Introduction by Dr. Haniff

The 2007 Pedagogy of Action, sponsored by GIEU distinguished itself from the previous years in several ways. It was a more diverse program than before.  The racial binary was basically black and white with Black students far outnumbering White students. Although this binary was again present, there were other students of color: there was Bharat a student form India, Lys was born in the Congo, Christina and Jerry, students of Filipino descent, Michaelyn of Hispanic descent, and Ashley who is from Surinam  but of Lebanese descent. Indeed one day when the students were sitting in the canteen at the University of Zululand one of the South African students came up to them and said you guys make me think that  America might really be a diverse  place. An interesting comment given that this is the year that proposition 2 (an amendment to prevent publicly funded institutions from using affirmative action in state school admissions and awarding of state contracts) passed in the state of Michigan. Certainly this diverse student body was a result  of the great efforts the University of Michigan  has made towards inclusion.  The Pedagogy of Action attracts students who are keen on the work of the pedagogy  which is  the empowerment of ordinary people to take responsibility for solving their own problems, in this case HIV.

It is interesting that in South Africa, since the fall of apartheid, the universities have been developing ways to  include service as a part  of academic education. The tension between learning as knowledge  in academia  and learning as knowledge grounded in the community  is at the nexus of education  for all developing countries and in newly emerging democracies like  South Africa. The Pedagogy of Action is an example of this praxis, that  responsibility to one’s community does not exclude theoretical rigor or academic  excellence. This is why the University of Kwa-zulu Natal, and the Universities of Zululand and Witwatersrand are keenly interested in the Pedagogy of Action. This year we graduated 110 students at the University of Zululand, in the HIV module, last year we graduated 60. This year at the University of Witwatersrand, we had students develop the module in 10 different languages which include Sotho, Zulu, Xhosa, Yoruba, Lingala and so on. We met  ten of the students who graduated in our program last year and they told the story of what they did in their home villages in Kwa-Zulu Natal. They were so empowered by the HIV methodology that they were able to teach over 4000 people in their communities and high schools out of their own commitment to act. This to me is how education can be a force for true citizenship and democracy. These stories were so inspiring because they had no infrastructural support, they just wanted to educate their own communities and felt that at last they had a way of doing this. We had promised them that we would return and we kept that promise which is why we named this report, Keeping the Promise.

There were many obstacles. When we insisted that the students develop the module in their own language, some of the students could not understand why. This is because English is so hegemonic. It is the language of the powerful and the educated, it is the language of instruction, then why would you go to the university to be told that you must develop something in Zulu? But we insisted on this and in the end  prevailed.  The module appeared too simple, there were no complex scientific terms and often when they taught it back they reflexively made it complex. The grounding of our own students about the importance of simplicity always required their intervention in saying for example what does secretion mean when the students should say fluids. Always the students must use words that are accessible to their audience. This was a great difficulty for many because  their education was structured for them not for their community, another critical premise of the pedagogy.

Although I have been to South Africa many times, I was particularly struck by Constitutional Hill this time. The women’s prison museum was opened this year as part of the Constitution Hill prison memory. It was beautifully curated, a stunning homage to the struggle of women to end apartheid. Again I am seduced by South Africa in this period of transition and their commitment to memory and consciousness. Jacqulyn writes about this in her piece on the Women’s Prison.  I found it interesting that when Zakiyah wrote the first dispatch, Diligentia Cresco that her by line was  – Signing Off, Zakiyah Sayyed Co-assistant/team mate Pedagogy of Action, 2007. This idea of team member was picked up by each writer after that and they all signed their dispatches  with the  same by line following the first signifier that they were a team.

My memories are full of the wonderful dancing of our students. Brown a choreography student from the dance department transformed the students into a tolerable dance group. Renee was the hip hop choreographer. Lys had the students do a Congolese dance. Erika was the drummer, and Brown and Zakiyah choreographed the step. They were beautiful to watch and it bonded them. The South African students went wild and broke out into their own spontaneous singing and dancing in appreciation. This we did to thank them. Last year Gabriel performed his poetry which they loved, this year they danced.  It was their gift of appreciation because in South Africa while they were engaged in the pedagogy of action they felt alive. For that month they lived lives of meaning and relevance and were transformed. To be alive is to make a difference.

Nesha Z. Haniff
Signing Off, Director and team mate, The Pedagogy of Action

This year, they danced.