Another Visit to the School of Environmental Studies

Today, I visited the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley, Minnesota, to speak in Todd Carlson's class. The class deals with indigenous knowledge and mythology











Todd shares with the students the mythologies of various traditional cultures, such as Native American, Aboriginal Australians, and the Khoisan of Southern Africa.

He also shares with the students some parts of my Matengo Folktales. Whenever I visit the School, I meet students who are well prepared.



 

As in the past, we had a great experience today. After my brief introduction, highlighting Africa as the original home of humans, the cradle of technology, language and other specifically human accomplishments, I talked about the emergence and evolution of storytelling.

The students had, as usual, engaging questions, spanning the spectrum from the intriguing similarities among different folklore traditions, to the modalities and ethics of folklore field work to the vexed question of translation.

Afrifest Foundation Board Meeting, November 3

Today, the board of the Afrifest Foundation met at the Center for Families, in Minneapolis. Attending the meeting were--from left to right in the photo--Kechi Bisong, Joseph L. Mbele, Wycliff Chakua, Teddy Kobingi, and Beatrice Adenodi.

In the absence of Nathan White, Afrifest Foundation Executive Secretary, who is traveling around Africa,  Wycliff Chakua chaired the meeting.

Teddy is a new member of the Board, who brings much experience in the financial and non-profit world. Beatrice, CEO and chief marketing specialist of Mirror Ink Productions, joined the Foundation a few weeks ago, bringing valuable expertise in various fields, such as marketing, promotions, and fundraising.

Today's agenda centered on planning for the 2013 Afrifest Festival. We are starting the planning process earlier than in the past, and we want to do things somewhat differently. We are excited to have established partnerships with Carifest, the Duluth Reggae Festival and ACER Inc. We will work together in various ways, including jointly promoting our events and programs.

The Afrifest Foundation will conduct two fund-raising events before the main Afrifest festival, which we have scheduled for mid-August, 2013. One of these events will be held in March and the other one in June. Unlike in the past when members of the board did all the planning and implementation of the festival, now we will have a festival coordinator as well as a music coordinator.

With all the work that has been done to build the Afrifest Foundation to its present level, we are all excited about the Foundation's future. We look forward to very successful fund-raising events, the August festival and other programs.

A Friend Who Inspired my "Africans and Americans" book

Two days ago, I had the opportunity to meet my dear friend, Professor John Greenler of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He came to visit St. Olaf College with his daughter. If you have read my book, Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences, you probably have seen Professor Greenler's name in the "Acknowledgements" page.

Professor Greenler and I have known each other for over ten years, from the time we both served as advisors on the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) Tanzania program. When we first met, Professor Greenler was teaching at Beloit College. We used to meet in Chicago with advisors from other schools, planning and evaluating the program. I would constantly elaborate on cultural issues faced by American students in Tanzania.

When the time came for Professor Greenler to take students to Tanzania, he asked me to write down some cultural hints, even if only a few paragraphs, so he would have something to fall back on while in Tanzania. I was touched by his request, and I started writing.

While the manuscript was still quite rough and rudimentary, it fell into the hands of other people who take Americans to Tanzania. They eagerly started using it. When I discovered this, I was embarrassed, because the manuscript did not reflect my abilities as a writer.  Instead of complaining and doing nothing else, I decided to revise the manuscript as much as I could. After working intensively for four months, I published Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences in February 2005. It was, actually, Professor Greenler who suggested the subtitle "embracing cultural differences," and I liked it instantly. I am
 grateful that the book is widely read and used. Writers want to be read, and, on this score, I cannot complain.

As we met, I reminded Professor Greenler about how he inspired me to write this book. I made sure to let his daughter know that this is what happened. We enjoyed talking about Tanzania, my beloved country, which Professor Greenler and his family like very much.

Professor Greenler told me about ACM students he took to Tanzania who continue to be involved with Tanzania in one way or another. We advisors of study abroad programs are aware of these dynamics. We are always gratified and feel vindicated, since one of our main dreams is building positive relationships between the people of our countries.

Twin Cities Book Festival, 2012

Today I was in St. Paul, Minnesota, participating in the Twin Cities Book Festival as a book exhibitor, using my business name, Africonexion.











The Twin Cities Book Festival is annual event which has traditionally been held at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College. This year, the venue was the State Fairgrounds in nearby St. Paul.










As usual, many people came to the Festival: book lovers, book sellers, publishers, educators and members of the general public. There were people of all ages.


































I arrived at the Festival a little late, but that was not a problem. I quickly set up my table and started talking with people who stopped by. I remember, for example, two families who came separately to my table. In the course of our conversation, they said they were from Bemidji, a town further north from the Twin Cities. I told them I have been there, and that Bemidji is a special place for me as great fan of Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway's fourth wife, Mary Walsh, was from Bemidji. I also told them that Hemingway and Mary traveled together to East Africa, staying there a few months, in 1953-1954. I went further, saying that I seem to be always reading or thinking about Hemingway. I showed them Leicester Hemingway's My Brother, Ernest Hemingway, which I had with me today.





I talked with many people sharing much with them and learning from them. There was, for example, a gentleman from the Pathfinder Press. We talked about the work of the Press, about which I have known for many years. We talked about Cuba's role in the liberation of southern Africa, and the relationship between Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro. I bought a book about the "Cuban Five," which I am eager to start reading.

St. Olaf Off-campus Studies Open House

Today, here at St. Olaf College, we held another off-campus studies open house. This is an event to promote our off-campus and international programs. We offer students information about these programs. I am the advisor for the ACM Botswana program, the ACM Tanzania program, and the Lutheran Colleges Consortium for Tanzania (LCCT) program.






St. Olaf College runs, or participates in, many programs around the world: from Australia to Costa Rica, from Florence in Italy to South Africa. Some of these programs are month-long, others semester-long, and some year-long. Today we showcased semester and year-long programs.













St. Olaf College is well known for its study abroad programs, among other things. Many students come to St. Olaf because of the prospect of going to study abroad.
















This was another day of meeting students and also other program advisors. Scott Ozaroski and Hannah Whitehead from the ACM office in Chicago participated in the events today and since their table was adjacent to mine, we had some time to chat. Scott kindly took the photo of me and the two students seen at the top of this page.

More Good News About My "Africans and Americans" Book

I wrote Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences to facilitate my work of advising American students going to study in Africa. I was painfully aware that there was no book I could rely on for the kind of orientation I wanted for these students. I therefore decided to write my own book.

I am grateful that other people like this book. Lately, Elizabeth M. Cannon and Carmen Heider, professors at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, have written about their experience of using this book. In a recently published article, they discuss their experience of leading a study abroad program in Tanzania, including the challenges of motivating students and providing them socio-cultural orientation. They led the program several times, learning from each experience in order to improve the program. Here is what they did during the third year:

We also thought carefully about how to design our on-site class sessions to reflect our commitment to active, student-centered learning, and provide general guidance to our students. We decided to focus these classes on Mbele’s Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences, one of our readings from 2008, because this Tanzanian author challenges stereotypes through the presentation of his cultural experiences. Before we left the United States, we divided students into four groups and assigned each a section of this text on which they would lead one of four on-site class sessions. On-site discussions focused on comparisons between Mbele’s views of Tanzanian life and students’ interactions with the people they met and the places they visited. Frustration was replaced with excited conversations. These classes shifted from tense obligations where learning was stifled to an exciting component of the trip where insights flourished (p. 68).

I am happy and grateful that the book is such a helpful resource for others.

Iringa Lutheran Centre

Last year, I stayed at the Iringa Lutheran Centre with students on the LCCT program. The Center is hidden away in a corner of Iringa, off the road from the Regional Library to Kihesa. A quiet, well kept establishment, the Centre has guest rooms and a restaurant.

Here I am with Tom Nielsen, the director of the Center. He and I had first met in Grantsburg, Wisconsin, where we both conducted a retreat for Lutherans. In his apartment across the street, I saw a copy of my Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences among his books. It is a small world.

Thanks to Don Fultz, a pastor who tirelessly promotes relations between Tanzanian and American Lutherans, my students and I traveled from Dar es Salaam to Iringa with guests from the Roseville Lutheran Church. They were going to Iringa on the Bega kwa Bega program. I discovered, as soon as we met, that these people knew about me. Dave and Karen Dudley, their trip leaders,  had urged them to read my Africans and Americans book. For much of the journey from Dar es Salaam to Iringa, I answered their questions about the nuances of African culture.

Our two groups stayed at the Iringa Lutheran Centre for several days, even though each had its own daytime schedule. We met during breakfast and dinner. One evening, I did a book signing, which I wrote about here.

Tom and his staff made our stay at the Centre a pleasant experience.