So, as I have said before, we are rommies with an American professor named (for the purposes of this blog) Candice. We heard some strange things about her from our Austrian friend Sophie. She has some pretty interesting views on Africa, development and how one acts coming to a developing country from a place of privilege. Growing up in the US, my view of the world has always been shaped by privilege. The reason I want to go into a "helping" or humanitarian profession is because I'm very conscious I came from privilege and feel like it's my place to give back. So in a collective sense, I want to use my position of privilege for the benefit of others. I believe I could just as easy have been born into another economic/political/social situation in which I would experience institutionalized racism and extreme inequalities. I want to help people for the sake of helping people, not because I'm looking to gain any monetary value from them, or the experience. I also believe that people have the immense capacity to help themselves. To be honest, I think some of the best roads that can be taken are grassroot ones. So! Those are my thoughts. You can like them or not, and that's your problem.
Now, Candice here invited us to come to her English class where they were finishing up a unit on MLK Jr and civil disobedience in the United States. As I've said before, her students think we're stuck up for not talking to people, so my friend Courtney and I decided to come with her to the last class of the term to talk with her students. Our presence really shocked them, and that was obvious. We were given desks facing the class, but were not told what we would be expected to talk about. The first 40 minutes or so was Candice introducing the topic of civil disobedience by asking them to define it in English. Then she lead a preliminary discussion about the current acts of civil disobedience seen here in Dakar. Now, lets be clear that this was an English class discussing Senegalese current events. English is the third, sometimes fourth or fifth language for these students--since I'm guessing that at least Wolof and French come first, not including other regionally based ethnic languages. (And for the record, even if an African can't speak a European language, they are usually fluent in at least 2-5 local languages...obviously not as "backward" or "barbaric" as some think they are. But I digress.) So these students are experiencing the same frustrations as us, as foreign students: they have coherent, well formed thoughts in the language they are comfortable with, but maneuvering around vocabulary and fragmented grammar structures yields a statement that sounds much less fluid and well organized. It can be frustrating trying to communicate our ideas in a different language, especially when we want a presence to our words. I could see this as we covered the positives and negatives of civil disobedience. We heard examples from other countries, and predictions for the Senegalese political system.
Meanwhile, both Courtney and I had a huge problem with Candice. She was assuming the role of the paternalistic, all-knowing, tubaab coming to Africa to educate the black man. She tried to tell them that the Jehovah's Witness missionaries whose church was burned gave out crosses and bibles to Muslims because they wanted to give them gifts from their hearts, and as means of extending a hand of friendship. Which is complete nonsense, they were, as they do here in America, going from door to door trying to sell their religion. In Dakar, they were asked repeatedly to stop calling door to door, and were told they were being very disrespectful to a community of devout Muslims. However, they persisted--hence the burned church. (Which is unforgivable, don't get me wrong, but the Jehovah's Witness weren't respecting the peoples' beliefs or cultural boundaries). In another debate, Candice told them to use their "teacher voices" when speaking in front of their peers (college students!). Then told me to delegate to them how to move their desks in to a circle for discussion groups, and also told me to facilitate their discussion. Excuse me? These are graduate students who have absolutely no need for me to tell them how to move their desks into a circle. Nor do they need me, a visiting undergrad, to facilitate their discussion. So I just moved my desk into the circle, and asked the student next to me to come up with a question and lead the discussion. All I did was sit back and listen to their opinions.
All of them argued for peaceful demonstrations, saying rioting only caused damage to property which would require their own money to repair. They said they wish civil disobedience wasn't necessary but they felt like the Senegalese public needed to use a direct means of getting the message across to Wade that they weren't going to stand for the institution of a monarchy. It was wonderful to hear all of their opinions and have them be interested in mine. I loved being in their class once Candice stepped aside and I was able to talk with the students myself. On our way out, because we had our Wolof class before their class ended, several people offered to help us with our French and Wolof. I just really hope that they don't think we all are like Candice, thinking we are better than them and trying to manipulate their beliefs. When she came home that afternoon, she said her students were really surprised that American students would take time out of their day and volunteer to talk to them. According to her, her students didn't think they were worth our time. I hate that they think that, it makes me feel awful, but I'm not sure their perspective was being manipulated.
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