Teaching and
Living in
Africa
The nuts from a palm tree don ’ t fall without dragging a few leaves with it .
Congolese Proverb
Kurt Gjullin
F orty years ago I lived in Africa for a year when so many newly independent countries were full of promise and energy . Since then I have watched the continent with sad interest devolve into shambles with only a few bright spots .
Certainly centuries of the slave trade and brutal colonial regimes took an unimaginable toll and left a model of heavy handed autocracy siphoning off the fruits of the land to the autocrats , a path the new governments have seemed to follow almost universally . As well , the cold war was in full swing upon independence and sucked most of Africa into the vortex of that conflict with billions for weapons and aid as a bulwark against the bogeyman ideology of either the west or the east . It stirred a pot rife with old and new land , tribal and political conflicts and fostered corruption and graft . Today millions are displaced , struggling and often starving , and the new elite live and seem to think like the former colonial elite .
It was into this milieu in Democratic Republic of Congo that I ventured to join the staff of the American School of Kinshasa five years ago . It was a small dynamic student community of thirty some nationalities from five continents with multiple faiths , cultures and languages . It made for lively and fascinating classroom discussions and interactions , but seemingly always with a mutual courtesy and respect for , if not a complete acceptance of differences . At times it was tense as when the school had to shut down during the run up to elections due to civil unrest that on at least one occasion left several dead on the street outside the school ’ s ten foot walls topped with razor wire . But for the most part , it was almost an idyllic existence , despite the unrelenting heat and humidity . Teaching small classes of interested , committed students from all over the world with different perspectives on history , economics , politics and culture , often about what was happening around us in Africa was gratifying work .
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