By Andrea Sutiff and Lulu Moyo
After a couple weeks of traveling followed immediately
by Fall (Spring) Break, this week marked the first week back for most students
after almost a month without internships and classes. While some students
decided to travel (mostly to Victoria Falls,) others chose to spend their
breaks in Windhoek. For as great and well-needed as break was, coming back to
face the end of March and the beginning of April showed how much students had
to acclimate to get used to being on the work flow again as well as coming to
terms with some sentimentality. Unlike a typical semester at school we know
that we won’t be returning to what we as a group have established this semester
in the Fall. As if starting to sort out the final stretch’s worth of work was
not stressful enough all of us are simultaneously having to come to terms with
next month’s inevitable good-byes.
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| Victoria Falls (PC Miranda Joebgen) |
Whenever a conversation regarding “the end” comes up
in the group there is significant reflection, usually with a lot of ‘look how
far we’ve come,’ and then the realization of how weird it is going to be going
home. Most traditional study abroad programs mirror the college experience as
we know it back home; students continue to live in dorms or flats and attend
classes at an actual university campus in typical classroom fashion. With the
CGEE Program, however, there is just 14 of us, not thousands of students on a
campus, sharing classroom and personal experiences all in the same house. We
are just 14 students living and traveling all within the same environment with
one another and the close-knit community that we’ve established is going to be
the hardest thing to let go of once that plane lands in the U.S. While studying
abroad anywhere is exciting and new, I think I can speak on behalf of all the
CGEE students that we could not be happier we chose this unique, “untraditional”
program to enrich our lives.
Both coming to terms with the fact that there is only
a month to go and getting back into the swing of things has left the majority
of students feeling a colorful mixture of emotions. On one hand the thought of
returning to family and friends back home is something to look forward to, but
the more collective opinion is that no one is quite yet ready. Accepting that
this is the final month of the program puts a lot of things into perspective,
such as realizing how many things have not yet been done, how many places have
not yet been visited, and how much work still has to be finished. Just like the
completion of any school semester, the end is right in sight with just a couple
final projects, assessments, and the last handful of classes in the way. With
so little time left and so much more still to learn about, the past week was
especially packed with interesting speakers and field trips.
Another element of things coming to an end are class
themes and discussion tops. One in particular that I’ve been grappling with
since entering the CGE program is identity. Being a Zimbabwean living in
America, and now having spent almost four months in Southern Africa, the
concept of the “African identity” has been rattling around my head more often.
Of course the idea of a singular identity and culture for an entire continent
is presumptuous and inaccurate. Each country has its own individual subculture.
But often times, through Pan-Africanist views, Africans lay claim to an African
identity. I find myself identifying with being an African before calling myself
a Zimbabwean. With my friends who are from African countries we often identify
things to be African in a general sense; African dance, African food, African
attire. I have friends from Burundi, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Malawi, and several
other places across the continent but as a way to look past our differences we
connect ourselves through our African-ness. Our African identity. Having lived
in the US for the larger portion of my life my African identity is constantly
scrutinized and challenged.
My quote, unquote, liberal ideologies are what usually
cause me to be called un-African. One example that I have particularly
struggled with is my advocacy for LGBTQIA+ rights. When I have shared my views
on homosexuality, more times than not, I have been told that I am not a true
African or that homosexuality itself is un-African. To me, those sentiments are
horrifying and impossible to accept. Whether it be Africans in the US or Africans
I have interacted with abroad, this idea of the African identity being under
threat with homosexuality is very apparent. Through conversations about
LGBTQIA+ while in Namibia, themes of African identity and human rights have
continued to remain in my face. What I find most challenging to wrap my head
around when it comes to this form of discrimination is that homosexuality has
existed in Africa for as long as heterosexual relationships have existed.
Thankfully gender and sexuality was a unit of study in one of my classes this
week where we were able to unpack this culture of discrimination against
homosexuality in the African context.
Some reasoning we learned as to how this developed was
the introduction of Western Christianity in African countries. Many people use
religion as a way of justifying why homosexuality is wrong, but before the
introduction of Western Christianity there was no discrimination. Non-heterosexual
relationships were there but did not have the labels or connotation that are
present today. In class we had a speaker named Wendelinus N. Hamutenya who was
the former “Mr. Gay Namibia”. He is an openly gay man living in Namibia who now
advocates for LGBTQIA+ rights in Namibia as well as around the world. Hearing
his story brought a painful reality to the condition of homosexuality
discrimination in Namibia and all across Southern Africa. Hamutenya revealed to
us how he was taken to a mental institution by his father when he came out to
his family. He explained how he was told he would never amount to anything as a
gay man in Namibia and how it would shame his family. He explained how
dangerous it can be for people who are gay and lesbian in Namibia. Police often
target people who are homosexual and beat them or harass them. Physical attacks
like beatings and rape committed by community members are also quite frequent
but often go unreported. Hamutenya also educated us on the cases of people from
neighboring African countries who come to Namibia seeking asylum due to threats
because of their sexuality. He said that asylum seekers are sometimes brought
to Namibia via Zambia, but then the Namibian government forces them to go back
to their home countries.
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| (Retrieved from: http://moffiehot.blogspot.com/2011/11/first-public-appearance-of-mr-gay.html) |
Later this week we had a class on human rights in
Namibia and the strides the country has taken to create equality. This
juxtaposition really solidified that not all areas of human rights are being
looked at closely. Not enough attention is being put on breaking down the
stigmas of homosexuality being un-African. Places in the continent like my home
country of Zimbabwe have laws that allow people who are homosexual to be jailed
or even killed. Discrimination due to sexual orientation is a gross violate of
human rights no matter race or ethnicity. It is certainly not un-African to be
with a same sex partner. What is un-African is the xenophobia that is plaguing
people’s ideology. The semester might be ending, our classroom dialogues might
be wrapping up, and our research might be over. But that doesn’t mean the
issues and challenges we have discussed are going to disappear. To stay true to
my African-ness, I know that views on identity need to be changed. Basic human
rights need to be given.
This blog is the work of our students. To learn more about Center for Global Education programming, visit us at www.augsburg.edu/global
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