Homophobia Workshop

For the first Shikaya event of 2012 held in January, Karen Murphy, Director of International Programmes from our partner organisation, Facing History and Ourselves, gave a workshop on homophobia. This is a critical issue in South Africa and has been particularly highlighted in the Western Cape with the consistent delays in the trial of the alleged murderers of Zoliswa Nkonyana in 2006 – a 19-year-old woman who was allegedly murdered because she lived openly as a lesbian.

We looked at questions such as: What are the conscious or unconscious attitudes that we are passing on to our learners? What frame of reference does our Constitution provide for us to think about homophobia? How safe are our schools and our classrooms? What role can we as teachers play in closing the gap between the vision of the Constitution and the reality of society?

This workshop provided an opportunity to engage critically with and learn more about these important issues as well as acquire strategies for bringing them into our classroom within the context of the content in the curriculum. Participants were introduced to a range of resources for classroom use.

Teachers Response:

“It was very informative. The workshop gave me so much to think about. I want to work on making my school an intermediate space, a place where we leave our stuff behind and respect our constitution and each other’s rights!”

“It was very useful and challenging. It has provoked me as an adult to be responsible and take a lead.”

“It was useful. We do understand that there are gay and lesbian learners in our schools and we discourage them whereas the constitution safe guards their rights. The duty of teachers is to make our learners respect the constitution. Teachers need to play a role and this workshop will help  me a lot in teaching  learners to be tolerant and respect the rights of others.”

Shikaya has put together  a list of  the resources from our library. These resources are available for all our Facing the Past teachers. The Resource list consists of  Books, Dvd’s, classroom sets as well as teacher guides that can be used in their classrooms.

Click here to access the Resource List

Contact Lauren at our offices on 021 671 7200 for more information on the availability of resource material.

You may also contact Nicola Frick regarding ideas for resources to use.

The letter was published in the letters page of a local Afrikaans newspaper which was where we discovered it. With much coercion, we eventually convinced Arno to allow us to make a short film of his letter so that others, in various ways, would be inspired to action as well. At the end of 2010, Nelson Mandela sat down after lunch with his daughter Zinziwe and his close friend, Ahmed Kathrada, and watched the film of Arno`s letter. We are told that he was moved and wanted to keep a copy of it to watch it again.

Many other South Africans have now joined the movement, writing letters to Madiba that show their commitment to nation-building. View these letters, or write your own, at letterstomandela.org.

Our first speaker, George Hallett, was the official photographer for the TRC. To hear his anecdotes and explanations of his photos was a real privilege, and gave us an intimate glimpse into the Commission’s internal workings.

We were also fortunate enough to have a poetry reading by Ingrid de Kok, who had attended the TRC hearings as a journalist. Participants were given a copy of her anthology, “Seasonal Fires,” upon registration, and many enjoyed reading the poems whilst hearing them. Her poems dealt with powerful themes of guilt and responsibility, but also questions of how to build a reconciled future. Both George and Ingrid were present in the “fluid conversations” which followed, where participants were invited to engage with the speakers on a more informal and personal level. Liza Key, director of the documentary REwind, also attended the fluid conversations.

Philip Miller, composer of the internationally-acclaimed REwind cantata, spoke about the process of creating a living sound memorial, with vocal arranger Mduduzi Mofokeng. Shikaya had been able to offer 450 students and teachers the opportunity to watch the performance at the Baxter Theatre earlier that week, so the discussion was enthused and engaging.
Philip revealed that the name of the cantata arose from the story of Eunice Miya, who found out that her son had been killed when his body was shown on television. When relating this in her testimony she said, “I wish that picture could just rewind.” We were very lucky to have Mrs Miya share her emotional story later in the day.

After Philip and Mduduzi spoke, the musical theme was continued with one of the highlights of the conference: a performance by Vusi Mahlasela, one of the most inspiring African artists of this generation. Some of his songs dealt with the pain of apartheid, whilst others were uplifting, aptly captured the beauty of forgiveness and ubuntu.

The first session of Saturday was held in the Listening Room, which was set up into individual stations with headphones to mirror the experience of the TRC audience. Here participants listened to a 20 minute clip of testimonies, in preparation for the next set of informal conversations with Louis Nel and Abubaker Peterson. They were interpreters at the TRC, and spoke about the personal impact of reporting both the pain of victims and the guilt of perpetrators in the first person.

Perhaps the most intensely moving experience of the conference was the story of Nomonde Calata. She was one of the first to testify at the TRC about the murder of her husband, Fort Calata, one of the Cradock Four. She hopes that by sharing her story she can inspire people to carry on her husband’s legacy, as he was a committed teacher and believed in the power of education.

On the 20th of June 2011, 100 schools across South Africa showed solidarity with refugees, by showing Where Do I Stand? to their students.

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]]> http://shikaya.org/uncategorized/1068/feed/ 0 http://shikaya.org/uncategorized/up2us-xperience/ http://shikaya.org/uncategorized/up2us-xperience/#comments Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:46:34 +0000 Amanda http://shikaya.org/?p=1041 In January 2011 Shikaya brought 50 passionate,inspiring and committed young people from a cross section of schools together for the first Up2Us lab! The aim was to get  these young people to help design a campaign that will take Up2Us across the country.

Having worked through the Up2Us Xperience the delegates began to create their own campaigns.They were asked to address the following: “How do you create a campaign which will inspire young people in racially and economically diverse communities to take a stand?”

The campaigns were created around issues close to them and included among others:

Σ-fi-Education for infinity (Education)

Life (make the powerful choice for prevention of alcohol and drug abuse)

Be a child Day (for child abuse)

I am Blue (for abuse against boys and men)

Hungry for Education ( for Education)

]]> http://shikaya.org/uncategorized/up2us-xperience/feed/ 0 http://shikaya.org/youth/where-do-i-stand/conversations-with-our-past/ http://shikaya.org/youth/where-do-i-stand/conversations-with-our-past/#comments Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:26:17 +0000 admin http://shikaya.org/?p=229

Shikaya has partnered with filmmaker Molly Blank to produce the documentary Where Do I Stand?

When xenophobic attacks broke out across South Africa in 2008, many were caught off guard, shocked by violence that felt like a violation of the principles of their newly democratic nation. Over two months, 62 people were killed, hundreds injured and many more left homeless. In the midst of the violence, many young people picked up pangas.  Other youth, clad in the bright greens and maroons of their school uniforms, looted neighborhood shops while some of their classmates, refugees themselves, fled to safer ground. Some young people tried to find a way to help, but still more stood by, watching from their windows or on television.

Called “brilliant” and “compelling”, Where Do I Stand? uses the attacks as a window into the lives of seven young people who are thinking deeply about their actions during this violence and the choices they made. They include a Rwandan refugee, a girl wrestling with the reality of foreigners in her township, a boy facing calls of cowardice, and a suburban girl whose family sheltered their Malawian gardener.

Where Do I Stand? captures the optimistic voices of youth grappling with what they experienced and seeking to carve out their own places in this complex and divided nation.

Where Do I Stand? Has Received Great Press in South Africa and Internationally…

“We see young people who are thinking through their humanity with great insight… we see an incredible sense of awakening and understanding of their own moral horizons and an awareness of how much they need to be more than simply driftwood in history. It is this possibility, of South Africans taking responsibility for their own actions, that this documentary will hopefully add impetus to.”

- Crain Soudien, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town

“Thought-provoking, deeply moving and thoroughly professional, Where Do I Stand? sets a new standard for education of youth and adults about complex and troubling issues in South African society. This is not only a story about hurt and trauma, but one of reconciliation and hope, crucial ingredients for rebuilding a broken country.

- Jonathan Jansen, Rector, University of the Free State
“I have a new favorite film about education. This one is NOT about school but rather about the moral dilemmas we all face, in this case a matter of life and death.”

- taking note, thoughts on education from John Merrow, November 17, 2010.

“A brilliant movie maker, Molly Blank, renders a powerful account about xenophobia in her new documentary, Where Do I Stand?”

– Jonathan Jansen, The Times (July 14 2010)

Hear director Molly Blank’s interview on the national radio show Dispatches. Listen to the interview.

For more information on the film visit  www.wheredoistandfilm.com

Where Do I Stand? is generously funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and Wallace Global Fund.

]]> http://shikaya.org/youth/where-do-i-stand/conversations-with-our-past/feed/ 0 http://shikaya.org/youth/up2us/up2us/ http://shikaya.org/youth/up2us/up2us/#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 14:42:21 +0000 Amanda http://shikaya.org/?p=727

UP2US aims to create communities of young UPstanders across South Africa who stand up for good, begin to DO things that make a difference in their schools, communities and country and actively spread the message of UP2US by encouraging others to take part in .

Up2Us features voices and inspiration from young people as well as from celebrities like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Connie Ferguson, Ahmed Kathrada, Bobby Skinstad, Elana Afrika, HHP and The Parlotones.

One of the founders of Freshlyground has produced a theme song for Up2Us bringing together three diverse musicians. Participants will engage with their story of what it meant to come together to create a song of unity, hope and inspiration.

In March 2009, a follow-up workshop dealt with the American Civil Rights movement and, more specifically, the efforts to desegregate Little Rock Central High school. Teachers used Facing History and Ourselves resource “Choices in Little Rock” and the Eyes on the Prize DVD series as a catalyst for discussing the roles played by individual and group identities in Little Rock.

This case-study is particularly salient to the Facing the Past approach because it demonstrates that personal choices, individually and collectively, determine the structure of society; and, in addition, that our identities have a fundamental impact on our choices regarding others.

When faced with a moral dilemma, the individuals who make courageous choices are able to do so through an understanding that their decisions can make a genuine difference to society, and teachers in this workshop discussed how this message can best be brought into their classrooms.

Lets teach our learners, through the content, about civic responsibility, and that their choices do matter! (Janine Kaptein)

Below are  some extracts from some of the participants’ journal entries:

“When society is built, the basis upon which society is built would be the choices. Choices have consequences; the consequences would be the creation.”

“It will develop learners to be considerate and concerned about others.”

“The resources and methodology is extremely useful in helping learners to understand the importance of individual choices, even ordinary people can have far reaching consequences.”