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St. Cloud State University
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Special Section: Africa
AFRICA
Mind Over Seas
By Stefanie Rose Beniek
Published:
Monday, April 7, 2003
Media Credit: Stefanie Beniek
Apartheid has ended in South Africa but people still have to deal with the effects of the past. Marian Kwamin is a 1st year Bio-Medical Science major, who�s expression summed up how most of us were feeling as we saw the conditions of the �townships,� where most black South Africans live.
Media Credit: Stefanie Beniek
Erin Regan, SCSU exchange student at UPE, S.W. Vatala, Program Leader at UPE, and Mark Hilar, SCSU exchange student at UPE, rest after walking around Fort Hare University while Rodriquez Barnett, 1st year Mass Communications major at SCSU contemplates the beauty and significance of �Freedom Square.�This is a place where many Fort Hare students still gather to speak out and protest against injustice.
Media Credit: Photo Courtesy Dr. Robert Johnson
The whole group posed for a group shot while on a layover in Amsterdam. Back row: Margaret Vos (Atwood Director), Shahzad Ahmad (Director of Multicultural Student Services), Calvin Mosby (3rd year Business Computer major), Dr. Robert Johnson (Director of Ethnic Studies); second row: Chere Williams (1st year Elementary Education major), Quierston Shepherd (3rd year Public Relations major), Rodriquez Barnett (1st year Mass Communications/Film major), Chee Mary Moua (4th year Marketing major), Chantha Tes (1st year Biomedical Science major), Alisha Kitchen (3rd year Public Relations major), Marian Kwamin (1st year Biomedical Science major), Stefanie Beniek (senior in Bachelor of Elective Studies), Dr. Oladele Gazal (Professor in Biology); bottom row: Icephine Johnson (Nurse Practitioner at Student Health Services), Eileen Yang (1st year student), Chua Lor (senior in the Entrepreneurship major), Heang Nhim (1st year Mass Communications major), Astede Ejigu (senior in the Marketing major).
Media Credit: Stefanie Beniek
While white South Africans were living in conditions similar to America, many of the black South Africans were forced to live in these conditions during apartheid. Today people are no longer physically forced to live in the townships but are economically forced to stay.
Media Credit: Stefanie Beniek
Despite the poor conditions and harsh life that these South African women endure living in Walmer Township, they greeted us with warm smiles. Laughing and talking with Chua Lor, senior at SCSU, they all shared a moment of their lives together, that no one will soon forget.
On the 5th annual Mind Over Seas trip to South Africa, I traveled with 12 other SCSU students and five staff/faculty for two weeks over Spring Break.
The program was through the Multicultural Student Services office in conjunction with an Introduction to Ethnic Studies class taught by Dr. Robert Johnson.
Our destination was University of Port Elizabeth. St. Cloud State University has had a relationship with UPE since 1995. There is also a semester long program available to SCSU students to study at UPE.
The purpose of the Mind Over Seas trip was to have an in-dept study of apartheid and post-apartheid effects on the people, culture, and society in South Africa. We not only experienced UPE campus life but we ventured into the community and beyond. For a few days we traveled with some UPE faculty and students to the surrounding communities and up into the country. On our excursion away from UPE, we visited Fort Hare University where Nelson Mandela attended school along with several other significant people in South African history. We went into a few "townships" and visited schools and community centers. Experiencing the "townships" was some of the most intense times for the group.
The "townships" are where black South Africans were forced to live in the times of apartheid. Apartheid legally ended in 1994, but many people are still being economically forced to live in very poor conditions while others are living very comfortably. It is truly like being in a "developing" country and a "developed" country at the same time.
As part of Dr. Johnson's class, we had an assignment to make observations on the different social interactions between people of different races in South Africa. What most of us concluded was that people are still very segregated as an effect of apartheid ending so recently.
The Mind Over Seas program is a wonderful opportunity for students to have an educational travel experience and helps to encourage global thinking. Many of the students had never traveled outside the United States and now some are thinking of pursuing study abroad programs.
If you would like to hear more about the group's experiences on the Mind Over Seas program please come to our presentation Wednesday April 16 at 4 p.m. in the Atwood Theater.
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