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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Mhoro (Shona for 'hello'---it'll make sense later on)! Out of office because that's what the director at the Ministry of Education, responsible for granting me permission to enter Batswana schools is. But, still staying busy. Today I made all of your "African" dreams come true---my feet are dusty from a walk at a nature reserve whose buildings had brown, grass roofs. I went on a game drive and saw some large, strange, seemingly prehistoric animals that we associate with this continent, and I drank a Stoney ginger beer.
"Go Sharpo!" Since I've last posted, I've very much settled in Gabs and have dived deeper into study---not of anything particularly specific, but I'm absorbing everything I can (I was called a sponge once this week, and it wasn't the first time I had received that nickname in my life). At this point, I've read much of the history of Botswana, beginning with the first Bantu speakers on record of being here---historians think they arrived here around 200ad. While there have been and continue to be many groups that call this peaceful, quiet place home, the dominant group is the Tswana. The first president after independence, was of course Tswana, and Setswana is the only other language you'll hear on the radio and TV besides English. This is very different than in South Africa, which has 11 official languages. While everyone I've encountered identifies strongly as Batswana--meaning their national identity is heavily tied to a Tswana identity, they might come from different ethnic groups. When I first met my advisor, I noticed that her surname seemed Xhosa to me. She assured me that I was right. That she is Xhosa. That she speaks a lot of Xhosa. But, Setswana is her language of preference. She tells me, "I am Motswana." I find this to be unique when thinking of other African countries I've visited and studied, and I believe a lot of it has to do with white supremacist fueled turmoil that has been characteristic of the region, southern Africa, for centuries now. Botswana didn't want that mess. Their way of avoiding mess has been through a national identity that is explicitly African, through problem solving and conflict resolution that is never rooted in anger or aggression and intentional instruction around peace. Well, I think. As of now, through my study, through observing people cutting in and out of traffic and never getting honked at and through my eyes, which have yet to witness even a slight argument. "The forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater than the superimposed influences that keep us apart."---Kwame Nkrumah, from Africa Must Unite, 1963 As I've explained, I'm interested in afrocentric approaches to teaching and learning. I'm interested in compiling these findings in a way, yet to be determined (although I have some ideas), and pulling them from throughout this continent and the black diaspora at large. Because of this broader goal, during this study stage, I've been absorbing information, languages, poetry and music from the surrounding countries here in southern Africa. I've been reading about Namibia and their struggle for independence (happened when I was 2), and their pan-African choice to always promote the singing of the African Union Anthem alongside the national anthem. I'm studying san, specifically, Ju/'hoansi, educational practices that happen in the Nye Nye region there. I'm reading colonial legislations that have impacted schooling, like the 1953 Bantu Act in South Africa, which ultimately legalized apartheid in education. I'm reading Red Cotton, poetry by South African, Vangile Gantsho. I'm still talking regularly about what I'm learning, new words I pick up, and my failed attempts to vosho with those lovely beings I was so lucky to encounter and befriend in that country to the south of me. I've connected with, and already learned more from, former 'Deis classmates in Angola and Mozambique in the hopes that they can help me continue to spin my sticky, ever curious web. I've been fascinated with Zimbabwe. "I don’t feel like a foreigner if I am performing in South Africa, or any other African country, because I am an African. As long as I am anywhere in Africa, I am home."--Oliver Mtukudzi I've met many Zimbos while in this southern corner of the world. We know that people migrate when there is political and/or economic unrest and uncertainties in their countries---this is of course the case with Zimbabwe right now. It's not as if there are more than them statistically than Batswana or South Africans, but I think I've met so many of them because they are markedly warm, friendly and brilliantly astute. Zimbabwe is my current neighbor to the east. The country has 16 official languages, but in addition to English, Shona and Ndebele are mostly used. Shona is spoken by the majority. I've been reading Shona folktales that teach lessons about nature and the environment. I've also been reading studies on attempts to incorporate Shona culture into schools in Masvingo, put out by my dream university, Great Zimbabwe University-- a melting pot of afro-centric intellect and thought. I have to read and learn more about Ndebele heritage but know that the language is very similar to Zulu because the Ndebele people descended from followers of a Zulu general who arrived in Zim in the 19th century. Personally, I've befriended a taxi driver who has helped me get around, named Kuda. Kuda is Shona, and he has been teaching me some phrases here and there in Shona, it shares some similarities with Swahili, a language I already speak, and he's shared with me stories about his children and their experiences with school. I saw him today, days after his and many other Zimbabweans, favorite singer, Oliver Mtukudzi sadly passed away. The timing seems cruel---Mtukudzi, beloved not just by people in Zim but throughout the region, has passed during a time in which people are being brutally attacked and censored by their government for protesting bleak, unlivable situations. Kuda tells me of a time he actually met Mtukudzi, and how humble he was, how proud he was to meet a fellow countryman who was a fan of his work. Kuda tells me why he gravitated to Mtukudzi's music instead of toward Thomas Mapfumo's work, which was more political in nature. If his wife weren't Tswana, Kuda would return to his beloved home, despite the present day problems. Poverty In the midst of absorbing, I've also been preparing for a week I'm about to spend in the kingdom of eSwatini (Swaziland) at a school. Borders don't make sense to me in general and especially not the arbitrary ones Europeans drew after torturing, enslaving, and general havoc wreaking here. I enjoy jumping them and seeing the lingual and cultural similarities, differences, evolutions. Anyways, this Swati school has asked me to help, while I'm there learning, with a class of middle schoolers, who are discussing misconceptions about Africa. I made a GoogleForm with questions such as, "Mark all the things that began in Europe (art, literature, etc.);" "What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Africa." I sent the survey to former, current and my colleagues' students. The misconceptions are pretty ludicrous, and I'll write more on them at a different time. However, most all of the children surveyed are black American students, and most wrote, "poverty," "war," or "wildlife," as the first words that come to mind when they think of Africa. All these children, at least in my experience, understand that their ancestors came from Africa. I can't help but think their negative associations and stereotypes with Africa also help inform their negative senses of self. How can they disassociate their ideas with Africa from how they see themselves? I imagine they can't, and that's something I want to keep exploring. Bana (Setswana for children) A long rambling post, from a long rambling week. Tomorrow I'm spending the morning in a tutoring center, which uses traditional practices to push the thinking of the bana. Apparently the best chess player in the country will be there, and no I will not be challenging her. Then I have a playdate with a 6 year old daughter of a new friend. I'm looking forward to her telling me why she had to beat up a bunch of boys the other day at the pool. I feel joyful and blessed, and I hope you feel the same. -Tess (but what is your Tswana name? You're sure just Tess?) Raser
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AuthorFulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching Archives
April 2019
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