Dilara Uskup

This piece is written by Dilara Uskup whose concentration is in The Ford School of  Public Policy focusing on how policies affect sexual behavior. She is going into her third year and is also a minor in CAAS. She writes about my beautiful friend Mr. Bango.

Enjoy, Nesha

The Roots of Humanity

To the disappointment of many the face of Africa is not in the beauty of the world’s strongest animal -The Elephant, nor is it in the seamless, perfect, meeting of the shore and the sky, and it is certainly not the image of the Zulu man running around in tribal wear sleeping on dirt. The face of Africa is a face deeply rooted in the human face: its boldness, eyes shrouded in history and deep in thought, and body muscular and carved. Africa is “the people” and not “the place”.

Last week we were privileged to teach at the Zwelibomvu Primary School in Pine town  located outside of Durban.  As Anthony Bluford reflected last week, the school lacked some basic essentials, and is  in the process of renegotiating its identity and future in a post-Apartheid  education system..

Our days were filled with difficulty as we were literally foreigners to them. We were the first Americans that  they ever met. We were thrilled and impressed by the student’s tenacity and will to learn. I remember wrapping up the first day as a gentleman with a beautiful smile, slipped into the classroom anxious to listen to our reflections, thoughts, and comments about his children. It was the very warm-hearted, genuine, sincere, and enthralled face of Mr. Bango the principal. He had been responsible for organizing  our program in his school. He wanted his students  to be challenged, and to begin to know the world outside of Zwelibomvu.

Though he was new to the school, over his past year of administration much progressive transformation has taken place. The school’s library had grown tremendously, the students were  now experiencing more English instruction,and  a more generous and demanding curricula. Although, we only had limited meetings with him I knew that no matter how arduous the job or difficult the road ahead that no one else but Mr. Bango could lead them. He nurtures the school and, loves and respects his students. He aids their development as people and as intellectual wholes. Their energy around him is electric.They seem to get so much out of him.

Change is possible and attainable as long as there is belief in the action of people. Though there maybe schools that are struggling in the urban cores of the US, we must recall the awe inspiring stories of men like Mr. Bango.  Transformation is beyond attainable.  It is not any village that can raise a child but the one that is competent, loving, nurturing, hopeful, and challenging. The community of Pine Town will surely have great accomplishments in their future. Africa is not the village. Africa is not the animals living in it either. Africa is the energized, willful, ideological and committed, face…the face of men like Mr. Bango.

Signing Off, Pedagogy of Action 2010 Team Mate

Dilara Uskup