FEBRUARY 25, 2005 - Tom writing notes

Morning: Drawing of the persons face next to you without looking at the paper, which negates worries about being able to draw. Interesting that many people said they were not artists & had no creative talent!!! Then writing a question we as individuals want answered. Introductions - life story! Getting to know people.

Afternoon: Highlighted that the first days are about getting to know people & having a stable space to get back to - people feeling secure - please speak up about any worries/concerns & share with the group. Presentation of the timetable and want as much feedback/ideas in terms of how the 10 days pan out. Please share ideas for the programme.

Amandla means "power". This word has been used a lot in many different contexts.

We discussed ideas for documenting the event including: Typing on laptop, Digital cameras, Drawing, Writing, Video, Singling and recording sounds, Performances of people’s experiences, Ideas for a creative message board - maybe a sculptural message board?? We are looking for creative ways of documentation.

Second half of afternoon: Methods were used to keep attention spans going & energy levels up. All included feeling a bit silly & breaking into laughter. I always feel a bit uncomfortable doing these things, but can see & experience the benefit.

Fears & Hopes - We partnered with another in the group & drew around each others hands & feet, then wrote our hopes for the journey in the hands and our fears for the journey in our feet.

Fears included: violence, being inhibited on account of lack of security, not being able to network enough, not being able to apply the work back home, fear of not expressing my experiences well in the workshops, discrimination, fumbling, feeling worthless, pressure/ coercion, not having the right questions, fear of asking questions, not finding enough answers, getting insecure and vulnerable, fear of groups/ brainwashing, being overwhelmed, too much talking and no action, not fitting into the group, lack of commitment

Hopes included: Learning how can I better organise arts events, more art more art, fun fun fun, see more - feel more - hear more - help my country soar, success, achievement, insight, inspiration, exposure, linking art to leadership, finding oneself through art and finding art through oneself, new ideas, polish up me-skills, growing, honesty, helpfulness, happiness, building, connecting, unifying, arriving a beginning point at the end, making a difference, inspiration, future projects and partnerships, sharing creative processes, openmindedness, fuel for change

A learning contract was written as a group, where the group came up with a list of ways to behave & discussed what was acceptable within the group, I like the way group consensus becomes a focus from the outset...

Tools used: Okay - alright. (the I say OK, you say Alright song) Vocal Rhythms: Each group develops a 4 bar rhythm & takes it in turn to sing!! Clap, Clap, Clap, pat-knees, pat-knees, pat-knees, kiss, kiss, kiss.

FEBRUARY 26, 2005 - Simona writing notes

Morning session Documentation of the journey. The group responsible for the "video production" of the journey reported the results of the discussion of the night before. It was decided to use two cameras: straight camera to be used for more structured and planned footages and a crazy camera that can be used by everybody giving space to creativity and craziness and capture the energy of the group. The idea was welcomed and it was also decided that the video would be supported by drawings and notes of the journey. Everyday 4 persons will be responsible for the documentation: one for the straight camera, one for the crazy camera, one for the notes and one for the drawing.

Masking Exercise. Drawing as people perceive you and how you perceive yourself using all the tools available around in 45 min. colours, painting, cartoons, video, clay, plants, herbs, scissors, rope, poetry, words, polyester, stones, glue, fabrics... The exercise was quite interesting and vibrant and it resulted in a deep and sincere description of ourselves. Some results of the exercise:

How people perceive you Straight, joyful but empty, organized, naïve, with a big belly and cool, with attitudes, arrogant, peaceful, childish, as I am since I am a straightforward person, as God perceives me, like a little devil…

How you are Eclectic, flexible, willing to expand and grow, artist, not afraid of confrontation, giving value to paradox, emotional, passionate, having hands like a basketball player to reach and receive and give and score in life, loving life and what life offers, loving and learning…

The exercise helped to highlight the fact that most of the time people judge others in a superficial way, constrained by assumptions and misconceptions.

Exercise. Choosing one partner in the group and talk with him/her about the community where you live to show how it really is, out of misconceptions and assumptions. Exercise. Walking in the yard, strolling around. We were asked to point things and name them with their name at loud voice. After a while we were asked to point things and name them with a different name (like calling a car chair, or a window ball…). And then the exercise became difficult since we had to point things avoiding category (eg. If I point a tree, I cannot call it flower, or if I point a car I cannot call it bicycle…also we were not allowed to rename things using name belonging to the same category like star, moon, sun). A simple exercise that highlighted how naturally our minds make associations and label things with their name and how difficult is to go out of the box and think "freely", and abandon conventions and labels.

The two exercises helped to understand what we see and what we are. Not just in relation with ourselves but with the places and things we visit. What are the assumptions we bring with us and what are our prejudices? The discussion focused on how to suspend judgments. Make them visible. Question them. Imagine to put your assumptions in a transparent ball and suspend it in front of you. Look at them, question them and be flexible and open to reconsider them. It's difficult to get rid of our background, experiences and judgment. But we should imagine suspending our judgments in front of us and ask what are the assumptions, ask questions to challenge our assumptions. Judgment is also thinking that everything should be right or positive. We should try to understand what is going on more than think what is right or wrong.

Furthermore, the discussion was meant to help preparing us for our trip to the communities in the next days in order to try to get out of our box and be open to learn and understand. Be aware of how we are perceived from others can also help in this learning experience.

Each one of us wears a pair of lenses and this is a gift that needs to be shared with others. Try to be beyond the intellectual aspect of things, try to be more aware of what you feel, what you smell, what you hear, what's going on in your body. Allow your curiosity to guide you, to be open to see beyond, to see differently. The exercise stimulated active conversation around the theme

Afternoon session

The afternoon session was meant to be a teaching and learning from each others. Lunch was organized at the Zoo Lake Park where we brought food, chairs, blankets, drums and part of our work to be shared with the other participants. We organized a picnic, we chatted, we laughed, we saw the wonderful photo book of Sthe and the amazing painting of Sicelo, we danced Zulu traditional dance guided by Sakhile, we enjoyed the drums played by Dineo and Kokou and we learned to sing traditional songs like "shosholoza".

After a strong rain that surprised us in the park we came back to the bed and breakfast and other participants shared and discussed their working experiences.

Javid. Aiding Youth for life (www.ayl.ca). Video documenting the results of an educational programme about HIV/AIDS implemented in Tanzania by a Canadian organization. It was highlighted that the video does not reflect in a comprehensive way what happened in Tanzania because the documentary producer quitted and the original footages were edited by somebody not involved in the project before. The group discussed about the importance of documentary films and the following points were highlighted:

• It’s important to decide in advance what is the purpose of the documentary film: documenting a project with its results, documenting a process for future replication, documenting an issue with its causes and consequences..
• It’s important to decide in advance who is the target audience: donors to raise funds, local communities to increase advocacy and share information, governmental body to change their perceptions and enforce legislations…
• It’s fundamental to involve the community in the process to stress the leadership role that the community should play
• It’s important to create a sense of social responsibility that shall help the sustainability of the project in the long run.
• If the documentary is used for fund raising it might be effective interviewing the beneficiaries of the projects highlighting what changes they see in their daily life thanks to the project interventions.

Tom and George then showed a video. St. Martins Kut Dog Youth Club. The interesting aspect of the project were:

1. the use of a talk show setting where different point of views were pointed out through the voice of the different characters.
2. The children were involved in the process at different stages: they had to research material related to the subject, they were responsible to write the script for their characters and they act as main characters.

George also showed a documentary about a man in Brixton, in London, that is the Pentecostal Minister, works in a church and at the same time repairs bicycles and produces the strongest wheels in the world. At a certain point the church was knocked down.

Simona. TV Spots on Female Genital Mutilation. (www.undp.org.eg). In Egypt United Nations Development Programme and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood realized a strong integrated communication campaign about FGM, which the 3 TV spots were part of. In Egypt FGM is a sensitive issues linked with strong traditional beliefs and sometimes wrongly linked with religious prescriptions. The only official statistic available (2000 Egyptian Demographic Health Survey) reports that prevalence rate in Egypt is 97%. The first TV spot introduces the theme of FGM in the framework of the girl child rights: the rights of education and the rights to be prevented by early marriage. It was broadcasted for 6 months on the national channels and prepared the audience to receive more direct messages that are being currently disseminated with the second and the third spots, linked with the religious misconceptions and the false traditional beliefs, emphasizing the importance of education and good upbringing to preserve the purity of a girl instead of practicing FGM. The TV spots stimulated an interesting discussion. Key points highlighted:

1. TV spots as a tools for social change if linked with strong initiatives on the ground to increase awareness about the theme and disseminate proper information educating people.
2. Misuse of religion as a tool to justify traditional practices.
3. Traditions should not be romanticized or demonised but understood. In South Africa for example the lobola (dowry) it’s a tradition that lost its original meaning of bringing together two families but is just to benefit more money.

FEBRUARY 27,2005 - Alia writing notes

Once upon a story teller...

Day three of our learning journeys finds us cross legged before 5 of the 8 giant story tellers of Zanendaba Storytellers. We have arrived at the "Bus Factory", an arts hub in Johannesburg, following a brief visit to the Constitutional Court.

Zanendaba started their story telling group in 1982, and grew into a full fledged organization that offers story telling workshops for adults and youth in schools, and libraries as well as offering story telling services for schools, and using the art as a means to market and promote commercial products for companies and corporations.

The day unravelled as follows;

Wena Ungu Bane!

Ripples of panic made their ways through the group as we snapped, clapped and shouted out each other's names through the "Mena Ungu Bane'" fiasco. We started the day with a name game wherein each person was to recite the little "Mena Ungu Bane" = "My name is" with their name, followed, by the names of each and every individual that preluded them, with a little snap clap name rhythm. Though a simple ice breaker, the game zapped us all with much more energy, laughter and excitement than expected.

Listen then React...

This was a game of musicless musical chairs, where we were to listen very closely to the instructions of the facilitator. The rules of the game were that we move when the call "One" was made, and stay in our places when the call "Move" was made. Needless to say the game resulted in a whole lot of confusion. The general idea was to get the participants to listen closely, and suspend any existing conceptions or pre-conceptions and simply listen THEN react, rather than react before listening. Thus sharpening rusty listening skills. Thus, rather than move on hearing the call "Move", as we would have normally, we were to freeze and sit still. Though, simple, the game did require a great deal of concentration and resulted in a great deal of chaotic laughter as well!

Ar-TIC-Ulate

This was a series of words we were to repeat in several different ways in order to understand and excercise the importance of ar-tic-ulating, every letter and syllable uttered on telling a story. This, in turn, ensure that the story is told adn conveyed with as much clarity and accuracy as possible.

now BREEATHE...and let me see those tummies grow!

DID you know, that you could actually use your stomach to breathe?! The idea behind this laborious excercise was to ensure we could take the air into our stomachs where we could draw upon it when telling the story, and use it to give our speech more force and energy. Also to ensure that if we run OUT of breath while narrating.... well it would somehow seem less obvious if we did it through our stomachs... Come on now.... Take a deep breath.... bring those bellies to life... Fa La La LA....

A HUMAN CHORUS!! divided into two groups, each group was to sing a certain note in unison, as we were "mistroed" into a beautiful SONG! :) Our musical piece was altered as we were asked to change syllables of the same song, a few times. So "Ha ha ha haaaaaaaaa" became "ka ka ka kaaaaaaaaaa", to evovle into "Ba ba ba baaaaaaa" producing a master piece of equivalent brilliance at every point. The point of this game once again, I believe was to help with our articulation of certain letters, notes and synonyms, as the story tellers had emphasized over and over the importance of introducing song and rhythm to our stories. Yup. that musta been it.

Tips for the Story Teller: Chicken and Spice and all things nice...

Following are tips to spice up your story telling; "These tips are as important to story telling as the Spices are to the chicken meal!" Mosieu Always start with a song or story telling chant (to catch the audience's full attention, and ensure "active" listening) Sound effects (pay attention and emphasize sound affects, and animal sounds to help bring the story to life) Facial Expressions. (express, express, express :)) Maintain eye contact with your audience * Use, alter and abuse; gestures, pauses and voice levels.

Tell me then... WHY do we tell stories?

A discussion then commenced between the facilitators and participants as to the importance of story-telling in its uses for purposes that are;

• Educational Communicating values Reinforcing culture Broadening horizons Enriching the imagination Working with illterate children fun. Fun. FUN :)

The different stories that were discsused are ones that revolved around environment, animals, myths and legends, religion, folklore etc...

Story telling is mutually beneficial for both teller and listener.... "A story is like a tennis ball. The energy with which you throw the ball (tell the story) is the energy with which it returns to you", said the wise story teller...

To Tell a Tale.

The participants then divided into two groups with two scripts. Each group was to narrate and perform the story in different ways (relay stories, and accumulative story telling) after each group was criticized by participant and facilitator alike. highly entertaining and enlightening process. Finally, it all came to an end with a long story by each of the story tellers, whilst we all sat wide eyed, cross legged and attentive, in a semi circle around them. Ping... bounced the pinpong ball.

Amaaaaaaaaaandla!

After a long refreshing walk in Newtown, and having cool drinks while watching an unsuspecting passer-by be picked up and beaten to the ground by a group of men, further down the street, we proceeded (after calling for the police of course) to the Pioneers of Change office, where we sat, once again, wide eyed and awe stricken before the movie "Amandla".

"Amandla" or "power" was a movie that spoke of the role of music and song, in the history of the Apartheid of South Africa, and the resistance put up by the South Africans.

Interesting quotes from the movie include;

"I would call it, a policy of good neighbourliness" Henrick Verwoed's re-definition of the Apartheid.

"Madame please... before you ask me if your children are fine.. Ask me first; when i last saw mine... Before you make fun of the watchman's english.. Speak to him; in his own Zulu language.."

"The hardest thing about being in exile is dreaming. You dream that you're at home. Then you wake up to the reality that you're not. And you can't go back"

"Zenzenina... What have we done... Our only sin is being...."

"An injury to one, is an injury to all..."

FEBRUARY 28, 2005 - George writing notes

Soweto Mountain of Hope (SOMOHO) We met Mandla Mentoor founder of SOMOHO. His background was in journalism and he was disillusioned with mainstream work as he was too much of an agitator and always got the sack. ANC activist. Leadership roles in sustainable development.

The community should take control of their own problems. Ignore political parties (ANC, IFP) who had problems. Organised to train men women and children creating jobs through cleaning there enviroment, dance, music, Arts, Culture and team sports. Adressing social issues Teaching children who will train others. Womens project sewing and a bakery making money selling cakes. Recycling waste to make Art including tyres which had been used before in Necklacing (putting tyres around the neck of informers , filling with petrol and setting alight). Officially recognized in 2001 by green trust award Mandla received 10,000 Rand and decided in the community to use the money to clear deserted mountain which was a no go area with muggings and rapes. Turned mountain into the mountain of hope.

Mandla is hoping to spread the project to 57 + other townships. Apartheid created division in communities and the area where SOMOHO is is a mixture of different ethnic groups which made it hard to work in.

Soweto Kliptown Youth

We visited the SKY Project in Kliptown. Kliptown is a very run down squatter camp / informal settlement with no mains or running water and only stand pumps in the street and no sewer system. The houses are all badly damaged with smashed windows and there is high poverty. We drove into Kliptown feeling shocked and with intrepidation with what we were going to see. The place looked so run down, dirty and dangerous. We drove into to an area where Bob runs the Sky project and community centre. We were taken into a room with tables and chairs set out for dinner. We were to be served chicken and salad and rice with sauce by young people from the community centere dressed up as waiters with shirts and bow ties, it was part of a training for work program. It was a good lunch.

After lunch we were split into groups to take a walk around the area. We saw more of the broken unrenovated houses with old beds used as fences smashed windows. All the people seemed very friendly. Kliptown is built next to a railway on the other side there is a development called Walter Sisulu Square celebrating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the freedom charter in 1955 in this place. There is also a taxi rank and plans to build some houses. Bob from Sky thinks they should have built the houses first and the development should be for the people.

After our walk we all went into a community centre to watch a performance by the children of Sky. We watched 3 performances in all. The first was a very powerful moving drama around story of a young girl who was raped and murdered. It was questioning the abuse and poverty of children

MARCH 1, 2005 - Maggie writing notes

Upon arriving at Hartbeesport, we all got out of our respective methods of transport and walked to the school we were visiting. The first things we saw were a couple of hundred children sitting in front of their school building, each one holding a drum. Our group joined them taking drums and tambourines and joined in the fun, doing rhythmic beats on our instruments following a few leaders of 20000 Drums leading the exercises with more complex songs and beats.

After we did a clapping song, dividing the massive group of us including the children into three, each group doing a different clapping beat. Then it was back to the drums and singing a round of "Shosholoza" and a few of the students took turns leading the crowd in staring and stopping playing the music.

It was quite amazing, the sense of unity, connectedness and belonging there was with the huge group of us each doing the same thing. Especially with the drumming, where we each followed one beat simultaneously, as a whole. As a member of the group that only speaks English and can't understand Zulu, it wasn't so easy following the verbal instructions but keeping up with the drum beat and following by example was quite easy. The drums themselves provided a common language and linked us all...

After the drumming the children had some time to socialize with us and brought Tom into their classroom to show him their school computers that showed them the basics in terms of using computers. We left the school to go have lunch at the Lion's Park. Unfortunately, not all of us were able to hear a full introduction or background of 20000 Drums, but I sat at the table with Samantha and got to hear the story of her organization. It took Sam two and a half years to get funding and 20000 Drums operates in 65 schools in the province. Today was the first day the project was in a school taking steps to make 20000 Drums a sustainable project. Teachers will identify 3 learners and 25 people to then receive advanced drumming training. The schools will get some recycled instruments made in local communities as well as some djembe drums. Her funding comes from a trust in the UK as well as some lottery funding. The end result will be 20000 children playing drums in a stadium together, and then, the project will move onto another province. Samantha saw a need for sustainability in her project and positive spirits in the children, as well as a connection with God and a chance to foster creativity. She also believes that this sort of activity will make kids happy and then that happiness that they experience in schools will be brought home to their families and spread the good feelings coming from drumming and learning how to do drumming with a group.

For the afternoon, we all split into groups going to either shop, the Cradle of Humankind, or Newtown to visit the Market Theatre. In the evening we had dinner together at Cool Runnings - a Jamaican restaurant in Melville and went on to see a dance performance, which was part of the Dance Umbrella, a festival showcasing different dances. The feelings from the group about the dance were quite mixed, with some people finding it really fascinating and beautiful, to some only liking parts, and to others leaving at the intermission. It was one of our more relaxing days and coming together in the evening as a group was really wonderful after having spent the afternoon apart. We are all enjoying the company of one another and find that we're enjoying our activities and that nearly everything we do is a chance to learn...l

MARCH 2, 2005 - Alia and Simona writing notes

Creative Inner City Initiative

1. A walk in the Park..

The program started with our dividing into groups to take a long walk in Joubert park, the Greenhouse and the Art Gallery. The greenhouse featured many an interesting herb and plant, and seemed well kept relative to the urban environment it was located in, with all its history.

The Art Gallery featured the work of Dumile Feni, a South African Artist who lived in exile from 1968 until he died in New York in 1991 just before he was to return to South Africa. The gallery was very inspiring both in terms of the beauty of the Artists's strokes , as well as the feeling and meaning they seemed to express.

The Artist described his work:

"My subjects are African because they are my people, but my message, the idea i am bringing to put across has nothing to do with racialism - i am not interested in politics. My situations are human ones..."

Other interesting quotes on the Artist's work included;

"What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up, like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a Sore, and then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over, like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags, like a heavy load... Or does it....explode?" - Langston Hughes

"Perhaps the most marked characteristic of Dumile’s work is that it exudes compassion and a great sense of caring for people exactly what lies right at the core of our Constitution with its Bill of Rights. And it is this sense of caring, expressed through the way he dignifies the downtrodden, that leads Justice Sachs to adopt an extraordinary view of the artist. "What was special about him", he says, "was that, at a time, when artists connected with the struggle were painting bodies being carried away, and fists and spears, and denunciations of the cruelty of the regime, Dumile was concentrating on the dignity of the people, their tenderness, their humanity. And in a sense, he prefigured our whole constitutional order, what our Bill of Rights is all about"." (From "Compassion in Fine Lines" by Emile Maurice)

1. The Workshops. The day revolved around 4 main workshops: Performance Arts, Visual Arts, Missing Children’s Posters, and Drop-in Art Programme.
2. Performance Arts - Carnivals and Open Spaces.

Armed with their tin durms, and endless variety of noise creating Junk Funk, led by a giant dragon (stilts in a costume), and magnificently tall (stilts again) men, the pioneers of change, marched around Joubert park in an array of noise and color!

When we finally reached the park, our hosts acted out a few skits, in powerful color and expression, gathering around us a fairly curious audience, both park dwellers and outsiders alike.

Our pied piper effect lasted for some time though, as our audience held out with patience and much interest until the end of the show.

After the performance ended we participated in a number of workshops with the carnival organizers and participants revolving around:

• The stilts (making and using them) The story telling and poetry reading techniques The dancing and using the "Junk Funk" musical instruments.

The whole experience was further enriched as we were joined by Francois from CICI, who spoke to us of the concept behind CICI, the value of interactive theatre and performances, and the general importance of participative art, as opposed to mantle piece art, that was merely a product to please it's observer.

Francois also spoke to us of all the challenges CICI was facing that year, relating to sudden funding withdrawals and shortages in resources. However, the beauty of the organization, seemed most visible and appreciated in it's ability to create using as few resources as possible. However few their resources may have been, that particular experience, proved to us how RICH the organization was in ideas, energy, concept, trust and ambition, and the extent to which that could truly compensate for material resources.

As we basked in the warmth of the sun, comfort of gathering crowds, and coolness of the green grass, George, very expressively coined the situation in;

" Look... The most dangerous park in the world; now safe."

1. Visual Arts

For this workshop, all participants were asked to gather random materials off the streets of the Inner City during our walks in the very early morning.

ALl these materials were then to be used as the participants of the workshops paired in two's to work on creating a shared masterpiece.

Acccording to Tom, one of the participants, the experience was very interesting in the sense that his first reaction was to divide the art work, so that he worked on half of his piece, and his partner on the other. However, on realizing the extent of collaboration that their piece required, they spent more time, trying to reconcile their different perspectives or ideas regarding their theme; "Aids", and produce something more coherent.

Lindy, on the other hand, boasted as to the extent to which using different pieces of randomly collected objects inspired her creativity, and enabled her to co-produce an incredible piece of Art with her partner Kokou.

Other participants also commented as to how challenging it was to use pieces of what seemed like "useless garbage" at first, to create real pieces of beautiful and expressive art, and how equally challenging it was to co-produce such a piece with a partner with different background and perspective.

1. Performance

To wrap up a very eventful day (in all the colors, sounds, faces, expressions, feelings that that may imply), our hosts entertained us (greatly) with a skit that portrayed social issues in the South African urban life, in safe slap stick humour.

We then all worked together to create a clammerang of a musical piece, each using any noise creating/emitting object we could get our hands on.

Feedback on the day at this point included the following comments; Creativity, Trust, Safety, resourcefulness, Taking good care of us, role models, GREAT FOOD, Vibrant, team spirit, Fund, WILD, Englightening, inspiring, insightful....

1. Reflection Circle

Where am I at? On the cling of our tibetan bells, and the rotation of our Makoti talking piece, following were the main comments that seemed to sum up the events and impressions that the last few days left on us: Chaos, Conflict, Baptized by Madness, Organized mess, Confusions, inspiration, Art is not waste but waste can be Art, "the difficulty of taking all this back home...","Oh the dutch!", "making sense of it all...", passions and professions, overcoming challenges, bridging gaps, ambitions, anxieties, career moves, funds... question marks, question marks, question marks....

Where does all this leave us, you ask?

MARCH 3, 2005

Today was theatre day. We left idube at 7:40, and arrived at arepp just after 8. Brigid, Vusi, and Annette also seemed happy to see us. We left the car there and took the arepp van with Vusi driving. His driving is mad, but he is a wonderful guy. He spoke to us about the project.

We went to a school in Sebokeng where we first watched a puppetry performance for the 1-4 graders about health and abuse, then a theatre performance for the 5-7 graders around rape and AIDS. It was all in sotho, so we didn’t understand much, but I enjoy listening to the African languages as well. We got the explanation afterwards.

Their approach is very professional and structured and they have managed to get some significant corporate sponsors for their work. This was a useful balance for us to observe, contrasting it with the world of CICI.

We went back to the arepp office and had a conversation with Annette, Vusi and two of the actors. It started out quite light and practical. Then we got into talking about protest theatre and the role of theatre during the struggle. The South African guys - Lebo, Nzunzu, Vusi, and the two actors got into a conversation, talking about rootedness, the role of the past in the future, whether you can take something cultural out of context and plant it somewhere else. Dineo summarised it as being about romanticising or demonising Africa. It was a passionate, articulate and insightful conversation. The rest of us were observing it almost as if it were a performance in its own right. It’s ok for a few people to dominate a conversation if everyone else is engaged in listening. It felt like a gift.

From arepp, we went to meet Busi Dlamini at Market Theatre for a conversation about abcUlwazi and radio dramas. Then we had dinner at Nikki’s Oasis. Nikki herself was serving us. Another one of those subtle nice little things that have happened to us during this journey. Food was great, good atmosphere.

Went to the theatre to see Miss KwaKwa. Political incorrectness. Spoke to Makgano, the actress, afterwards. The voice of a young, black woman - the new generation. She invented the character 8 years ago. Linked up with a scriptwriter friend from school and they decided to produce it together. Some of it is quite controversial.

MARCH 4, 2005

We spent the day at the Heart Center outside of Johannesburg, relaxing, and consolidating our learnings onto a big wall mural.

MARCH 5, 2005

On the second last day of the journey we all gathered at CIDA City Campus with 50 other pioneers and partners for a celebration of the arts in social change. 13 workshops on a variety of themes from jewelry making to cartooning, drama therapy to poetry, street theater to biodanza, gumboot dancing, the inner child, batik making and video production took place throughout the day culminating in an evening celebration with a performance by the team from CICI. Throughout the day, our partner organisations were exhibiting their work as well.

Kokou: March 5 was the peak day of the journey. It was the day when each of us was able to put into practice the learning acquired so far; and at the same time exchange our experience and knowledge with other participants. It was a day rich of learning and sharing; and this could be seen on the faces of participants and people taking part on various workshops presented by our team of pioneers. The fact of bringing together people from different walks of life and social class is a tangible expression of what this Journey is about.

Participant comments on the day included:

The day was amazing Word is born There was an invisible group force field The entire day inspired me to carry the energy forward It was great fun and also educational. I went to different workshops where I danced in biodanza, where I was a bit relaxed, and poetry was the best where I learn that everything is poetry. Great! Whole day seemed to have a sense of magic and engagement. Mmatshilo was amazing. I loved matebedi’s workshop. The highlight to outshine all hightlights! Was proud of workshop proceedings. Enjoyed exchange of practices and inspirational stories. DANCED DANCED DANCED. Intense, cultural, energy releasing, togetherness experience, words fail me… An accumulation of all the positive energy, fruits of the relationships and lessons learnt, self discoveries made during the journey. This is when it happened for me.

MARCH 6, 2005

We returned to the Heart Centre to reflect on the journey. Each of us took time to think about the highlights and lowlights of the journey.

Then Chris Tokalon, a South African musician came in and offered us a Sound Journey. He and his partner played different musical instruments for us while we all lay on our backs in a meditative state. All the instruments he uses are rich in overtones, and the Sound Journey serves to release stress and tension and to massage all the cells in our bodies through sound. We all had different experiences, some with pictures coming up, others relaxing, many of us experiencing twitching.

In the afternoon we evaluated the journey, first by consolidating our highlights and lowlights, then through a lineup exercise. On the overall assessment of the learning journey, everyone rated it 8-12 on a scale of 1-10! Some concerns were raised about the balance of art forms and the extent to which everyone had had the space to share their work. The main point of criticism was around the cultural integration of the group and whether there had been discrimination going on within our group. A healthy conversation happened around this in the evaluation, so we could all enter the closing circle having cleared the air.

For the closing circle, each person shared a check-out and then received "love-back" from two other participants.

Overall comments:

Kokou : "The Learning Journey was an ideal space of artistic expression, a space were I could share and exchange ideas with other artists and people from different cultures across the world ; also take the opportunity to present my Batik work. The desire to succeed in my art and acquire new insights and understandings were the key factors that motivated me to participate to the Learning Journey. I must admit that it was a very enriching experience."

Sabelo : "The whole journey has been a major highlight for me as an artist and an African who believes in his responsibility over his community and country. The participants were energetic and interesting in their views, the organizers did a great job balancing the intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical aspects of a person. First time I attend a holistic workshop catering for people of different cultures, religions and backgrounds."