Mandela Washington Project Underway in Windhoek, Namibia!

I arrived in Windhoek on Wednesday afternoon and have been meeting and getting acquainted with project staff from ChiNamibia.  You can check out ChiNamibia, an Arts Education for Development and empowerment trust that works with children and young people in child development and Arts Education.  

Next week, we will begin teaching our adult learners, who are teachers from the local area, students from Windhoek's College of the Arts, and (wait for it.....) a gospel choir!  Imagine my excitement when I learned that an entire gospel choir signed up!  Thanks to everyone at Appalachian State University, St. Luke's Episcopal Church Choir, my family, and friends in the Boone community who sent me off with blessings and well wishes.  I am here to offer friendship through music on behalf of us all.  

The College of the Arts is a city college, and you can see that we are located in the city center, near the various embassies and a bustling buzz of capitol city activity.  Hallways and courtyards are filled with works in progress created by the visual arts students, and our classrooms are stocked with percussion instruments, marimbas and a dance studio. 

 


We are developing pedagogy for an integrated arts curriculum, so I will have to learn how to play and sing Namibian music brought to the workshop by the participants.  The college students will bring the marimba music, the teachers will bring children's songs and folk tales, and the gospel choir will bring choral songs.  We are putting it all together with African stories, and the ChiNamibia performing arts specialists will contribute the important ingredients of drama and dance. 

The grand finale is a public performance on June 29, at the end of the second week.  The adult participants will teach middle school aged children during the second week of the workshop, as the staff and I facilitate and evaluate their teaching.  Upon completion, they will earn a certificate towards a teaching qualification for arts and culture in Namibian public schools. 

Although our University of Johannesburg International project is in hiatus at the end of a busy week of performances, master classes and interviews; we will continue through publication and documentary development as we look forward to the future.  Meanwhile, Dennis and I headed over to Windhoek, Namibia for a short weekend of fellowship and a meeting with Ms. Kapena Vetira.  Kapenangutjiua Vetira is the founder and director of Children of Namibia (ChiNamibia) Arts Education for Development, a non-profit organization founded in 2013, which educates, develops, and empowers children and young people through arts and culture. 

Kapena is a Mandela Washington Fellow who completed her fellowship at Appalachian State University this past summer. She is writing a grant proposal for continuation of the ChiNamibia organization, headquartered in Windhoek.

Kapena and I headed out to a game ranch to clear our heads and ride through the bush looking for rhinos and giraffes.  Some people close their best deals on the golf course, but I like to get the job done over a nice afternoon game drive.  

  

MMMM....pap and stew - eat it with your hands and share among your table mates!
The restaurant in Soweto was one of many stops along the way, as we taught master classes for the students at the Funda Community College.  The students are studying the performing arts with the purpose of obtaining skills that enable paying jobs in the community.

One afternoon, we performed in the University of Johannesburg library.  The percussionist found students and like a pied piper, called them to the performance by playing music as they walked up the stairs with students following.  Dennis video recorded by walking backwards up the stairs (to the 6th floor!!!) with his GoPro camera on a selfie stick.  I can't wait to see THAT video. 

After the performance, we hurried over to UJFM, the university radio station, where we were interviewed.  

Left to right: Dr. Sonkanise Nkosi (South Africa), Dr. Peter Okeno (Ghana), and Dr. Rama Mani (India/France). 

Sitting with me here is Mr. Bill Cisco (USA and South Africa), along with the news reporter studying the internet news feeds for the hourly report.  Bill is a member of the well-known band THE DRIFTERS, and his R&B music complemented the African tradition drums, my spirituals and Rama's poetry and testimony from genocide survivors around the world.  

 NGO directors from around Johannesburg hosted a dinner with very active discussion about music in the protests and emancipation/liberation activities around the globe.  This diverse group of guests included academics and artists from Muslim, Hindu, and Christian backgrounds as well as activists from Syria, Turkey, African and European nations.  Much discussion about the concerns for immigrants and refugees in the U.S. surprised me, since my early visits to South Africa involved more concern about African social justice. 

I have to admit, I L-O-V-E radio performances and interviews! You never know who you are reaching, and the mystery listeners are as precious as the audience members who are sitting in the performance spaces with us.