May 25 was Africa Day, which commemorates the founding of
the Organization of African Unity, joined by 30 out of 32 independent African
states.
Oval North, a high school in Mitchell’s Plain (a designated
colored township, built as they forced District 6 residents out of the city in
the 1960s and 70s) celebrated Africa Day with a morning assembly to celebrate
Africa’s freedom and future. After
visiting the courts with their school nurse/counselor/wellness program
coordinator/etc. last week, I was invited to attend this event with the
volunteer who was placed there. There
was a lot of excitement in the school since the “learners” (what they call
students) were permitted to wear “something that represented Africa” instead of
their school uniforms. Further, it was
the volunteer’s last day there so she had a lot of good byes to be said and
there was always a buzz when she’d walk through the hallways (she was the first
American volunteer to help at the school so she was immediately elevated to celebrity
status as soon as she stepped through the gate). As we cruised through the hallways people
asked her to take pictures with them and over the course of the morning we both
acquired enough clothing and jewelry and tribal face paintings to look like native
Africans.
The assembly started 3 hours after school started but
certainly no one had done any studying that morning despite exams starting next
Monday; instead we heard the band practicing, saw learners painting each other
faces, and others making posters to decorate for and celebrate Africa Day. The assembly started with the student-led
school band energizing the audience and the “honored guests” (speakers and
other outside guests like myself) were escorted in by girls dressed in tribal
wear. The entire assembly was arranged
by students and a new teacher in the school who has certainly taken the lead on
school improvement and empowerment activities.
The astonishing emcee was a popular student who always had
the crowd cheering and laughing. Honestly, his intercessions were really among
the most inspiring, impactful pieces of the event. He would reiterate the most important points
that the speakers said in case students weren’t paying attention to the
important messages about history, freedom, education, the future, and
HIV/AIDS. The speakers were well
planned, however, and included a gentleman from South Africa History Online who
talked about the origins of Africa Day and how education is the future; a woman
from University of the Western Cape who spoke about a leadership and dialogue
program they have at the school and shared her HIV status to make a point that the
learners should make good choices; and our very own volunteer who gave one of
the more inspiring talks of the morning about how excellent their school is (it
really is advanced…it’s specialized to business and engineering students) and
encouraged the youth to stay in school so they could achieve great things
(tear). As the emcee commentated, other
schools would bring in help to plan and present an assembly of this caliber,
but Oval North had everything it needed to make an incredible event—their
lively band played popular songs and had the learners up and dancing or at
least rocking in their place while a clearly exhilarated principal tried to
maintain order by keeping the youth seated, their choir (by far the most
popular) sang traditional African songs with dancing and solos that really got
the crowd going, and a drill squad that marched and drummed a salute to
Africans and their departing volunteer (an “honorary African”).
Inspired by the students at Oval North, I asked to arrange
an afternoon placement there. After
discussions with CCS and Oval North staff, I learned of a couple of issues affecting students and heard concern from the principal that those
students would not complete their education, resulting in a bleak future for
them and their children. Last week, I
developed a proposal for a 6-week group session to carry out with a group of these learners. I’m
looking forward to sharing more about how this progresses though many of the details of the program will be kept confidential to protect those involved. Please feel free to contact me directly for more details about this program.
