(Stonetown, Zanzibar)
(Jambiani, Zanzibar)
I have just returned from a trip to Zanzibar, Tanzania. What a beautiful place that is! But strangely enough, the one thing that has remained with me from that holiday was a question that my Dutch friend posed during our travels together:
Do you feel anything when you read/hear about British colonisation?
It was a difficult question for me to answer because in truth, I know very little about it. Before coming here, I was supposed to read up on the history of Rwanda and the impact of colonialism - and as you can probably infer from my use of 'supposed to' - I didn't do as much as I should/could have done.
But the topic of colonisation has cropped up into conversation a lot of late. I'm often told by my TTC colleagues that they wish that Britain had colonised Rwanda rather than Belgium - for one thing, English would be spoken more widely now as opposed to French. Another (African) volunteer told me that African countries that were colonised by Britain tend to have better infrastructures - good roads, buildings, social care and grasp of the English language. It was surprising to hear of the so-called benefits of what the Brits have imposed...
(Memorial at the Old Slave Market, Zanzibar)
The question that my friend posed seemed a little loaded because whilst the likes of David Livingstone and William Wilberforce fought for the rights of people, fighting to abolish the slave trade, it is hard to deny that a lot of pain and distruction was inflicted as a result of supposedly educating the uneducated through colonisation. Whilst it is all well and good that 'civilisation' has been brought to various countries within Africa, what were the costs of such 'development?'
And then I watched Pocahontas today. Don't laugh. Whilst it may be a fictional embellishment on Captain John Smith's experiences of the 'New World' - lots of it resonated with my feelings about 'colonisation.' It speaks of 'white' people coming to make the world a supposedly better place, to 'teach' the 'savages' about their way of living, a better way of living, a civilised way. I often catch myself laughing when my colleagues tell me that I come from a 'civilised country.' I wonder what type of country Rwanda is if it is not civilised. But sometimes I feel like an early explorer/settler in my role here as a volunteer, coming to apparently educate the uneducated on European teaching methods - the more preferred method, the better method of teaching...(apparently.)
Education here seems to be stuck in the Victorian period - chalk and talk, fear equates to respect, authority over teaching...and I hear the same arguments from teachers here as I did as a teacher in London from parents: "I was taught by rote and I turned out just fine...so what's the problem with such teaching methods?" Education now leans towards the teacher being a facilitator to learning, allowing learners to discover for themselves in order to develop such skills as critical thinking and problem solving by building and orchestrating situations and environments for learners to do this; and this is what I'm trying to encourage here. It often feels like I'm trying to build roads, brick houses and water pipes to those who are simply happy/content with their mud huts and rivers.
Whilst I may not be making huge ripples here in Rwanda in education, I am reassured that a ripple can start with the smallest of pebbles (I got that from Pocahontas too...) A third year student who has just graduated from the TTC told me that by observing my behaviour, he learnt far more than sitting in any Foundation of Education class - he learnt to respect his learners, to reach them at their level and not talk down to them as though they are beneath you. Respect does not mean fear or authority but comes as a result of mutual understanding and respect for each other. It's been a while since someone made me shed a tear - and he made me do just that.
