A refugee is a person whose heart has been broken.
“My daughter, who was 11 at the time, also loves Bessie’s books and was deeply influenced by living for two years in Botswana. One of my favorite expressions from there is Ke moto fela - “I’m just a person.”–Barbara Bamberg Scott (Read her impressive […]
Click here to go to African Great Lakes Initiative
Dear Friends,
For me the most poignant time of the day was when we were in the field and I noticed a small toy compound obviously made by the kids. Their toy compound was built solely of dirt, rocks, and twigs! Quite neatly and nicely done—much more like […]
HOMEWORK LINKS
1) Click here to read Obi Nwakanma’s article “Nigeria: A Soyinka Symposium in Carbondale” published in the Vanguard (Lagos) WOLE Soyinka, one of Africa’s leading modernist voices excites a following that is both cultic and diffuse.
2) Also, check out Eyinju Odumare’s photos and commentary “All for Soyinka in Carbondale”
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“Culture dialogues anyway,” Soyinka opened, “it’s […]
Earlier this year Nigerian poet Obi Nwakanma filled my Gathering Room with talk that made the world right for the hours he shared himself and conversation. We exchanged poetry books at the end of our time together. I sent some of Daniel’s hardworking roses home for Obi’s wife.
In the days that followed our encounter, I […]
Wole Soyinka
HOMEWORK LINKS
1) Hear Soyinka’s rolling baritone, relaxed, just chatting, sharing wisdom
First, let me give you a link to a 1998 conversation between Harry Kreisler and Wole Soyinka that took place in Berkeley, California as part of the “Conversations with History” series. What is said is still fresh today, AND you’ll get to hear his […]
“The Lion and the Jewel” written by Wole Soyinka, directed by Ron Himes and presented by the Washington University Performing Arts Department, opened tonightat Washington University’s Edison Theatre in St Louis, Missouri. The play continues through April 27th.
The Washington University Performing Arts Department describes the dance-drama cum social satire like this:Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate […]
Good news from Victoria Bentley as she completes this phase of her volunteer work in the Congo and returns home to Santa Barbara, California. She’ll return to the Congo in July. Click here for updates on a sewing room with 10 machines set up at the women’s center…that will make a big difference.
African Fabric
This so […]
If you want to support the work of peace and reconciliation and conflict resolution…if you’d like to make a difference in Africa…here is an important website to explore the African Great Lakes Initiative.
There, look for the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) which “encourages participants to recognize that they can best find their own answers to […]
To understand the situation in Kenya as “ancient tribal hatreds” is to understand World War I and World War II as “ancient tribal hatreds” between the Germans on one side and the French, English, and Russians on the other.—David Zarembka
David Zarembka and Gladys Kamonya of the African Great Lakes Initiative appeared in St. Louis at […]
Dr. Victoria Bentley, my writing partner when I lived in Northern California, is volunteering for several weeks with the Buhavu Women’s Trauma Healing and Care Center in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Congo. Dr. Bentley is using her training in Holographic Memory Resolution (HMR) to lend a hand.
Read her blog Healing Trauma in DR […]
