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The struggles these children had experienced did not interfere with their determination.
—Alessandra Williams
As a participant in the Macalester
Consortium study-abroad program
“Globalization and the Natural Environment:
South Africa,” I chose
to research how land redistribution
would affect women’s access to land in post-apartheid South Africa. Then as
a fellow of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate
Fellowship Program, which
prepares students of color for graduate
school through processes such as providing
research funding, I was able to
extend my work. In the course of my
research I interviewed Ruth Hall, a
Program for Land and Agrarian Studies
researcher, who was named one
of the top 100 young South Africans
in June 2006 by a local newspaper.
Thanks to Mellon, I was able to conduct
independent research in South
Africa for a total of eight months. It
taught me how to be a productive
worker, an efficient communicator
and an emerging scholar.
South Africa enfolds
cultures from many
countries including the
Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Zimbabwe,
Angola, Lesotho,
Nigeria, China, India,
Britain, Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya. This diverse country of an estimated 47 million people recognizes
11 official languages. I decided to keep my eyes and ears
open to the vibrant community life
surrounding me, and this allowed
me to find the extraordinary Jikeleza
Dance Project.
Jikeleza taught poor young people from
a township in Hout Bay how to dance.
Many of these adolescents were street
children, and the program provided
them with basic necessities including
housing. As an intern and assistant
teacher, I taught a hip hop dance class.
(I am the founder and president of the
Hip Hop Dance Team at Macalester.)
The struggles these children had experienced
did not interfere with their
determination, their intelligence and
their delightful personalities. Jikeleza
opened my eyes to the importance of
spaces of integrity for disadvantaged
peoples, and how life struggles should
never interfere with your peace and
freedom in life. Jikeleza showed me
that my freedom cannot be given by an
outside force, but I must take it, claim
it, and live free each and every moment.
I brought this back home with
me—South Africa has set my spirit
free.
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