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I was part of a cohort of 10 multi-disciplinary eductors, half from higher ed, half from secondary, that traveled around Tanzania, starting on the island of Zanzibar. There we spent a week at a homestay, learning some Swahili, and about how climate change is impacting folks on this incredible island. Led by Dr. Richard Walz, from the School For International Training, we had incredible access to data scientists, politicians, environmentalists, public policy experts and farmers from Zanzibar, to Dar es Salaam, to the Ngoro Ngoro crater, to the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
The cultural and environmental experiences and understandings throughout this project were rich, varied, and challenging. Equally valuable were the conversations led by Dr. Walz, among our cohort each day as we processed what we were learning.
Integrating authentic lessons exploring Cultural Competency in my classrooms is a long standing goal of mine. The goals of Tuka Pamoja were:
- Design an action plan for teaching with related artifacts that focuses on concrete and measurable ways to integrate environmental studies and area studies within their curriculum through a decolonial lens.
- Integrate Tanzania-specific case studies, locally- sourced and co-created artifacts, and expertise from a network of professionals, educators, and local community members into their U.S.-based teaching practice.
- Delineate the social and cultural impacts of climate change on human relationships with wildlife, domesticated animals, plants, material goods, water, and the arts, particularly in an African context.
- Explain present climate change challenges and innovative mitigations using Tanzania-Zanzibar as a microcosm of the African continent.
To that end, I created four "Artifacts," lessons that I will use in my class. I'll post all four in detail:
Artifact 1 - Shifting Rains
The Community partners we met on Zanzibar described shifts of agricultural, cultural and societal practices based on changes in rainfall patterns, and increasing temperature. In particular, data scientist Dr. Mary Tumwa from University of Zanzibar, ecologist Mr. Sele, from Ngizi Forest on Pemba, and experimental farmer, Mr. Amour all shared with us shifts. These included agricultural adaptation of new food crops that require less water, saltwater intrusion into the groundwater, as well as erosion challenges with shorter, but bigger rainfall events.
Creating grab and go curricula is a priority for my experience on Fulbright Hays, so for the first artifact I used raw climate data collected over the last 25 years in Zanzibar to create a lesson where students examine trends in rainfall, and precipitation. This lesson is part of a series I began creating last year, Lessons on Sustainability. For these lessons, students manipulate original source data sets as a tool to help solve a context rich scenario. These data sets are complemented by interviews, text and video clips of Dr. Tumwa, and Mr. Saleh from Ngizi.
Below is a brief demonstration video on using this software with rainfall data in Pemba.
Artifact 2:
For artifact 2, I collaborated with Dr. Jasmine Blanks Jones to expand the concepts of energy and recycling to physical movement in a classroom setting. The curriculum pieces we created are classroom ready Tingatinga illustrated cards which describe directions for four theater games, Ndio (Yes), Ni Nini (this is a what), Zip-Zap-Zop, and Mpe Umeme (pass the energy).
Ni Nini (This is a What)is chaotic, requires focus, and creates explicit shared understanding among stakeholders, all while maintaining coordination across multiple systems. We thought of this as a metaphor for the multiple municipal systems that need to coordinate efficiently, in real time.
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I was drawn to these guys, and wanted to know more about their lives working on the mountain, changes they may have seen, and what Killamanjaro meant to them. The colonial "conquering" narrative dominated much of the National Park's displays, however, I was interested in hearing what it meant to work on the mountain.
To that end, I interviewed three mountain guides, Andrew, Omari, and Shebani, from Omura tours. The former two were our group's guides; they invited Andrew to provide a more veteran perspective - he has worked on the mountain for 40 years. In these interviews I asked them about their first trips up the mountain as porters, about changes they've seen on the mountain, about their experience as first responders for hikers, and about whether they'd like their own children to follow in their footsteps.
And, in conversations with advocates such as those working with the Maasai advocacy project called PINGOS, it was apparent that there is a certain deliberacy to these images. Even the very standing poses I saw in Maasai herders across the region were consistent. Our English educated Maasai guide, Edward, seemed to epitomize this idea, as an advocate for land rights for his culture, he very consciously wore his traditional clothes when he went to the U.S. to seek support for his community.
For my 4th artifact, I was honored that my request to work with a community member to make one piece of this iconic outfit, the rungu, or the herding stick seen in virtually every Massai man's hand. For me, the rungu represents how this community deliberately leverages their own cultural iconography to raise awareness of their struggles with the government, and advocate for their traditional way of life.
The Tingatinga Collaborative is a The Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society in Dar es Salaam is a community of about 100 painters who create and sell vibrant, colorful art. We created this artifact in collaboration with several artists, who illustrated our games.
We chose these traditional theater games to match the theme of passing energy, and in particular in the context of organizing a community.
The game Ndio (yes), is about building levels of agreement, about connecting directly with partners, and both taking the time to make those connections, but being sure to pass that energy on in a timely way, in this game, with eye contact.
Zip - Zap - Zop requires participants to efficiently send, receive, and redirect community energy. Mpe Umeme reminds us of ensuring reciprocity among the community members.
Among the most meaningful parts of this artifact was working creatively with colleagues from Fulbright-Hays, and several Tingatinga artists to create the four images.
Artifact 3
Throughout the five week Tuka Pamoja experience I collected sound recordings of places we've been. While the initial inspiration was about collecting sounds of the natural, non-human, environment, what I find most interesting is when voices and other human made sounds are intertwined. Whether it be the evening call to prayer overlaying our search for nocturnal animals, or the cacophony of a street scene from a hotel high above a transit point in Pemba, I am most drawn to how people are moving around.
Our experience hiking to the first huts on Kilimanjaro wa no different. This time it was the sounds of the porters moving up and down the mountain. These men carried up to 25kg of pots, pans, plates, and food ahead of groups of mostly European tourists so that the former could have a comfortable evening after a day of hiking.
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To that end, I interviewed three mountain guides, Andrew, Omari, and Shebani, from Omura tours. The former two were our group's guides; they invited Andrew to provide a more veteran perspective - he has worked on the mountain for 40 years. In these interviews I asked them about their first trips up the mountain as porters, about changes they've seen on the mountain, about their experience as first responders for hikers, and about whether they'd like their own children to follow in their footsteps.
The result is a 15 minute compilation of their answers, along with soundscapes from the mountain, and beyond. For Kilimanjaro hikers, or would be conquerors, I hope this short oral history will raise the voices of the men who make this hike possible. It is available here:
https://drive.google.com/file/
https://drive.google.com/file/
Artifact 4
During our time in and around Terrat, a Maasai town near Ngoro Ngoro crater, I was struck by the consistent visual images of men and women, in their traditional dress. Indeed, the colorful clothes draped over jackets and often cell phones are iconic visuals that likely have oversized representation in the collective consciousness of what it means to be "African" to many in the North
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For my 4th artifact, I was honored that my request to work with a community member to make one piece of this iconic outfit, the rungu, or the herding stick seen in virtually every Massai man's hand. For me, the rungu represents how this community deliberately leverages their own cultural iconography to raise awareness of their struggles with the government, and advocate for their traditional way of life.
I worked Joseph, and as his apprentice he took me through the steps of selecting a branch from the right tree, preparing it with fire, striping, shaping, and eventually sanding it down using stones and gravel from the yard.
While the process itself was not complex, it was interesting to see the reactions of other Maasai to my final product. As a dark skin mzungu (foreigner) holding a rungu, other men were interested in what I had made. What was fascinating to me was watching how people would "test" it out. Virtually every community member who inspected my rungu would take it, strike the iconic leaning pose, and then nod with satisfaction as it seemed to pass the lean test.
