Sithembiso Nkosi

Ann O’Nell is a return POA and now a student in the Master’s Degree  in the school of Public Health’s Program . She writes about Sithembiso Nkosi who also has written his own dispatch about the POA and his four years of work with POA at the University of Zululand. I nicknamed him Malcolm X when I first met him four years ago. I consider him an alumni of the POA program.He is completing his honors in community development at the University of Zululand. This dispatch represents a cardinal  principle in POA which is the power of conscientization. Through this we inculcate the agency of all and undermine hegemony whether its source is language or nation.

Enjoy, Nesha Z. Haniff

The Memory I Carry is the Political Discussion We Had

Each year South Africa welcomes Dr. Haniff and her group of students from the University of Michigan to work collaboratively with the SA community on the POA program. One of the destinations for the past 7 years has been UniZulu, a university situated in the north coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal, SA. Zululand is the crown of South Africa holding the rich traditional history of the country, also a place for one to rekindle with the spirit of humanity and nature.

Professor Haniff aka Ziyanda has phenomenal ability of selecting the team she brings to SA.  Each of her teams she brings is uniquely composed of diverse people with great personalities and humanity. The UMICH POA team of students works with Peer Educators in UniZulu an opportunity to network, share ideas and information regarding HIV/AIDS. However, the core reason of this collaboration is the teaching of the Pedagogy of Action HIV/AIDS Module. Ziyanda and her team have given the skills to UniZulu Peer Educators in broadening their thinking as well as identifying how one can utilize the gained knowledge to the best of their abilities.

2012 marks my fourth year in the POA and words cannot express the impact brought by Nesha and the entire POA family has had on me and other Peer Educators. In 2011 I started to be part of the reflective meeting sharing information about how the day has been and the highlight discussing Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The memory I carry is the political discussion we had with Daisy and Frank. It enabled us to see and identify political differences and similarities of RSA, Africa and USA. It opened my eyes on how much power we as RSA citizens have but do not use due to lack of knowledge. Malcolm X eloquently said “a man who stands for nothing will fall for anything”. The POA instilled within the Peer Educators the sense of responsibility to ensure continuity beyond their limited operational scope of passing the HIV/AIDS information properly as it should be done. It gave a firm foundation of boldly sharing information, giving hope and understanding of the challenges and fears of millions of South Africans let alone the small University Of Zululand. In the hour of despair and confusion on how information is vaguely passed, Peer Educators through the POA module and team are exposed to rich ideas and information, which gives us the ability to teach HIV prevention appropriately.

In his dispatch Rocky speaks of “revolutionary re-educators”, Mansi in the same dispatch describes the importance of education as an ability to overturn years of accumulated disadvantages, Dispatch 3 of 2012. Ziyanda’s words are true the POA team does not have an obligation to come to the University of Zululand, challenges of the place brings them. Putting these together it echoes within oneself the words of generosity by Paulo Freire, True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity.
“False charity constrains the fearful and subdues the “rejects of life,” to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands–whether of individuals or entire peoples–need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world.”

The POA team has extended its hand enough for UniZulu to start working in transforming its situation for the better. Having Nesha and her team within us has been the norm, however we should be grateful of the generosity of time and investment she and all the POA teams have put in the UniZulu. 2012 would have been a great loss for the Peer Educators not having the POA team, considering the advanced knowledge shared by the team and discussion of challenges which brought clearer understanding of the HIV/AIDS concepts. The nutrition aspect of the POA Module by Ann brings up neglected facts and information that needs to be shared. It also enables one to clearly define the role and responsibility of the community in joining the struggle of fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This year 2012 the last year of the POA in UniZulu, the team engraved in me, the sense of responsible citizenship of the world and Paulo Freire writings in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

“The liberation of the oppressed is a liberation of women and men, not things. Accordingly, while no one liberates himself by his own efforts alone, neither is he liberated by others. Liberation, a human phenomenon, cannot be achieved by semi humans. Any attempt to treat people as semi humans only dehumanizes them.”

Sithembiso Nkosi aka Malcolm X
Pedagogy of Action Alumni 2012

To view an interview with Sithembiso  click on the link below:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtV4LuaIEhM