of color, as he normally just climbs with white people. I love nature, and I've often felt that the reason black and brown people generally do less "nature things" is because of how being outdoors was associated with labor and often forced labor. My guide, Miles, shared this sentiment, and we really bonded exchanging stories about race, hiking and our love of the flora and fauna we passed along the way. We promised to take a trip to Alaska together one day, and both agreed that our 5 hour climb and descent was not enough time spent together. Sarah's son, Josh, briefly shared with me what it's like to grow up with the "coloured" classification, with the knowledge of having blackness in your blood and genes, and how you are read in post-apartheid Cape Town. You are followed by security and sometimes forbidden from entering your white friends' homes. And yet, you may even feel conflicted because you know you occupy a space that is "superior" to other groups because of the nastiness of the still pervasive racial class system and hierarchy that apartheid created. We discussed the complexities of race and passing when you leave SA and are read as black in most other parts of the world. Enough of SA for now, although I already have plans to return soon to see loved ones and to visit a school in eSwatini (Swaziland). Hopefully by the next time I write, the government will be open, not mostly for my sake, but for the sake of all those who are working without pay because of an old rich white man, who should never lead anyone, having a temper tantrum. Nqwenela-----Tess (anique)
1 Comment
Sue Levine
1/16/2019 03:52:20 pm
Thanks for writing this great post about your adventure! I am sorry the gov't is shut down but thrilled that you had a chance to have a such a rich experiences and great fellowship!!!
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AuthorFulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching Archives
April 2019
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