Zakiyah Sayyed

Zululand:

Our first Stop in South Africa was to the University of Zululand. This university was originally established as a sub-college, which was affiliated with the University of South Africa. Since this establishment in 1960, Uni-Zul has become a comprehensive institution of education equal to all of the institutions of higher education in South Africa. Their current Rector, deliberated on the evolution of the University. Rector Rachel Gumbi is the first female Rector this university has seen.

Gugu Gule, (Mama Gugu) greeted upon our arrival to Zululand. She served as professor Haniff’s assistant at the University of Zululand. She was the liaison between our team and the University. Mama Gugu also served as our South African Mother. She welcomed us and held high expectations of us as scholars and activists in this community.

Over the two weeks at Zululand the pedagogy team formed strong bonds together, which allowed us to remain, a strong team throughout the rest of the trip. We became a family amongst each other and a family amongst the students and staff whom we all grew to love. Even after the teaching was done, students of Ayana and Wynter, came to bid us fair well, when we left. Another student called Zakiyah some weeks later to wish her happy birthday, after the pedagogy team had already left. Signs of affection such as these are evidence of the everlasting bonds that were formed at the University of Zululand.

Our first task at Zululand was to teach our peers the module. They then translated it into Zulu. Once, every one taught back to us, we picked out our best teachers to teach back in the community. These students then taught back at a local school, just outside the campus and they also taught to a group of cleaners who worked for the university. On site at the local elementary school, a woman was noted for saying, that after learning the module she felt thankful, fore now she could hug people and not be afraid of contracting HIV. This was a critical point that stud out during our work. Another transforming moment that was brought about by this work was with the cleaners who were taught back on campus. Most of the Women, had been in this room many times, cleaning, but this was the first time that they were in this room as students. At that moment they had became subjects of the university where they had previously been objects of the university.

Our biggest challenges at the University of Zululand, were adapting the module and the performance of the module in a way that would not be offensive to elders. Certain subjects surrounding sex aren’t discussed, between generations. Our peers at the university educated us on what was appropriate. They then adjusted their delivery of the module accordingly. One other challenge was a language barrier. In South Africa there are 11 official languages. Many of the students spoke most of the languages, but depending ones family tribe, their pronunciation of certain phrases in another language could been viewed as offensive to an audience member who was of that other tribe. We worked through all of these challenges and in the end our students did an amazing job delivering the needed information back to their community. These University students, like us had been transformed for scholars, to activists, by way of this HIV prevention module.

-Zakiyah Zayyed