Solomon Mahlangu
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t>/ /IS lX <xJL\ p «slvg«2- age.of such skills. The ANC would^e responsible for the control and conduct of everyone on the «t& , and accept full responsibility for all their health, housing, maintenace and other requirements. The agreeiriaitwas a good one. The Tanzanian government gwerm went had acted with great genf erosity,^ully ¥\^ara tfiatlfe concessions to the ANC vould nleash Sou^h African government f and possibly even armed reprisals. ^Ecichfcr the ANC ■asPs^goo4^ne which gave it all it needed to cope.with its refugee responsibilities, and probably more than it had ever expected,/ It is ibtful whether the ANC lead^s^whoj^S^ed=rato-the agreement appreciated hew-fehe-condrttens he aareemsniCTSntflliavtylw g -JbffirT Effects on their school project; These cgndillgfl&'wuuld bet’ y / y / I J f N & t - e r urban or village communities. Intbet customary"parameters relationshif^the within which communitySornafcowoul^ might have shape, to operate^ influ consequences for ttiesGhool ■ ftll ' y : ___ ence or even govern the character of the irschool own experience£ And in turn, of schoolsthe school's u^ b educationalthat time would and socialhave been^w ^noolsftntegrated into living outcomes would feed back into the community and hetp shape its character; But not-oath Somafco. The conditioi inese 'Great Wall' ■betweeerivdl between Somafco's y and people outside. Between the twtwj ^there would be almost no contact, no interchange. Somafco would never b^a&tester . ibean ordina ryschooVserving a function inircommunit\j,and in turn drawing strength/f^rTrifcV’ ^11'* 1*^ AW*. Uniquely, Somafco would be 'stand alone'mstitottoft, as though isolated on an island.of its own-. £ uSvts. REALITY Perhaps^he AN^gppcedatedd ated rha concoquenees-or that isolation. If it did, it must have believed that long-distance links between the schoc rh ,/^ /^ ^ and HQ anaEducation Committee in Lusaka, and^ . f^ o r c e ugh ^ h them with a part of fche-widar-Sotfth-fehe-widar-Sotfch- , proved otherwiseJThough the NEC sought to keep tight control over Somafco, particular! y the donor" funclson which all development would depend^Lusaka was too remote from Mazimbu, and too detached frcmthe school's iicjahM sg exercise effective hands-on supervision or direction/WsI^and missions from one to the other wprp pn^jilp*^' ^nfy irregular^c/oc a a ia t considerable cost. The,W£S& Lusaka-Morogoro road was long, badly pot-holed and inade- quately maintained. costly in petrol and more costly through wear-and-tear of vehi!!'^ ^ '^ cles. Air travel between Lusaka and Dar es Salaam was even more costly. Flights were often irregu- lar or simply not available, and stHI left ???miles of extremely rough road to be travelled between He Dar and Mazimbu. Communications were, at best, intermittent; phone lines were unreliable with calls subject to delays of days on end; telex lines were regularly 'down', and postal services some- what irregular? ■Atth^&gh Qelegatteny-apd visitors from HQ-would make their way to Somafco from time-to time/ they- were generally pressed for time and anxious to go on to urgent business elsewhere? In practice, HQ appointed the first and subsequent school directors, the principals and most of the teaching staff, but foii-qtLfcfrat, Somafco 9 school on its own, without fnl^rchange withj^ommu- nity ./ P&'rSi paiEhat gave it the 'S i w g its own decisions without jaffectiVfl(outside Qversight offlnterference - which nrwght-poj make for decisiveness and efficiency. But at the administra- tive level, it could also- 5e for a narrow parochial outlookook at^^^h'JorEhe liaisliaison and fe r decision taking with inadequate information at It could encourage administration byedjct^ ^ from afar,aijjd discourage face to face consultation and discussion. It could facilitate4^1coverfngrup or explainmg^away of-£aiUng&-aRd-eff©fs, the making-ef false or misleading reports, and the-»p- pointmeRfe-of unsuitable people^*, positions of authority. ^ ^ THE MAZIMBU FACTOR *ra*i The consequences of the Mazimbu factor were as jW g^fttous at the individual and personal level as at the adm inistrativej^om afGe-as^ school without ifeS-supporting adult community/vSo&la deprive its young studentsptainessential part of normal growing up: regular interaction with and , teaEajecg from a mverse 'outside# eoromunrty-gf-inetependent adtrtls. Mazimbu, certainly, would h a n * have^simpl/ ap yonttnsr teen-age population. Like any other school Somafco would have its Di own complement adults, cofrying ou t-essentiaLfcmefrons as as^eachers, administrators, service providers and so on. But at Mazimbu, all without exception would h o w to live 'on site'lae & r* . <ggte£ki;o| Mazimbu, soty-in some well-endowed schools/wo«k) a smalr number of essential school, perSormertan'd perhaps their familiesyaSliaus&J on the-sehool site. All other adult^/wfefflcf^e on site, providing their own family housjnq and maintenance in outside community, adjacent towi ]V*Ax\" were pe©tait>ited4«jrrr livQig^uteide Maziflaba. Living offjsite would beliheTtori _____ __________ uJts—teaching e r-a n c -W a e ^ a iy ^ v o tild have to live on site amongsTCRe 'scKool pupils, ^pd - like them - be/aiSle to leave o«fy wACR-the permission of the ■Mazimbu ANC and elaai'aweo'frem Tanzanian Security at the 'frontier' barrier post. r X Itajvokl- uj^ C J It is possible thatt/at.4te birth, possi Sssible advantages from this 'living together^ woro predicted. Per- haps it would bring adults and childjjen^do^r^pgether in their understandings and ambitions, -awd mitigate the traumas of childrervp&Trianently separated from their families. It might-afeo encourage the development of continual 'learning-from-life'v to enhanee the usual rQStrict>on-of-th<; learning to the class-room awd«ehe©fr hours. ^ -----"" / )]L <jO )\ierS HAa^uXc?$ M y practice,#^ did n o t/ Mazimbufc ragtrain ^ aw ured -that 'school' and 'non-school' personnel livedo- cheek by jowl on the same site./ 4 * t ' 1f^ ft chose to withdraw from the other into its own working'* and living space - like partners in a collapsing marriage/From time to tim e the two sectors would 'coalesce temporarily - but only to share some cultural event or entertainment, or to celebrate some iday of national or Mazimban commemorative importance. At all other times they held themselves as separate and aloof as any school from the community beyond the school boundary.^ ^wfoc£>VO.Xjer£<v' Paradoxically, physical closenessxM-noti-make for a sinde(«gjggd--Mazimbu community of old and '^¥Qunfl>or-for between them. Each sector4j&w Sac(< frbnf the other into its own cloister, sharing neither testr concerns nor fcheif responsibilities. In place of cross-fertilising each others conscious ness .each sector turned inwards to its own special problems of life and g u rv iv a l/^ it ecScfrrefrfein fics=e¥*r uncomfortably bound to the other like Siamese tw irf/is 1 ^^ S€p?rateaTrom the Tanzanian hinterland by zfmoat of language and cultural differences, different living standards, and/^fie Afifd1 government treaty. > t~ * dt-Jr t i t ftT^G eogGeography efteaoced th^i^eaf-tgtel^olation of thSe M azim b^i^pd from the/country/Only a single rough, dirt track reo from OatnSmwteriaftd and^||a^iTnacJMorogoro-Arusha road fou^ kilometres ) awav-Between island and track thergfey a jiye f crossed by a single narrow bridge,and, on its TSr s id e ^ r 'frontier' barrier permanently f^ la m e c l by Tanzanian security paraenmtfTon this ????~acre island^ fehe-two-seetefs-gfew at-different mtes? always out of phase. <S- 3 t e , lr<? oouiu ex''e^> d t »^s> GROWING PAINS \ / ’IVTT^olon'V School numbers»w )uiet-9ww irudirec-^-proporticfi.tot-^c^flucttta tmg numbers of young refugees reaching the ANC Lusaka from South Afric^/Sut me fise in numbers of ^«0Q=sehe0t' adults deoe . _ on quite different factors/^S*the flow of donor funds for infra structure projects,-a«4-erKbe'1©«aY “ avatiaMity^f A**!. unpredicatablef jng-on«the ANC undecj^jjn to serve any longer in Umkhonto for reasons of health, injury or mental breakdown. Others were new refugees whose age, state of health or education made them unsuitable for either military training or schooling" And some nwwi oimpty wandering parents, usually mothers, who had somehow reached Lusaka on their own in search of children who had fled the family home in haste, and been lost 'somewhere in Africa.' At ANC headquarters there was no plan to accomodate^ 11 Qf-even.maFvp of these 'c^p^ndants' at Mazimbu. But in the absence of any plan, when the need arose Mazimbu seeme^/an easier, more immediate solutionjgr their accqmpdatipn problerps than any other. So Mazimbu (and at a later -stage a - Dakawa. —v.see Kp ??); . j it x., Consequence, th^adult 'non-school' population at , Mazimbu^feW at its own erratic rate, always different from the^rowth rate of the school, and therefore out of phase with ^aeh. forward planning of-seheelb u ildings or servtGOSrwa'fl undor^voy. 9- «>\ ' -'^obiemg Qn site wecamat oaiy-^feated- by/unpredicatable rates of population growth^There e tb e t/m o r e serious problem^ of demography of the child refugees themselves.! Mass refugee flights wni are qnnm lly set in rnotion by mass disasters such as flood, famine or war, waose impact-fete equally on all ift^mbefe'Cf the community. Refugees from such disasters « ffiageare therefore al most invariably whole family groups.4or ekw whole tribe^^tlpK l)‘^wtfri dlTtheir belongings and >c livestock. Adults and children move toqeth ^-f -andTTfTPy^e;lgaqr EnoogH--fep fincKefegefuge wttt~6S resawed together. AlmQ3fc;tmtquetyT refugees from the Soweto uprising and its oontinuing aft<g aftem wth were almost all |<sfvx3 children ,-Ap($kchildren who had parted dr^m^tigally and suddenly from their families and fledicr safafcy without parents or adultyre&*&H5s.