For Whom and By Whom?

By Lisa Oyolu

Having grown up in the United States, American perspectives color many of the lenses which I use to understand the world around me. As a country with immense diversity and systems which were largely not created to accommodate people from varied backgrounds, one of the things that most excites me about travelling is the opportunity to see a quick snapshot of how societies create structures relevant to their situations. I was constantly surprised by the dichotomic presence and lack of this which I observed during our travel to South Africa.

Our first site visit was to to Inkenkwezi Secondary School in Dunoon, Cape Town. There, the school’s principal and the architect who designed it taught us about the history of the school, community, and the building itself. Highly-regulated post-apartheid architectural standards for South African public schools aimed to encourage uniformity and equality amongst students in from different backgrounds and in varied communities. It was interesting to learn about how despite their positive intentions, some of the regulations seemed to create challenges for schools in ensuring that the buildings were best fit for their particular circumstances. I also appreciated hearing about the intentionality that went into the design of the building, such that it was a central element of the community and architecturally matched the neighborhood. Hence, the architect included a navy blue and white color block which was similar to the stripes used on many nearby buildings, as is shown in the image above.

Similarly, I enjoyed hearing about how the Sozo Foundation was I often hear people speak of “nice neighborhoods,” which I think is a sort of code word, because communities of color are rarely adorned with such titles. Hence, I really appreciated how our visit to the Sozo Foundation in Vrygrond, Cape Town presented their community in a way that emphasized its vitality but also acknowledged the challenges faced in Vrygrond. (We watched the video above as an introduction.) Additionally, I was impressed by how the different programs at the Sozo Foundation were aimed at addressing the specific needs in Vrygrond, especially the youth programs, since those were the ones we learned the most about.

With the range of nonprofit organizations and schools which we visited, we were able to see the impact of various agents, including students, parents, teachers, school leadership and international organizations. Hence, I appreciated the opportunity to further contextualize local organizations in South Africa within the broader, global framework upon which we focused in Comparative and International Education. Some of the common themes in International Education which we focused on included the role of technology in education and development projects as well as the value of indigenous knowledge and endogenous research, but overall, I was surprised by how many of these schools and organizations relied on international funding and partnered with international donors. While I still feel conflicted about the role of such organizations on countries in the Global South, through site visits, I finally got to see the work that nonprofits are doing internationally, as well as what some donor dollars are helping to accomplish.