![African landscape](alandscape.jpg)
Lessons
from Africa
By Sally Jo Milne
67, with Rachel Lapp
An
older student reading an encyclopedia entry about South African history had
a question. We learned that South Africa had nine provinces, he
said. This book says there are only four.
Sally Jo Milne 67 glanced at the thick
volume. The boy was right about the current number of provinces but four
appeared on the page in black and white. It was then that she realized the thick
book on the library desk was eight years old; the entry on South Africas
political history was helplessly out of date.
I thought, Great, you are thinking
about this, applying what you read, she said.
Having traveled to Africa four times during
four decades to four countries, Milne has observed that access to knowledge
is a much-needed commodity in many African communities. While inequalities between
South Africas 75 percent black population and 25 percent white population
are no longer state sanctioned, there is an imbalance in access to potentially
empowering information instructional and reading materials in black communities,
schools and homes.
With
her husband, Ron, GC professor of mathematics, Milne served two three-year terms
with Mennonite Central Committee in Africa, at a teachers training college
in Kenya and a seminary in Malawi, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They led
a Study-Service Term unit in Côte dIvoire during the 1994-1995 academic
year.
Past observation of educational systems in
Africa prepared her somewhat for her most recent trip to the continent,
this time to South Africa. An opportunity to combine professional interests
in library science, education and her attraction to the African emphasis on
relationships came in the form of a three-week assignment last summer with the
World Library Partnership.
Milne spent July 14-Aug. 10 in South Africa
with 17 other librarians from the United States with the WLP, a nonprofit organization
dedicated to improving global understandings and peace by promoting literacy,
learning and access to information.
While she associates closely with Mennonite
church-related mission organizations, Milne said she appreciated the focus of
the WLP in establishing libraries in developing countries in an effort to support
the empowerment of people who have been denied fair learning opportunities.
With Margaret Barnes, a public librarian in
Portland, Ore., Milne was assigned to Mogosane, a small village in the northwest
province near the Botswana border.
Milne said she realized again and again how
deeply the apartheid system that oppressed blacks in South Africa continues
to affect the society subjugation so opposite in intention to how Milne
has experienced friendship and sharing among the black Africans she has lived
alongside and served.
In African cultures, friendliness is
a very different thing than in the United States. You dont just say hi
to someone and go on; you stop for tea, no matter if its late in the afternoon.
And your door is always open, said Milne. I found the people to
be so friendly, so eager to learn. And they helped me learn.
Apartheid still affects the black South Africans
because, she said, for so long, schools were not funded as another way
of keeping the blacks suppressed. That is what we were still fighting against
while we were there.
She appreciated the WLPs philosophy
of asking the South Africans what they wanted and needed, rather than collecting
old, outdated American books; they also wanted to support indigenous authors
and publishers.
When we arrived at the school, we were
shown a bare room with a table, two chairs and several boxes of books the Department
of Education had recently sent to the school, Milne said. We organized
the 250 books for the 370 students in simple categories, then built
bookcases with locally made bricks and metal shelves.
Once
the collection was organized, the school children lined the windows outside.
They soon poured in, until a 20 students for 20 minutes rule was
created so as not to overcrowd the small facility.
We read to the children and showed them
different books. Their faces were always absorbed, Milne said. If
they didnt understand a word, they would come to us.
Younger students might grab a book and open
it anywhere, she continued. We naturally think about starting a book at
the beginning, but many of the students had rarely used textbooks. When they
did, they would turn immediately to the page announced by their teacher, so
the concept of starting at the beginning of a story was very different for them.
There were so many things to address.
Milne was excited to see many of the brightest
students sitting down with encyclopedias and reading them page by page. She
thought the students might be most interested in literature, but history and
science also proved to be sought-after subjects.
It was wonderful to see students making
connections and applying what they were reading, Milne said. The
younger children were so excited when they read the Tswana books, especially,
because they could understand them.
A significant task proved to be guiding the
teachers in using the library.
Teachers were excited about this library
but then the question became, How do I use this? said
Milne. Some of the teachers had received teacher training but had not stepped
foot in a library; some had been in a library but did not know how to apply
it to the classroom. They asked questions about the materials, including English
words and new information for which Milne had to formulate a simple explanation.
The teachers were trained during apartheid
education for blacks was not equal training. Their inexperience with
the library materials was not a reflection on them but the system forced on
them, said Milne.
Classroom instruction is very different compared
to American schools, she continued. Teachers might have a textbook, or might
not. They write notes on a blackboard for their pupils to copy and then spit
back for a test. Even now, when South Africas national education
offices order curriculum enhancements, teachers dont know where to begin
because of insufficient access to training.
At
another school but it very well could have happened in Mogosane
a WPL librarian told me that she introduced a school principal to an encyclopedias
index. The principal was thrilled and talked about it whenever he made speeches,
said Milne. It seems obvious to us, but books and magazines or other reading
material are not a natural part of their homes; hopefully, it will be different
some day.
Community members were also invited to see
the library and take advantage of its resources. Women came in and were excited
and eager to learn about the new materials but first, they would need
to learn to read.
Part of the WLP program is to raise money
to buy in-country books. After watching the children and listening to the teachers,
the librarians had ideas for more books; at the end of their stay in Mogosane,
they returned to Pretoria to choose additional volumes to send back to the school.
More books in Tswana the local language were needed, especially
for the younger children, and the older students, seventh through ninth grades,
needed more advanced books. Maps were needed.
We think about South Africa as being
progressive, but it isnt for the black citizens, Milne said. I
would love to go back to Mogosane and teach those women to read, help those
teachers learn how to use a library in their teaching and help make books more
available to those students.
Sally Jo Milne is associate librarian at Goshen Colleges Good Library.
Return to December Bulletin
contents
The journey of
the magi, and travel journaling, editorial
by Rachel Lapp
Lifelong learning: the long approach home by President
Shirley H. Showalter
A small boat
on a big sea by Mary Lois Detweiler Miller 50
On service: Ireland, Indiana, Mali by Jacob Liechty
02
Pole position: uncluttering
down under by Greg Lehman 93
Dear Diary: GC senior reflects on
Dominican donation by Alicia Montoya 01
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