Africa Cluster's contents tagged with "maseru working group"

Critical Literary Arts in Action: The Decolonial Project of Ba re e ne re within and beyond Lesotho

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 14:23:15 +0000

In this article Lineo Segoete and Zachary Rosen of the Maseru Working Group explore the historical construction of literary infrastructure established in Lesotho. Building on an analysis of Sesotho language orthography by Dr Litšepiso Matlosa, the pair recall the colonial genesis of written Sesotho by Swiss and French missionaries. As a result of this influence, Lesotho’s written Sesotho remains embedded with marks of orthographic inconsistency. The legacies of written language in Lesotho inform the relationships the Basotho have with literature.

The article demostrates that through the ensuing dialogues, the Ba re e ne re Literature Festival has since served as a creative outlet and knowledge exchange for Basotho while expanding its reach through additional creative interventions rooted in decolonial theory. Partnerships with peer literary and cultural organisations in other African countries have generated valuable exchanges as well. In mapping out its myriad connections, Lineo and Zachary argue that through reflexive praxis, the Ba re e ne re Literature Festival served to delink literary culture in Lesotho from colonial institutions and practices through cultivating a new generation of storytellers, readers and cultures.

Find the article here.

Maseru Working Group in Dialogue with the Balisa in Sefikeng for International Literacy Day (10 September 2019).

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 12:51:57 +0000

The Maseru Working Group was invited to collaborate with the Lesotho Council of NGOs (LCN) and Lesotho Association of Non-formal Education (LANFE) to host a community dialogue with Herders (Balisa) in Sefikeng, Berea on 10 September 2019. The aim of the event was to engage on the value of literacy and education among Balisa and to advocate for their cultural and political representation. The event served as a platform for Balisa ba ka Sefikeng to express their creativity, frustrations and ambitions.

The Ignorant Schoolmasters at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (9 April 2019)

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 15:01:11 +0000

Lineo Segoete of the Maseru Working Group gave a lecture entitled The Ignorant Schoolmasters at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in the context of the seminar "Art and Education. Positions and Analyses," led by Barbara Mahlknecht of the Vienna Working Group on 9 April 2019. the lecture was based on a joint essay between Lineo and Nora Landkammer (Vienna Working Group) also titled The Ignorant Schoolmasters. The collaboration is reflection on the didactic role of two educators as emancipators in the context of knowledge being a universal phenomenon, and the implications of power and mutual learning associated with it.

In the study, Lineo and Nora critique Jacque Ranciere's text: the ignorant schoolmaster and Swiss missionary Edouard Jacottet who worked in Lesotho as an educator and writer. The lecture was followed by the "un/chrono/logical timeline game designed by the Another Roadmap Intertwining Histories Cluster, ie, an educational tool developed to engage with arts education histories and their global connections.

Maseru Working Group Collaborates with Inkanyiso (ZA) for the Rutanang Project (28 January - 1 February 2019)

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 13:56:50 +0000

Member organisations of the Maseru working group collaborated with Inkanyiso, a South African queer media and activism organisation, to co-facilitate a photography and creative writing workshop for young women. The aim of the Rutanang project was to produce a body of visual and written work on the topic of violence against women and vulnerable groups. The workshop gave participants a platform to talk about their lives, society, and environment while also providing an opportunity for them to gain practical transferrable skills in photography, videography and writing.

31 January 2019 Somnyama Ngonyama Book Celebration
During the Inkanyiso team’s visit to Lesotho, the Maseru working group hosted a celebration of Zanele Muholi’s book Somnyama Ngonyama at Cafe What in Maseru. The event featured the screening of a newly released Art21 documentary about Johannesburg-based artists which profiles Muholi, a question and answer session with the artist, and a book auction.

Further information about these workshops is available here.

The Maseru Working Group contributes to the VANSA Organising Handbook (October 2018)

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:20:55 +0000

Lineo Segoete (Maseru) was invited by Visual Arts Network South Africa (VANSA) to attend a meeting of arts, cultural and arts educational peers from the region that eventually resulted in the creation of a handbook for ‘organising’. The book details some of the experiences of and strategies for organising that are currently
adopted by arts and cultural organisations in Southern Africa so as to achieve the furtherance of creative practices and cultural expressions.

The meeting itself emerged out of a report by VANSA, commissioned by the Ford Foundation Southern Africa in 2016/17. The original report was an in-depth discussion on new forms of arts organising in Southern Africa, the state of arts infrastructure in the region, and a longer discussion of the impact of the
history of the region.

This publication includes some excerpts from that report and brings these together with thoughts and learnings that emerged out of the organising workshop.
The VANSA Organising Handbook is free to download or to read online here.

Maseru Working Group Organises the Skima Sesotho Workshop Series (April - August 2018)

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:56:16 +0000

Between April and August 2018 the Maseru Working Group organised a series of workshops collectively entitled Skima Sesotho. These workshops, which brought together exercises and discussions about critical multimedia literacy with the BA RE Dictionary Project, aimed to get the Basotho excited about the Sesotho language and to demonstrate the playful malleability of Sesotho.

Through these workshops, which were free and open to the public, the Maseru working group introduced a process for cultivating new Sesotho words complete with definitions and example sentences. Words could be entirely new creations or could seek to capture slang words that are used in particular social contexts, e.g. schools, villages, churches, neighborhoods, etc. The workshops also explored media literacy, and how images, texts and sounds can be combined to create contrasting meaning about the same subject matter. Taking the comparison of British and Lesothan news footage as a starting point, the workshop then explored ways to read context and meaning in multimedia.

storytelling and creative writing for the Lephephe Print Gatherings (15-16 February 2018)

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 13:37:29 +0000

Puleng Plessie (Johannesburg) and Lineo Segoete (Maseru) joined forces to run a day-long creative writing for high school students at Metropolitan College in Johannesburg.

The following day, the students alongside other young people shared their work in a publicstorytelling session during the Lephephe Print Gathering at the King Kong Building.

Kampala and Maseru Working Groups represent ARAC in Basel at ‘Crossroads’ (8-10 February 2018)

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 09:19:32 +0000

CROSSROADS, organised by The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) brought together cultural practitioners from Switzerland, India, the Arab world and Southern Africa in Basel and Geneva for a conference and multidisciplinary cultural programme that explored the impact that cultural exchange and international networks might have, and the roles that art and culture can play in the process of social change.

- - -

What impact do cultural exchange and international networks have?

What roles do art and culture play in the process of social change?

CROSSROADS, organised by The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), provided a 3-day platform for discussion with a conference and a cultural programme in Basel and Geneva.

CROSSROADS brought together two Swiss institutions dedicated to culture in an international context: the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia have both been active for many years in numerous regions around the world, including what is known as the Global South. In addition to that, the oldest three liaison offices of Pro Helvetia, in Cairo, New Delhi and Johannesburg celebrated round anniversaries between 2017 and 2018.

CROSSROADS took a look behind the scenes of cultural production and promotion in various parts of the world and, by means of a conference and panels, explored possible ways ahead in the cultural cooperation of the future.

CROSSROADS united cultural practitioners from Switzerland, India, the Arab world and Southern Africa and offered a multidisciplinary cultural programme lasting three days.

Lineo Segoete of the Maseru Working Group and Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa of the Kampala Working Group were both invited to present the work that ARAC has been doing across Africa with the financial support of ProHelvetia Johannesburg.

Lineo Segoete (Maseru Working Group) spoke on the panel entitled "how to talk about what no one wants to talk about" which addressed demographic, ethnic, religious and sexual minorities who are faced with marginalisation, violence and the suppression of their histories. These topics are highlighted in the work of many critical artists today. The panel explored how varying (political) contexts require distinct strategies and formats to make these issues accessible to a broader audience. the core questions revolved around what such strategies could be along with the obstacles artists face when taking up such issues. The panel was moderated by Sophie Vögele (Scientific Associate, Institute for Art Education – Department of Cultural Analysis, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland).

Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa (Kampala Working Group) spoke about ARAC on the panel entitled "arts politics and power", the premise of which was that art and politics are closely intertwined, that artists are often important critical voices in the arena of political discourse, and that the arts can serve as a means to challenge conformist narratives and dominant discourse, calling into question our habitual political views and practice. The panel was Moderated by Federica Martini (Art historian and curator, Dean of Visual Arts at the ECAV/Sierre, Switzerland).

You can read more about the Crossroads conference here. The full programme of events can be viewed here.

ARAC Will Convene for its 3rd Colloquium in Maseru (7-13 January 2017)

Tue, 28 Nov 2017 13:00:51 +0000

Excerpts from an Interim Report: Activities of Johannesburg, Lubumbashi and Maseru Working Groups (2016-2017)

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 11:08:03 +0000

The Another Roadmap Africa Cluster (ARAC) aims remain to: make a critical and timely contribution to the development of practice and policy in our field. To this end, the project strives to support the development of innovative arts and education projects at grassroots level while at the same time networking Africa-based scholars and practitioners, and enabling them to advance research and practice in arts education, share knowledge and nurture further practice and scholarship and contribute to an African and global discourse on arts education. These broad aims are being met at this interim across the different working groups. This report should be read with the ‘mother website’ of Another Roadmap for Arts Education, Another Roadmap School.

Background

Johannesburg
The Johannesburg is developing a framework that is generative – we are identifying the key presences in our research project, many of which are found in the practices of Medu Art Ensemble:

Intergenerationality of research teams, debates, information gathering and decisions. This extends to the collective, ensemble-like methodologies present for the research;
Dialogue/talks/conversation and re-enactment sessions;
Decentralisation of learning sites;
The potential for a “festival” format that authorises itself, has broader appeal and crosses disciplines;
The centrality of grappling with language – and ideological languages;
The working group has considered a set of tactics that might be described as both metaphorical and methodological, drawing from Eduoard Glissant’s understanding of histories as processes that highlight the following guiding metaphors:
To exhaust
To realise
To endlessly discover
To illuminate and then retreat

These presences and metaphors have enabled a working process that maps the research scope in generative ways. The working group is entering a dynamic phase in which students and a broader consistency may begin to interact with the research material and processes.

Lubumbashi
In Lubumbashi, we have organised a meeting every second month, we have had 3 meetings now. We have conducted the preliminary research and identify 4 axes of our work:

Self writing and decolonising practices of arts education: Pierre Romain-Desfossés and le Hangar, Ecole d’art d’Elisabethville
Highlighting informal / alternative education: Research on artists workshops in the 1980s and 1990s
Rethinking the dichotomy elite vs popular: The question of “authencité”
Art education as space for political and social emancipation: Knowledge production under Mobutu dictatorship

Maseru
Maseru Working group’s practice-based research seeks to study current teaching practices/methods in primary schools to identify plausible strategies to advance the level of language literacy that student and instructors alike have in the Sesotho and English subjects. In performing the research, the team will survey students and teachers, each with a different questionnaire, to evaluate the baseline environment and identify opportunities for improvement.
The research approach includes interviews ad data analysis and interpretation as practice. The multi-tired research thus aims to respond, in so doing:

Evaluate curriculum to identify places where locally relevant examples could be incorporated;
Consult with Another Roadmap partners about instruction best practices and applicable educational literature;
Eventually share suggested curriculum with the Ministry of Education;
Develop and offer exercises that will be used as a measuring device of change, both in approach and student achievements results garnered;
Workshop with teachers from target schools on how to apply teaching methods not conventionally found in prescribed teaching resources

Success and/or Achievements of the Project

Johannesburg
The Johannesburg working group have had sparse but rich and rigorous working sessions. The first one was attended by Thembinkosi Goniwe (independent curator, writer and artist), Chepape Makgatho (artist), Molemo Moiloa (Director Visual Arts Network of South Africa), Sipho Mdanda (Freedom Park), Tracy Murinik (independent curator and writer), Rangoato Hlasane and David Andrew. The session emphasised the importance of methodology, particularly methods that contribute to a decolonial project. The Intertwining HiStories public project in which the Johannesburg working group ‘re-‐enacted’ the keynote address by Prof Keorapetse Kgositsile at the Medu Art Ensemble (Botswana, 1982) took place in October 2016 in the midst of the 2016 #FeesMustFall. It was an event that attracted not only Prof Kgositsile himself, but also people who were present in 1982 at the conference, and former Medu members. A strong representation of students and academics, as well as artists and activists found the event enriching and rare.

Lubumbashi
During this first phase, we have worked to develop mutual understanding and a common methodology among a very diverse group of participants. Going forward, we plan to expand the working group beyond Waza to incorporate academics from Lubumbashi University and teachers from fine art schools to enable us to better achieve our broader mission. We have had positive and in-depth contact with other working groups of Another Roadmap School - both in Africa and beyond.

Maseru
We have focused on developing insight into the factors affecting artistic education in our localities. We have received ground-breaking information that paves the way for further research and possibilities of reform based on best practices Lineo has been exposed to in the United States as a Humphrey Fellow. And we have been learning from one another by sharing our varied bodies of knowledge and practice. To be more precise Keleketla! and Ba re e ne re have a lot in common and it was agreed that it will serve both groups to collaborate on facilitating workshops and creating resources that can benefit all audiences involved, especially given the shared history and proximity.

Challenges and Lessons Learnt

Johannesburg
Some difficulties: Foreign exchange and labour laws, as well as differing currencies affect the budget considerably. (For possible solutions, see “Interesting Info”, below.) Difficulty in securing regular meetings – there is a desire to grow the working group, especially streching to a wider local constituency. To this end, we plan to develop research ‘hubs’ in different parts of Johannesburg, in informal and formal education spaces. For example: the ‘unchronological timeline’ could be housed and developed in the Wozani Block studios of the Wits School of Education and the RISO duplicator for independent publishing at Keleketla! Library.

Lubumbashi
Difficulty to have regular meeting as some members are not permanently based in Lubumbashi (Johannesburg, Likasi, etc.). The working group is exploring practical solutions towards increased stability in phase two.

Maseru
Red-tape in relation to getting approval from school administrations and the government. Time restrictions and remote overseeing of projects. Visual documentation of activities due to school opting to monitor proceedings themselves.