Conclusion by Rocky Block

The Pedagogy of Action 2006 physically took place in South Africa.  The transformations which in us became incarnate, took place in the hearts of all us who participated.  We took theory from the university and combined it with practice and reflection to produce praxis.  As we became activists working towards empowering others, our humanity too was transformed.  We are all connected.  Desmond Tutu writes about a phrase in South Africa that articulates what we experienced.  It is Ubuntu.  “It is to say ‘ My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours’.  We say, ‘A person is a person through other persons.’  What dehumanizes you inexorably dehumanizes me.”  I cannot be fully human unless you are fully human.  This is why we must engage in the struggle with the oppressed.  This is why we went alongside others to combat HIV in South Africa.  This is why we must continue to fight alongside the marginalized, because until they are freed, none of us are truly human.  But most of all, Ubuntu, can be seen in the expression of the woman in the picture below.  She raised her arms in thanksgiving for the module that gave her hope.  Her hope gives us hope.  Ubuntu is hope, and hope is what propels the idea of humanity into a concrete reality.

-Rocky Block