Emancipatory education and the intercultural side of visionary power in The Swallow school, Gambia (part 1) (*)

Is emancipatory education on the rise in our world full of inequality? Do schools contribute to the assertiveness of the incoming generations? With these questions I went to Gambia, to the people, or rather the “family”, of The Swallow, a model school for emancipatory primary education in Gambia. This encounter gave me a special insight into the intercultural side of visionary power. It is a story written by people who believe that each of us has the right to a better future.

SELF-LIBERATION — An intercultural process

Emancipatory education is a great subject to tell something about the planetary aspect of “visionary force”, this is the central subject with which we approach our clients in the Visionary People Mentoring program. Before illustrating this, let us first take a look at how Visionary People Mentoring defines visionary power:

“According to Visionary People Mentoring, visionary power is the capacity for success inherent in the constructive vision we have for our life, business or organization that has a positive impact on others and even the planet. We all have visionary power. If we consciously live with this powerful capacity, we will be successful in our lives and we will radiate this positively to others.”

But how does visionary power work in emancipatory education, more specifically in the Gambian school The Swallow?

With this question I went to Gambia from the idea that an important social aspect of the project of visionary power is an “immersion” in the planetary event with the exchange between cultures as an important central medium. When people from different cultures think together about the same process, in this case visionary power in emancipatory education, we get an intercultural outcome. But more broadly, I believe that every intercultural encounter is necessarily rich in visionary power, because the latter, according to the definition of Visionary People Mentoring, is constructive and “has a positive impact on others and even the planet”. Therefore, as we will see in this blog, it also has everything to do with emancipation, or, understood planetarily, the freedom of all and everything.

As the blog page generally introduces, there are different angles to understanding visionary power. In each blog text we try to shed a different light on visionary power. This light comes from stories that do not stand still, page after page, chapter after chapter, story after story, etc.

In the present blog, the visionary power of emancipatory education in The Swallow shows us the way to intercultural liberation. It made me realize that the West also needs to be liberated.This is from colonial guilt, as I have learned from The Swallow family. No emancipation without awareness of everyone's own share in planetary inequality. The "perpetrator" of inequality, wherever in the world, must also achieve liberation by adopting the perspective of equality. Visionary power is therefore an intercultural process of self-liberation.

The world is yearning for emancipation. This is for democracy, for minority rights, the right to self-determination and equal opportunities for everyone, reduction of poverty, preservation of the environment. In short, for justice and freedom for all and everything. It is a need that all countries are struggling with.

If there is one place where this need is most pressing, it is Africa. Because of all the continents, Africa is the one that suffers the most from inequality. This is a result of abuse of power. This is always injustice, which is the approach of emancipatory education: it is educating for resistance.

What about emancipatory education in Africa that is more than necessary? With this question, I went to Gambia at the beginning of February, to a primary school that has been promoting emancipatory education for almost twenty years. By using a week of informal conversations and participating observations, I wanted to find out how this school applies emancipation in the learning process with its pupils and what role it plays as an example within the Gambian school system. I went to The Swallow, a school for nursery and primary education that was founded in 2002 to offer free quality education to the less fortunate in Gambia. I came home with stories that gave me fascinating insights.

I would like to tell and consider these stories in the present text. They give us, as we will see, insight into how the power of The Swallow lies in the fact that the school follows a visionary line that is about (1) the identification of a need for liberation, or: the awareness of a situation of injustice, (2) actions taken prompted by resistance, and ("3) a teaching method that is liberating in itself.

(*) For the purposes of the blog, I have called The Swallow’s stories that I recorded between February 9 and 15, 2024 “Part 1.” This is because in my observations I have discovered that there are two interplaying visionary lines of force running through The Swallow. I therefore dare to hope that in the future I will have the opportunity to elaborate on the second, complementary, visionary line of force that is connected to certain founders of The Swallow who are developing specific projects with the school. These projects are not discussed in the present blog because the other founders I met last February gave me insight into what I call “Part 1” of The Swallow’s visionary line of force.

NECESSITY — Need for emancipation and education for resistance

“Welcome to Gambia, the smiling coast of Africa.” This is a statement you read as soon as you enter Gambia. Gambia is indeed a country of smiling faces. You quickly feel at home there. It is therefore not surprising that it attracts many Western tourists who feel cozily at home on the strip of coast that is provided for them on the famous Senegambia beach.

But Gambia is above all a poor country. Almost 8 out of 10 Gambians live in poverty or extreme poverty. Especially in the countryside where people mainly live from the proceeds of their own agriculture. Many also live in poverty in urban areas.

Four out of ten Gambians are not or insufficiently educated. Only a minority has a good knowledge of English, which is the administrative language of the country. State education is known for its mediocre quality. It is not easy for schools to find (well) educated teachers. "Those who are qualified and have the talents are quickly picked up for better paid jobs", explains the founder of The Swallow, the Belgian Els Salembier (hereinafter in the text: Els). She adds: "It is like mopping with the tap open. When teachers arrive at our school, we often put a lot of energy into internal training and coaching. Unfortunately, we often lose the better ones quickly because of this brain drain. But there are those who stay with us as long as possible out of pure commitment, because they believe in emancipatory education."

The day after the evening of my arrival in Gambia, I visit the chairman of the governing body of The Swallow, Lamin K.S. Gibba. It was a happy meeting between the founder and co-founder of the school, who have been working closely together since 2002. I grant the two friends their time of meeting. We are guests for a generous meal. After some time of talking about the evolution of the school, I start the following conversation with Lamin:

- "What is so special about your school?"

- Without hesitation, Lamin answers: "It is the emancipatory education."

- [Me] "What does that mean to you?"

- "It is that we listen to our students. They have something to say. It is not like most other schools that have inherited the colonial way of dictating. And also, we carry this out to other schools. With a number of state schools we have a partnership to monitor them. We give them insight into our way of working. For example, there are a number of schools that start and end their week with the students in our own way, that is, forming a circle with the students and giving them a chance to speak freely. This is very different from other schools where the students line up in almost a military manner to listen to a speech by the school principal or to sing the national anthem."

Later that day, I return to our accommodation with Els. I have a conversation with her about the possibilities to further develop emancipatory education in Gambia. During the meeting, the chairman talked about his big dream to let The Swallow grow into a school for secondary and higher education. But Els does not see this being realized anytime soon because it requires a much larger budget, broader sponsorship. Or you have to make it pay for the students, which is against the spirit of the school. Attracting larger financial backers often does not offer a solution either. There are a number of wealthy international NGOs in Gambia that are involved in education. There is also Unesco. But these organizations build schools and then immediately transfer them to the government as buildings.

"Does emancipatory education stand a chance? The Swallow has been around for twenty years now and not much seems to change on a larger scale," I remark. "That is correct", says Els, "But for the monitoring that we have been taking on for a few years now, we work together with a number of state schools. This is deliberately to see what we can achieve with it at the level of government education. It is actually all experiments and the process is necessarily slow, step by step. But it is through this route that we hope to bring about change."

Our way back to our accommodation ends at the well-known Palma Rima beach in Kololi, which is not far away. The annual meeting of the teachers of The Swallow is taking place there. We have a pleasant afternoon with a beach barbecue and some dancing. We swing in turns to fula, mandinka and even Belgian music. In addition to me and Els, there are three Flemish interns who have been working at The Swallow for a few months. We all swing to Vaya Con Dios' southern rhythms, Gambians and Belgians mixed together. Emancipatory education turns out to be above all a story of cultures, of white and black together.

AWARENESS — Meeting the Kunta Kinteh family

The next day, however, is sobering about this cultural story. There is the drama of cultural oppression and how this determines the emancipatory dynamics of peoples. This is the drama that is reflected in our entire education system that fundamentally contributes to our collective memory. That day we are on our way to the former James Island, now called Kunta Kinteh Island and has become a world heritage site. Because we want to know more about why the island is now called Kunta Kinteh, we first visit the family of the village chief in Juffureh, Albreda. We decide to give priority to this visit despite the tiring ferry crossing we have just completed to North Bank. We could really use some refreshment. We are also not thinking about later in the evening when we all want to watch the final of the Africa Cup in the bar of our lodging.

It promises to be a unique evening on the banks of the river. In the lodge where we are staying, we have a view of Kunta Kinteh Island.

Who was Kunta Kinteh? Since the book Roots (1976) by the American writer and journalist Alex Haley, and the numerous film adaptations (1977, 1979, 1988, 1993 and 2016), Kunta Kinteh no longer needs to be introduced. This figure is known as Africa's hero who courageously continued to resist his dehumanizing status as a slave. Kunta Kinteh is the partly fictional, partly true story of a Mandinka young man who was captured in 1767 in the village of Juffureh and shipped via James Island by the transatlantic triangular slave trade. At that time, Mandinka rulers handed over slaves to Europeans in exchange for weapons and raw materials (including gold). The slaves were shipped to the Americas where they were forced to work on plantations.

But why so much attention for a character from a book that is only partly based on truth? In other words: what is the current meaning of the Kunta Kinteh story? On the day of the Africa Cup final, I am in the village of Juffureh looking for answers, together with Els and Suwaibatou, director of The Swallow for many years. Before our arrival, we had discussed the possible importance of this story, which today brings much less African Americans to the village than in the 1980s and 1990s, based on the idea of “uprooting”. Or, descendants of African (Gambian) slaves who come to Juffureh as a form of pilgrimage to feel encouraged to search for their own roots and thus for their identity.

With our arrival in Juffureh, we want to put this question to the family in the village who recognize themselves as the descendants of Kunta Kinteh. A guide takes us to Mariama Kinteh, who is the current village head. She receives us together with her daughter and another male family member. The trio is of a blessed age, Mariama in the lead.

At the beginning of our meeting, a guide explains who the different members of the Kunta Kinteh family are. He goes down the list of a few generations of Kintehs. Then he introduces The Swallow and the project of a partnership between this school and the government school in the village. Once the mutual presentations are behind us, I put my question to them. The family answers as follows: “The previous regime in Gambia was not out to promote the Kinteh story of emancipation.”

The answer is short and I feel that I should not insist. I have my reservations about it. Anyone who has followed Gambia’s political history in recent decades knows that the country has been ruled with an iron fist. For myself, I refrain from concluding that authoritarian regimes and the promotion of emancipation on a popular level do not go together. However, supporters of this previous regime argue that it stood for a different kind of emancipation that necessarily had to have its center elsewhere.

That same evening we reflect on our meeting with the Kintehs. We leave the issues of state politics behind us and ask ourselves what uprooting means for ourselves, for our children and for the pupils and students at The Swallow School. We decide to think about it for a night. First on the agenda is the final of the Africa Cup with host country Ivory Coast against Nigeria. Statistics about these types of finals indicate that Ivory Coast may well take home the trophy because this country has the advantage of being the home team and therefore playing in a stadium filled to the brim with its own supporters. Less than two hours later the obvious winner is known: Ivory Coast.

The next day at breakfast, the meeting with the Kintehs resonates and we once again raise the question of what the meaning of uprooting can be for Gambians today. After a moment of discussion, we come to the joint conclusion that if The Swallow is worthy of its name of emancipatory school, the teachers and students can best help us find an answer to our question.

RESISTANCE — “Uprooting”, or: getting out from under the colonial damage

That same week, the sixth-grade teacher at The Swallow, Foday Jabbie, puts himself forward as a candidate to devote a lesson to the transatlantic slave trade and Kunta Kinteh. The lesson addresses a number of classic themes, but also offers hopeful perspectives on Gambian emancipation, in which the collective memory of slave history is evoked.

“We are going to do this together. Two heads are more than one”, the teacher starts the lesson. I quickly develop into an attentive listener.

The following statement by the teacher is striking: “If Europe had been advanced at that time, they would not have come to Africa. Europe desperately needed the profit”. It makes me conclude that emancipation for the Gambians begins with the debunking of the Western story of a superior power. “The rich continent was Africa”, states the teacher who continues: “It still is, but it has been left behind and it will not easily catch up without the right leaders”.

The lesson covers the following themes: the why of the slave trade, what the living conditions were of the slaves when they were shipped to America and what the real reason is why the trade was eventually abolished.

I am pleasantly touched by the personal touch that the teacher gives to the theme. As in this passage:

“We went to Albreda ourselves with the school, to Kunta Kinteh Island, formerly James Island. This island was the slave cellar. All slaves were kept there. Some spent three to five weeks there.

The more slaves you took to America, the more money you had.

That is why they were packed like sardines.

Some resisted. They made several attempts to escape. Some were starved, murdered. They would rather die in Africa than go. In those days there was no telephone to keep in touch with each other. They take mothers and fathers away from their families. The children who were left behind were lost. Parents are taken away from their children. This breaks people’s hearts.

The slave traders weaken the rebels. They did not get enough food and water, and were kept in the dark. In the end, only the strong are shipped.

I would have done like Kunta Kinteh who rebelled after he was captured as a slave. I would rather have died here. If I go there, my roots will be gone.

There were several escape attempts, prison breaks, before they were taken to the other world. They fought with their slave masters.

The final abolition of the slave trade was not based on human rights, but on rebellion. Europeans also died in it, from disease or rebellion. They were faced with great challenges. Many people in Europe were unhappy with the slave trade after 400 years. Moreover, it was no longer profitable. Industrialization had made the slave trade redundant.

Freed slaves were brought back to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia.

They made them swim back from the slave island to the land. They were thrown into the water. Many did not survive because they could not swim.

Now European governments are coming back and asking for forgiveness. This is selfishness. Europeans can travel freely around the world. Africans cannot get a visa. But Europeans have taken everything with them. As slaves we were “welcome”, but not today as free people.”

METHOD — Through trial and error together for a better world

The Swallow is a school for emancipatory education. It wants to let students grow up to be free children who will later become free adults. With this mission, The Swallow’s visionary power is not only the insight that uprooting, or self-liberation through resistance, is necessary to escape from the “colonial damage”. It is also in line with this insight to develop an educational method that provides the tools for this self-liberation.

This educational method is special in Gambia. The Swallow therefore has a model function, as indicated above. The school has gradually taken on a coaching function for other schools that want to adopt its method.

In order to evoke the story of this search for an emancipatory educational method, allow me to bring a number of testimonies that I had recorded by teachers and students in The Swallow. I will start with the testimonies of students.

(1) "We have freedom. They don't force you to do anything you don't like, except good things."

"They make sure we all understand the lessons. They explain it with a happy face, so we can all ask questions and understand."

(2) "Thank you for making our lives as easy as possible. ... I thank the teachers for giving us a good education that will never go away. I promise that I will do everything in my life to make you happy."

"We have our garden behind the classroom to grow crops, seeds and vegetables that are eaten at The Swallow. I like to help in the school kitchen. I like to help the children from kindergarten."

"I will never forget you for everything you do. Please continue doing the things you do at The Swallow."

(3) "Education is free at The Swallow. If you have the key to education, you can work hard for your future."

"Because travel is free, we can go with the school wherever we want to learn the history of the important places in Gambia."

"If you forget some lessons, you can come here for a review."

This is what teachers and the school board testify about The Swallow’s emancipatory process. The first testimony is from director Suwaibatou:

(1) “When a child is disruptive, you take them aside. You listen to them and try to understand them. This is where you have to start if you want to empower students.”

“Students have to believe that change is possible. This happens by giving them a chance. Even a small change is a crucial step.”

“You need the support of parents to give this process its full potential.”

(2) “Emancipation is one of the central missions of the school (The Swallow). The goal is to prepare students for responsible citizenship, so that they contribute to a democratic, united, pluralistic society that is open to other cultures.

(...) [This mission is not only realized through] free education, free meals at school, [but also through the] relationship between students and teachers who treat each other as equals in the co-production of knowledge and ways of knowing (...).”

(3) Another teacher finds it challenging to apply emancipatory education to certain students who are difficult to manage in the classroom:

"They are very disruptive, they don't even listen to their teacher, but we do our best to make sure they change for the better. That's why we give them rewards and praise them in front of others so that they will also behave well."

understanding emancipatory education in experience

In conclustion, emancipatory education, as I learned from my encounter with the "family" of The Swallow, is a threefold visionary force across cultures.

This is because it comes from a specific, local need to become aware of a situation that calls for justice, for a world with more equality for all and everything.
It is also because it does everything, through action, resistance, to know and realize what brings happiness in the form of human self-development and, by extension, harmony on a planetary level.
It is ultimately the belief that emancipation must be central to the teaching method. It is the belief that in order to achieve equality, education itself must develop an educational dynamic that is based on equal rights. It requires a daily application of equality among teachers and students, management and teachers, students among themselves.

In Gambia I have experienced that emancipatory education is worthwhile. The entire visionary pursuit of this form of education is so powerful that it perfects yourself, the people around you and your wider environment. It is an encounter because it sets people free across cultures, but never without centering and embracing everyone's cultural wealth and pride. Through the people of The Swallow I have learned that emancipatory education is invented, discovered, from the local contexts every day. The "uprooting" of this process is an education that sets the students on the path to self-esteem and to discovering the Gambian truths and beauties. These are worth it. I can recommend everyone to travel to Gambia and experience it for themselves.

by Thierry Limpens

Thierry LimpensDecember 28, 2024