When there are African solutions to African problems, two things become possible: local leaders may cultivate new ideas, and native heroes may become more recognized.
This summer, three CU-Boulder students embarked on the unique opportunity to travel to the cities of Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town, on a three-week sojourn to research the methods of peace-making and leadership in a post-Apartheid South Africa. Alphonse Keasley accompanied the students while doing research for his own project, a second book he’s writing on peace-making and community. Keasley, the assistant vice chancellor for campus climate and community engagement, said the book is a collaborative effort between South African Professor Sylvester Bongani Mahposa and him. The student researchers' travel was funded by Keasley, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) and the department of history.
“We partnered with an organization called the Africa Institute of South Africa, AISA,” explained Paul Rastrelli, a sophomore at CU-Boulder and student with the Presidents Leadership Class (PLC). “The three of us partnered with the interns to pick a topic that we were interested in, and write a policy brief for AISA to publish, which was really neat.”
Rastrelli, along with CU-Boulder students Lorien Howe and Beatriz Lacombe, teamed with interns in South Africa to draft policy briefs for the government-funded research center. Their briefs are currently undergoing editing and will then be published in AISA’s database of proposals.
“I gave some recommendations for shifting political parties in a way that makes it a lot less about party identity, where people aren’t just voting based on party identity,” said Lacombe, who’s also a CU sophomore in the PLC program.
Lacombe is studying philosophy and creative writing, and her project considered a comparative analysis between U.S. and South African political systems, analyzing personality-based politics versus issue-based politics. Her intern partner had studied the topic before, recognizing how the legacy of Nelson Mandela sparked a presence of personality-based politics in South Africa.
In addition to their work at AISA, the students explored all the rich aspects of the country’s culture, history and day-to-day dynamics, visiting townships and contraceptive awareness center. Students kept research blogs throughout their trip, which offered a space for reflection and an updated status feed for friends and family.
“It turned out to be one of the best things that we did,” Lacombe said, whose blog reads like an introspective narrative, teamed with sarcasm and descriptive setting. One of the topics each student wrote about was their attendance at the African Unity for Renaissance Conference. Rastrelli’s last post explores his experience.
“There were representatives from nations all across the African continent,” said Rastrelli. “The whole idea was to look at ways for Africa to become more sovereign, dealing with their own problems and kind of mitigating Western and European influence.”
The theme, students said, was African solutions for African problems, an attempt to empower leaders with greater autonomy and deviate from a linear model of foreign aid. Lacombe recounted one of the speeches, in which former South African president Thabo Mbeki addressed how South African students often grow up without heroes from their native country. Instead, many look to the icons of Great Britain and the United States.
“Students came up to him when he was talking at an event,” explained Lacombe, “and they asked him why they don’t learn about any African heroes in school.” Reflecting on the trip as a whole, Lacombe said that the biggest challenge she faced was knowing precisely where to channel her efforts in South Africa, while maintaining humility and throwing any assumptions out the window.
“The discourse now is to just do anything if anybody needs your help,” said Lacombe. “But I think that can do more harm than good… You have to make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons and that you’re doing it the right way.”
Howe explained that the trip also challenged her way of thinking and caused her to think critically about how and why events take place, and what solutions will be most effective moving forward.
"While it shattered any expectations I could have had, what was most shocking to me was how this place thousands of miles away was not so different after all, but instead felt so much like home," she said.
Rastrelli, Keasley, Lacombe and Howe enjoy dinner together in Cape Town. Photo courtesy of Keasley.