Returning Home: SBA So. Dakota
March 10, 2008
Fri., March 7: The group woke at 6 a.m. to a spectacular sunrise. With a final thank you, and the last wisdom of the elders presented by Tom McCann, the Executive Director of Re-Member, the Saint Anselm group packed their four vans and gathered for one final group picture overlooking the stunning landscape of the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Shortly after 9 a.m., the group was driving down the rutted dirt access road one last time. They departed the Re-Member headquarters with KILI radio, the reservation’s own radio station, providing the musical score in the background. In the following hours, the four-van convoy rolled through grasslands and into the Black Hills as they drove North towards Mount Rushmore, and Rapid City.
Passing through the natural beauty of Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, the Black Hills National Forest and Wind Cave National park, the scenery outside the windows was the perfect backdrop for individuals to reflect on the week worth of experiences and memories they were leaving with.
Early in the afternoon the group arrived at Mount Rushmore. Walking under the majestic gateway into the site, mixed emotions were displayed: the understanding that had been fostered in the week-long stay “on the rez” left many participants questioning the placement of the monument in the sacred hills of the native inhabitants. After taking time to reflect on the experience, the vans once again rolled northward.
Sat., March 8: With three flights between South Dakota and Manchester, N.H., the group woke around 4 a.m. local time to reach the airport. As the plane banked East out of Rapid City, one final view of the grasslands, and Black Hills was visible out the right side of the airplane. Subsequent flights took the group through Minneapolis and Detroit, with little time to spare.
Upon boarding the final flight to Manchester, a flight that was delayed in order to allow the Saint Anselm group to make the connection, many fellow passengers engaged SBA participants to learn about the experience. Words were sometimes hard to come by as descriptions were offered to the traveling public.
Shortly after 4 p.m. the flight touched down in Manchester. Back in familiar surroundings, SBA SoDak retrieved their bags, and boarded a bus for the short drive back to campus. Coming together as a group later in the evening with the other SBA groups who had also returned to campus provided a time to share stories, and to model t-shirts that many trips had purchased during their stay.
Sun., March 9: Although Spring Break comes to a conclusion today, the Spring Break Alternative experience continues. E-mails continue to bounce back and forth between group members, with photos being added online by the hour. Processing the experiences of the past week will continue, individually, and as a group. Whether in the classroom, at the dining hall, in the Abbey Church or in a residence, the experience of every group brings a unique perspective back to the hilltop at Saint Anselm College.
For the participants of SBA South Dakota, the past twenty-four hours can seemingly be summed up in two words. Although we’re now hundreds of miles from Pine Ridge, we continue to return to the saying Mitakuye Oyasin: we are all related.
SBA South Dakota 2008: (Leaders) Kristen Copithorne & Sarah Raabis. (Participants) Faculty: Denise Askin. Students: Alex Bazarian, Brianne Chirokas, Quinn Flatley, Laura Gerber, Allen Huberdeau, Kelsey Hunt, Stefanie Iannalfo, Kristen McGoey, Kathryn McGrath, Maureen O’Leary, Danielle Pixley, Elizabeth “Zibby” Scrivani, Jessica St. Laurent, Courtney Vivian.
A note from your blogger: The past week has been an amazing experience with a group of amazing people. Only one month ago, I was expecting to be home in Maine for my spring break. Two weeks prior to the departure of SBA trips, I was offered the chance to join this group as an observer for the week. My job description: to document the experience via photography, video and the written word. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Not only did the group welcome me with unabashed sincerity, they shared the experience with me. I became part of the group, I laughed, I cringed and I shared in the emotions of processing what we were hearing, seeing, and experiencing.
To those involved in the decision to take a chance on my sharing in this experience: thank you. To the staff at Re-Member who went above and beyond to accommodate my technical needs: thank you. And to the amazing group of participants who comprise SBA SoDak: You are incredible, talented and special people. Thank you for sharing your experience with me, and with those who have been reading and viewing your experience all week.
To learn more about Re-Member, and the Pine Ridge reservation:
Re-Member is the South Dakota host site to SBA trips.
KILI Radio Broadcasting from Porcupine Ridge on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, KILI Radio describes itself as “The Voice of Lakota Nation.”
Lakota Country Times a weekly newspaper produced for Bennett and Shannon county, the Lakota Country Times covers Indian affairs on the reservation.
Tinashe Mufute ’09 Discusses the Crisis in His Native Zimbabwe
March 4, 2008
Robert Mugabe came to power in 1980, a hero of the guerilla war that won his new country of Zimbabwe independence from white rule. For politics major Tinashe Mufute ‘09, Mugabe was “my Dr. King, my Gandhi, my Nelson Mandela.”
In a recent talk at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, however, Mufute recounted how the freedom Mugabe promised was an illusion and the man “we loved so much would be the cause of pain for my family and all of Zimbabwe.”
After winning its independence, Zimbabwe was welcomed by the international community as “a beacon of democracy in Africa,” Mufute said. Its agriculture helped feed the region, whites were embraced as fellow citizens by the black-led government, and the country enjoyed a sense of purpose and optimism.
Mufute’s parents worked in the new government, along with his aunt, who had fought in the war for liberation while she was pregnant. It was a proud part of Mufute family lore that Mugabe took Tinashe in his arms as a baby during a rally in 1988. Tinashe’s father attended state dinners, and the prime minister attended family weddings.
But the promise of democracy vanished as Mugabe seized greater power. Accounts of brutality and corruption began coming to light, and life became dangerous for white Zimbabweans and anyone who publicly disagreed with Mugabe. Eventually, white farmers were forced violently from their land, and the agriculture and economy failed. Millions of people are starving in Zimbabwe today.
“To live in Zimbabwe is to live in fear,” Mufute said.
Mufute and his parents joined the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, putting themselves at risk of beatings and worse by the thugs who enforce Mugabe’s ban on dissidence.
Tinashe himself was beaten after he donned an MDC t-shirt at his boarding school, and he and his friends blew the whistles that are a symbol of the opposition party. Attackers put bars of soap in socks and beat the students in the middle of the night.
Mufute was 14 years old when his parents brought him to New York to live with his brother. He enrolled at St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark and then Saint Anselm. His parents now live in Fairfax, Va.
To read more about Tinashe Mufute ‘09 click here.
The Connections Between Hip-Hop and Social Justice
January 18, 2008
Hip-Hop music’s pounding beats and pumping lyrics have become highly regarded by nearly every student in the county. On a chilly January afternoon, Saint Anselm College students, staff, and faculty filled the Cushing Center to hear Dr. Erika Dalya Muhammad present a new spin on this popular topic.
Dr. Muhammad gave a lecture entitled “No Borders: Social Justice, Hip Hop, and Pop” in which she described the strong and enduring connections between hip hop and youth culture. She also discussed how the powerful relationship between them can translate into social activism among today’s youth. She credits her efforts to those who came before her, especially Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who himself often used contemporary cultural references in order to create change.
Calling herself a “cultural worker” and a “creative hybrid,” Muhammad has worked in the Mount Vernon, New York area for years. The town, located just north of the Bronx, has close ties to the hip-hop community; it saw the beginnings of hip-hop and pop culture legends such as Diddy, Mary J. Blige, and Denzel Washington. Therefore, it was the perfect location to “employ the arts as a catalyst for economic development in the area.” And so, the Mount Vernon Hip-Hop Arts Center was born.
Muhammad described her work at the center and her desire to use hip-hop as a medium to encourage more participation in the arts along with civic engagement. She stated that one of her goals is to show young people today that “the world is bigger than they can even imagine.”
A Semester in Paris
December 12, 2007
Lauren Weybrew ‘08, a frequent blogger and podcaster on this site, studied abroad in Paris, France during her spring 2007 semester. During her five months in Paris, she blogged about her experiences for our admitted student online community. She recently produced an audio slideshow about her Paris experience and has made all of her photos and blog posts available through the college Web site at www.anselm.edu/parisblog.
Lilly Wahl-Tuco ‘99 Working in U.S. Foreign Service
November 9, 2007
When Lilly Wahl-Tuco was a senior here at Saint Anselm College, she never dreamed that she would one day be the assistant to the U.S. ambassador to France. Graduating in 1999, she went on to work with non-governmental organizations in the Manchester area and eventually went to Bosnia to pursue graduate studies. Though she began seriously considering working in the foreign service during her time in Bosnia, she credits Saint Anselm with launching her into NGO work through volunteering and internship opportunities.
Lilly passed the rigorous foreign service test and got her first appointment in Paris, France. After doing consular work for a few months, she was promoted to be the special assistant to U.S. Ambassador Craig Roberts Stapleton.
In this podcast, I ask Lilly all about this seemingly dream job. She talks about the politicians and celebrities that she comes into contact with on a daily basis working at “post” (the American Embassy). She also talks about learning French and what its like to walk by the Eiffel Tower on her way to work every day.
