Walk Out, Walk On: South Africa and Zimbabwe

This blog post series is a facilitated group study of the book Walk Out, Walk On by Margaret Wheatley and Deboarh Frieze.  To read the first entry from the series, in which we visit Mexico and Brazil, click here.

 

This week our journey took us to Africa, to explore Joubert Park in South Africa and Kufunda Learning Village in Zimbabwe.

“[Ubuntu] means my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in theirs. We belong in a bundle of life. We say, “a person is a person through other people.” It is not ‘I think therefore I am.’ It says rather: ‘I am human because I belong.’ I participate, I share.”
-Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Read an excerpt from the chapter on Joubert park

In Joubert Park,we learn how a “problem place” evolved into one of South Africa’s most progressive green initiatives. The authors contextualize the problems in the history of South Africa, highlighting the heartbreak and resilience that emerge from colonization, apartheid, and the post-apartheid challenges, such as drug addiction, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and unemployment. Joubert Park, at one time, appeared to be the epicenter of these challenges.

When confronted with such a place, with a myriad of seemingly insurmountable problems, where do you begin to solve them? The authors remind us that in the West, we often debate about which problem to tackle first, and we tend to problem solve by breaking down problems into smaller and smaller components, examining them in isolation, and putting our experts to task of fixing them. Rather than viewing the problems as part of a larger system, we seek simple solutions that ignore the complexity and interconnectedness of the communities in which these problems exist. We fail to recognize that systems can only truly be understood from the inside.

Our friends in Joubert Park teach us to start anywhere, follow it everywhere. In their example, a small group of photographers started a neighborhood crime watch, snapping photos of crimes and evidence to support police. As the neighborhood became safer, an early childhood center emerged, followed by a project to empower inner city youth through art and The GreenHouse Project, a sustainable urban farm and education center. Their example shows that it’s not a question of where to start, or what would be the most effective solution. The task is simply to start, where you are with what you have, and go where it takes you.

The themes of our journey to Mexico and Brazil carry on through Joubert Park, where the emphasis is on the knowledge and resources of the local community rather than outside experts with big budgets. Again our concepts of expertise and leadership are challenged, and the authors ask us to self-reflect on our own experience as “experts.” They ask us:

Have you ever begun without plans or strategies? What did you learn by starting anywhere?

Next we visit Kufunda Learning Village in Zimbabwe, where human waste grows fruit trees and permaculture gardens mimic natural ecology. Danish-Zimbawean Marianne Knuth founded the village on a plot of land that her family owned. The village emerged in response to the collapse of Zimbabwe’s economic and food systems and the rapid spread of HIV in the region. In Kufunda, local communities come to learn ways to be self-reliant, growing food, treating diseases with herbal remedies, building dry composting toilets.

The overarching theme of this chapter is efficiency vs. resilience. In the “efficiency mindset,” numbers trump all, and we tend to emphasize budget cuts, maximizing the use of resources, doing more with less. The efficiency mindset gave us the Green Revolution as the answer to world hunger – which resulted in vast pollution and displacement of rural people. Cuba is also given as an example – when the Soviet Union collapsed, so did Cuba’s entire food system, which was entirely dependent on foreign oil (sound familiar?).

The authors ask us to reflect:

When have you been affected by the efficiency mindset, either at work or personally? What have been some of its impacts?

In contrast, the resilience mindset asks us to “dance with life,” to work with and adapt to the natural cycles of the environment. In the case of Cuba, the collapse of the oil-driven food system gave birth to one of the greatest movements for sustainable agriculture of modern times. With respect to Kufunda, the authors emphasize that Kufundees teach us how “resilience grows in relationships, in community.” They explain:

“Yet we humans have an enduring capacity not only to survive, but to learn and grow. Resilience is in us, if we look for it. Whatever our material circumstances, we can feel confident that we have what we need, no matter what happens. It’s right here in us, not alone, but in community” (p. 126-127).

We are asked to reflect:

When have you been given someone else’s plans or practices and told to just implement them? How did you respond?

Joubert Park and Kufunda give us examples of humanity at our best. In the face of systemic collapse, epidemics of disease, crime, and vast poverty, these communities looked within themselves for solutions, and realized they already had what they needed not only to survive, but to thrive.

What inspired you about these chapters? How can these examples inform your own work in your community?

We invite you to share your answers to the questions above, key takeaways from the reading, favorite quotes, and additional reflections in the comments section below! Please feel free to email education@mettacenter.org with any questions. We also highly encourage you to visit the Walk Out, Walk On home page for additional resources, stories, and links!