Story-telling is a tradition and ancient art in all of Africa, Tanzania is no exception. So why is it that traditional story-telling is a fading art here? 

The only public space I know of that has story-telling for children is the Soma Book Café. Only one consistent place in the whole of Dar es Salaam. I tell stories to children from impoverished backgrounds.  All I would do is gather a group of kids from a neighborhood with the permission of their guardians, then have a story session with snacks. I’d tell a story that I then invited them to discuss and ask questions about and intriguing conversations would flourish out of this.

I once tried to do this with a puppet I personally went to a tailor to make. I named my puppet Dada Tumaini, meaning Sister Hope in Kiswahili. I tried her out several times with an audience. It was a disaster. I found out the hard way that ventriloquism is not for me. I was inspired by Jim Henson’s muppets and Lamb Chop the puppet created by Shari Lewis (I always giggle to myself when I think of her because she must have quite a naughty sense of humor to name her knitted talking lamb ‘Lamb Chop’). But my puppetering attempt did not go well with any group of kids so Dada Tumaini has since retired in a storage room at home.

My inspiration and passion for story-telling began with watching a renowned story-teller from Ethiopia known affectionately as Ababa Tesfaye when I was a child. Ababa Tesfaye is a national hero in Ethiopia. He passed away at the age of 94 in 2017 and remains a well loved legend. Ababa Tesfaye was so compelling in his art as a story-teller that he hardly needed anything to become one of the most greatest icons of Abyssinia. When you watched him tell stories on television he just sat in a chair, wearing ordinary clothes with a plain blue background. The pictures that occupanied his stories that were  usually about talking animals and carried a moral were simple and made on a black chalk board with white chalk. But Ababa Tesfaye’s stories were riveting! He was expressive, he gave the animal characters special voices. His animated facial expressions alone were enough to entertain you. He was wonderful.

We should have at least one great story-teller we broadcast across the nation and revive this art that was once so common in our villages and amongst our ancestors. Our children should have a national hero they can meet at school to talk about or reminisce about fondly 30 years from now.

Why are we not providing these kind of platforms? I subscribe to DSTV (our continent’s cable television) and on all the mainland Tanzanian channels provided there I do not see any children’s programs or story-telling on a regular week day. It is not on our radio channels either.

Where are our story-tellers, puppeteers, child entertainers? It should be a national quest to find them. And give them a platform. Collaboration is important. Because some have the will, but not the talent. And some have the talent but not the funding. And some have the funding but don’t know about the bureaucracy or the process to access a national platform.

But we can start small. In your families, in your neighborhoods, in your schools. Let us keep the tradition of story-telling alive.

https://web.facebook.com/Ababa-Tesfaye-%E1%8B%8D%E1%88%88%E1%89%B3-254502007942805

Edited By: Wikipedia, And YouTube 

Kelvin Doe (born 26 October 1996 in Freetown), also known as DJ Focus, is a Sierra Leonean engineer. He is known for teaching himself engineering at the age of 13 and building his own radio station in Sierra Leone, where he plays music and broadcasts news under the name “DJ Focus.” He was one of the finalists in GMin’s Innovate Salone idea competition, in which Doe built a generator from scrap metals. Doe would constantly use discarded pieces of scrap to build transmitters, generators, and batteries, as well.^[1][2]

As a result of his accomplishment, he received an invitation to the United States and subsequently became the youngest person to participate in the “Visiting Practitioner’s Program” at MIT.^[3][4][5] His accomplishments were documented by @radical.media and presented on their corporate YouTube channel. When the video went viral, the story was picked up by CNN, NBC News, and The Huffington Post.^[5][6][7]

Doe subsequently was a speaker at TEDxTeen^[8] and lectured to undergraduate engineering students at Harvard College.^[9] In May 2013, Doe signed a $100,000 solar project pact with Canadian High Speed Service Provider Sierra WiFi.^[10]

Today, Kevin Doe is one of the most respected among other young African inventors.^[11] He has had the opportunity of meeting various leaders of the world including former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo. He has also been able to speak to young people in Africa on different platforms.

“Each generation must discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it…” – Franz Fanon

Youth leadership development programmes and networks have become abundant in Africa. Each claiming to equip, support, and inspire ‘the next generation of Africaâ€s leadersâ€. Leadership is a great challenge for Africa, and one of the things we can draw from the numerous and massive investments in Africaâ€s young high-achievers and those recognised as ‘high potential†is that the world is taking ‘the next generation of Africaâ€s leaders†very seriously.

History tells us that young people, whether in the civil rights movement of the United States or the ‘Arab Spring†across North Africa and the Middle East, play a critical role in ushering in change. Indeed, many of the icons of Africaâ€s independence era were all relatively young when they led us to independence: Kenneth Kaunda (40), Patrice Lumumba (34), Samora Machel (41), Kwame Nkrumah (47), Julius Nyerere (39), Thomas Sankara (33), Haile Selassie I (24), Sekou Toure (36), etc. At the very least, this list of distinguished men (and this is not to detract from the critical role of women in these movements) highlights the potential of youth. It should be noted, none of the above-mentioned (nor other leaders of that generation) ever had opportunities for specialised and dedicated grooming in the form of youth leadership programmes. However, they were visionary in the sense that they quickly realised that they needed each other – the pan-African struggle is and was as much a moral battle as it was a case of ‘enlightened self-interest†since their fates were intimately linked.

Sadly, there are few examples where youth organise themselves or are being organised by, of and for Africa. This reflects a failure to recognise the power and importance of networks of and for leaders (and leadership). In part, this is due to an emphasis on leaders as individuals. Sadly, this is a lesson from the past that we are ignoring. Not organising young high achievers and high- potential youths is a missed opportunity. That the world recognises Africaâ€s talents and potential is great – and well deserved for the many men and women who have had the privilege and opportunity to participate in these programmes. However, there is a missing piece to the puzzle. In order for Africa to progress as Africa, we need to build the relationships between these young individuals to understand our different pasts and value-systems, and build consensus around our common purpose and destiny, on our terms. We are failing to marshal these (would-be) ‘leaders†into a cohesive ‘leadership†that will drive the continent and her people forward. This requires specialised investment in and organisation of this demographic that so far has not been forthcoming by the continent itself.

The most valuable component of these programmes is not the technical knowledge that is gained, nor is it the opportunity to practice particular skills associated with ‘leadingâ€. The community (or network) of peers who one can reach out to for guidance or support is by far the most valuable take-away for participants. As mentioned above, the liberation-era leaders across Africa formed these social bonds and are known to have been in constant communication. Despite the lack of specialised grooming, they realised the importance of alliances and a group of leaders (peers) to form a collective leadership. These relationships were vital in securing Africaâ€s independence. Such relationships are, and will be, vital for good leadership in Africa. As these programmes are often not Africa based or formed, which individuals are being promoted, and why? How are potential-leaders identified? For what purpose are they being groomed? Are we coaching and mentoring would-be leaders to equip them with the skills and knowledge to understand how Africa got to be where it is today, why we face the challenges we face, where Africaâ€s place is in the world, and what efforts we can build on to get a better seat at the global table?

This piece starts with a famous quote from Franz Fanon, a psychiatrist and anti-colonial philosopher who fought in the Algerian War of Independence. It speaks to the heart of the matter regarding the development of young and emerging leaders in Africa – for what?

Through the African Union, African Heads of State and Government have adopted the Agenda 2063 (with its seven pillars) followed by seven goals. Are these the tasks we are setting our leaders? Are we doing enough to prepare ourselves across private, public, and civil society spaces to take on the leadership challenges that fulfilling these seven goals will face, and are our leaders doing enough to prepare future leaders for this task?

If we are serious about our future, we must groom the young and emerging leaders of today, to move us towards sustainable development and transformation. We must prepare them, so that when they too become Elders, they will in turn help to prepare future young and emerging leaders for Africa. For this, Africa too must look to the talented individuals across the continent and give them the opportunities and support they need to succeed – and we need to get them talking to, and working with, each other.

For more on Agenda 2063 see http://agenda2063.au.int/en/home

Frantz Fanonâ€s ‘The Wretched of the Earth†is available from the UONGOZI Institute Resource Centre (http://www.uongozi.or.tz/centerservices.php)

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the above article are the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of UONGOZI Institute.

It was lunch time at Marysville School in Southeast Portland when the fire broke out. Teachers quickly herded their students out of the building to the sports field behind the school as the old colonial-style building burned. The fire that traumatized students and staff alike was in 2009, when Lana Penley was in her second year as principal. The 460 students and 50 staff members of the K-8 school relocated to a vacant school building in another part of Portland, displaced from their school site for three years as the district rebuilt the Marysville building.

“We were already a school that struggled, and then adding [the fire] on top of it, we really thought we needed to find a social and emotional curriculum that connects to the heart to overcome our trauma,” Penley explained. When the school reopened, Penley and her staff started using the MindUP curriculum, developed by the Hawn Foundation (founded by the actress Goldie Hawn), to try to address underlying trauma both from the fire and from the daily poverty that many students face.

‘Weâ€ve seen this huge shift in the overall tone and civility of the school culture.â€

At first they implemented the program using a counselor, rotating between classes, teaching the 15-lesson sequence that starts with explaining to students how their brains work and whatâ€s happening when they are stressed, scared or angry. The program then moves into mindful breathing exercises, meant to help students feel present in their bodies. Thereâ€s a section on choosing to approach the world with optimism and discussions of mindfulness in all the senses: seeing, listening and eating. Towards the end of the sequence the lessons expand outward, asking students how they can contribute to the community, how they can be better citizens. Students practice doing random acts of kindness and reflect on how that makes them feel. Gratitude becomes a daily practice.

The program is a blend of neuroscience, social and emotional tenets like empathy and perspective taking, and mindfulness, a practice which many schools have already started exploring. Several programs teach mindfulness in schools, including Mindful Schools.

After implementing the MindUP program at Marysville, Penley saw the difference. “Weâ€ve seen this huge shift in the overall tone and civility of the school culture,” she said.

Penley and her staff soon realized that when the counselor taught the class, students were getting the benefit, but teachers werenâ€t. Soon teachers started coming to Penley, asking to teach the class themselves, as part of their regular classes.

“After our first year we began to think about how we could bring this to the overall health of the school,” Penley said. As a staff they decided to teach the MindUP lessons concurrently, at the same time every week, so there would be a sense of synergy. “Everyone is in a classroom except the custodian and secretary,” Penley said. “Imagine all of us hearing about gratitude and asking ourselves how we can integrate it throughout everything we do.”

Penley says the real shifts in school culture came when they started implementing the program school-wide. Teachers now start class in the morning with a few breaths to help students feel present. The middle school has breathing exercises after passing periods. Penley described how kindergarteners used to come into their classroom for free breakfast while their teacher was already directing them to look at what sheâ€d written on the board. Students were having a hard time learning that way because they didnâ€t feel settled or safe.

Now, teachers greet kids at the door and play soft music with the lights down; they talk about the practices the whole school is working on at that moment. In this low key environment, the teacher is taking roll and checking in on students.

Gradually the practices in the MindUP program became part of how the school operates. “These are the ways we treat each other and that happens all the time throughout the day,” Penley said. The switch to thinking about every interaction and learning moment in the school day as one of mindfulness has dramatically changed the tone of the school, according to Penley. She says discipline referrals have dropped and students are using their mindful seeing practice in classes like English, art and science to make better observations. An eighth grader recently noted that heâ€d been watching the presidential debates and that the candidates werenâ€t doing a good job of listening to one anotherâ€s perspectives.

And this more human approach hasnâ€t stopped at the classroom door. Teachers get a “brain break” at the start of staff meetings in recognition that theyâ€re coming from a hectic teaching day and need a moment to ground themselves in the present before starting another task. The staff also practice whatever skill theyâ€ll be teaching through MindUP with one another before rolling it out into the classroom.

“Our teachers are happier, which is really important, and we have a ton of people applying to our school now because theyâ€re interested in mindfulness,” Penley said. Before they started the MindUP program, Marysville, like many other Title 1 schools serving a diverse population of learners, struggled to attract teachers. Now, Penley said she has 100 applicants for every open position, which also allows her to hire teachers who are in line with their vision.

On a teacher survey administered in the 2013-2014 school year 95 percent of the adults in the building said they were satisfied or extremely satisfied working at Marysville. And all of the adults reported that teaching MindUP has carried over into their personal lives and extends into the classroom throughout content areas.

Despite the success of the program, it hasnâ€t been all smooth sailing. Some teachers initially pushed back with the inevitable “initiative fatigue” that plagues many schools. But Penley said she kept them engaged in conversations about what made them uncomfortable and how they could work through those issues. “Once you are on the ground and realize that what itâ€s teaching are just basic human practices, weâ€ve seen that even our most resistant teachers have come a long way with it,” Penley said.

Penley said the program has also helped her personally. “Itâ€s helped me find the joy in my job,” she said. “Being a principal is a really hard job. A lot of principals donâ€t like their jobs.” Sheâ€s learned to be more present in each meeting and to think of her main job as being a listener. She used to rush about trying to solve every problem, but now she tries to stay focused and present in each moment, giving her staff her full attention. Itâ€s helped her remember why she loves working in education and being around kids.

“It really is a shift in the heart,” Penley said. “Itâ€s a way of being. Instead of compliance, we call it moving more towards compassion. Itâ€s going to shift the feel of the school.”

RESEARCH BEHIND THE PROGRAM

University of British Columbia professor Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, who was one of several researchers consulted on the development of MindUP, conducted a randomized controlled trial on fourth and fifth graders participating in the program in Vancouver public schools. Students reported many positive benefits of the program: 82 percent of children reported having a more positive outlook, 81 percent learned to make themselves happy, and 58 percent of children tried to help others more often.

Schonert-Reichl also tested childrenâ€s saliva for cortisol levels and found those who participated in the program had healthier levels. Peers also rated students in the program as more prosocial. Schonert-Reichl says teachers in British Columbia were involved in developing the curriculum based on evidence-based neuroscience and psychology principles, which helped ensure the lessons were hitting home for educators.

“When the MindUP program was developed it was an iterative process between researchers and teachers,” Schonert-Reichl said. Teachers would teach a lesson, give feedback and help the researchers improve on the program.

“When teachers see it theyâ€re like, oh yeah I can do this,” she said. “It wasnâ€t something foreign because it had been developed by teachers.” The program also came out in 2005, just after British Columbia had included social and emotional learning as a part of the curriculum. Schonert-Reichl said the high level recognition that these skills are valuable made it much easier for schools to get access to training money and to implement with fidelity.

In Vancouver there is a district-level person who coordinates trainings and materials, supports teachers in classrooms, and connects them to one another. “Instead of it just being this outside person who drops in and does the professional development and leaves with no follow-up, you have this core district support,” Schonert-Reichl said.

A TRAINERâ€S EXPERIENCE

Jonathan Weresch became a MindUP trainer after seeing the results in his own classroom. He taught students with learning differences and disordered behaviors, who were especially hard to teach after lunch.

Weresch said it took about six weeks for his students to get on board with the program and there were plenty of times they tested his patience as they got used to it. In the beginning when heâ€d ask them to focus their attention on their breathing with their eyes closed there would be a lot of silly noises. But he modeled patience and continued to teach them about what these exercises were doing for the brain, and in time students stopped joking around. Although heâ€s a principal now, he still does MindUP trainings on the side because he believes in it.

As a trainer, Weresch answers a lot of questions from teachers who are either having problems getting results or who donâ€t see how three minutes of focused breathing three times a day can make such a big difference. Weresch explains that itâ€s like any other skill.

”First we have to practice things deliberately, and then what happens — just like learning to play the piano or something like that — we practice and then with enough practice it becomes a habit. And the habits become character traits after a while.”

The most common complaint he hears from teachers (who are choosing MindUP as their professional development) is that they donâ€t have time for an extra program, the curriculum is already too big and hard to cover. Weresch sympathizes with that argument, but tells them that in his own experience the time spent on the front end tremendously improved the quality of learning throughout the day. He also points to research indicating that social and emotional learning improves academic achievement.