PEDAGOGY IN PROCESS PEDAGOGY IN PROCESS The Letters to Guinea-Bissau PAULO FREIRE TRANSLATED BY C AR M A N ST. J 0 H N H U N T ER CONTINUUM · NEW YO RK '370. ,qlt­ t=:�� 1 �c:· S-L. r, 5"1� 1983 The Continuum Publishing Corporation 575 Lexington Avenue New York, New York 10022 Originaltitle: Cartasa Guine Bissau:Registros deuma experiencia em processo; uanslated by Carman St. John Hunter and edited by Martha Keehn from the original Portuguese manuscript. English translation copyright© 1978 by The Continuum Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Freire, Paulo, 1921- Pedagogy in process. Translation of: Cartas a Guin� Bissau. Includes bibliographical references. I. Reading (Adult education)-Guinea-Bissau. 2. Literacy-Guinea-Bissau. 3. Elementary education of adults-Guinea-Bissau. I. Title. LC5225.R4F73 13 1983 374'.966'57 82-23625 ISBN 0-8264-0 136-8 Dedicated to the memory of Amilcar Cabral, educator, who learned from his people. "I may have my opinion about many things, about the way to organize the struggle; the way to organize the Party; an opinion, for example, that I formed in Europe, in Asia, or in some other country of Africa, from reading books or documents, from meetings which influenced me. I cannot, however, pretend to organize a Party or a struggle on the basis of my own ideas. I have to do this starting from the reality of the country. '' -AMILCAR CABRAL CONTENTS FOREWORD · 1 by Jonathan Kozol INTRODU CTION · 5 T H E L E TT E RS T 0 G U I N E A - B I S S A U · 69 P 0 S T SCRIPT 155 F I N A L W 0 RD 176 NOTES · 177 FOREWORD It will come as no surprise to North American readers-not those, at least, who have read the earlier work of Paulo Freire -t o learn that he has not gone into exile in Geneva in order to escape from history. On the contrary, as these letters and the introductory essay will quite eloquently attest, Freire is too much a man of praxis to rest very long upon nostalgia fo r the past, nor even upon the passionate recollection of that past. It is Fidel Castro who said that the duty of a revolutionary is "to make the revolution." lf Freire's efforts in Brazil and Chile have been arrested, in the short run, by the not-so-subtle opera­ tions of the C.I.A., or of those governments imposed upon the people of both nations by domestic rulers who conduct their business in collaboration with the North American and Euro­ pean corporations, Freire himself is unwilling to sit still within an offic e in Geneva, nor to "perform on orders " for a liberal audience in San Francisco or New Delhi. Instead, he is ind ustri­ ously at work in building that revolution, made of "words that shape the world," in several newborn African nations at this hour. It would be tempting here to speak again about the basic themes-the "generative words" and "codi fications"-of Freire's pedagogic work among (and with) the desperately poor peasants of Brazil. It would be interesting, also, to attempt to summarize those themes as they are stated once again within the essay that precedes the letters which comprise most of the pres- 2 PEDAGOGY IN PROCESS ent book. To do this, however, is to re-run once again the subject-matter of his previous work. It seems far more impor­ tant, and more human in this case, to speak of these beautiful letters in themselves. The book, fo r which these letters provide both core and ratio­ nale, will not only broaden the already substantial audience fo r Freire's work. It will also clarify his views, and humanize the man himself, for those who still regard him as an ominous or intimidating person, rather than as the very gentle and, at all times, open and affectionate human being that both his friends and pupils know so well. Apart from all else, the book provides the best, most idi­ omatic English version of his writing to this date. More im­ portant, it reveals him-in the company of Elza-in a series of specific situations and direct, emotional relationships with other educators. Thus, not only the translation, but the let­ ter-genre in itself, gives English-speaking readers, at long last, a direct sense of the character of Paulo Freire: a charac­ ter full of warmth, of humble attitude and militant fervor, all in a single man and oftentimes expressed within a single word or phrase. It is not surprising that the human side of Paulo Freire has, up to this time, gone largely unperceived. The format of his earlier writings, that of the di dactic essay, denies the exposition of those very characteristics which most fa ithfully reflect the goals and nature of the man. The conversational tone made possible by an exchange of correspondence provides, fo r the firsttime, an appropriate li terary metaphor for the man who has made "dialogue" almost a synonym for "education." Freire gives this co lectionl of le tters an appropriate title: Pedagogy in Process. It is an ideal title fo r a book that records, by measured and unhurried stages, the evolution of a "pedagogic partnership" between Freire (and his colleagues at the World Council of Churches), on the one hand, and the educators of the new-born nation, Guinea-Bissau, on the other. Their common purpose is to develop a literacy program fo r a newly liberated people. The correspondence begins as a one-to-one exchange be- FO REW ORD 3 tween Freire, writing from Geneva, and Mario Cabral of Guin­ ea-Bissau. Soon, however, the correspondence broadens out to include the other members of the "team"-members both in Afri ca and in Geneva. In spite of the foreshortened time-span of the letters (Ja nuary, 1975 to spring of 1976), the repercus­ sions of the dialogue-as noted in a recent and nostalgic post­ script -extend into 1977 and beyond. They also extend beyond one nation 's borders, leading to collective literacy efforts planned by several of the new nations of Africa-all sharing the heritage of many centuries of European domination. Those who wonder what an exiled educator from Brazil, now resident in Switzerland, might have in common with the people of a land like Guinea-Bissau, will, no doubt, settle first upon the simple fa ct of a shared heritage of servitude, as stated just above. The deeper bond, however, lies in Freire's revolutionary posture, one that is shared by his eo -workers and in this case, "correspondents," within Guinea-Bissau. The education of an oppressed and struggling people, as he insists at several points, must, from the first, be both political and non-neutral-or it never can succeed. A corollary to this point, as stated and restated several times in Freire's work, is that any group of "outside educa­ tors" who have grown up, lived and studied, in a privileged situation, must "die as a class" and be reborn in conscious­ ness-learning always even while they teach, and working al­ ways "with" (not "on") the nations and the people that in­ vite their aid. ("Collaboration," as opposed to "cultural invasion," is the crucial term.) In view of Freire's conviction of the need fo r a militant and revolutionary stance on both sides of the pedagogic coa­ lition which he first prop oses, then creates and finally rec­ ords, readers may find it paradoxical that I have described hi m as an "a ffectionate" and "gentle" human bei ng. It is Freire · himself, however, who provides the answer to this seemi ng· paradox. Ino ne of his frequent referen ce s to Che Guevara ----ama n he ha s descri bed, in earlier work, as one of the great models ofa self- effacing teache r-Freire draws up on one of the··phras es 4 PEDAGOGY IN PROCESS first identifiedwith Che: "Let me say, with the risk of appearing ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by strong feel­ ings of love."• It is the triumph of this motivation, above all else, in the work and in the life ofPaulo Freire, that render his unevasive revolu­ tionary posture so disarming to those who otherwise would cringe at the first recognition of his true intent. It is that same motivation-revolutionary passion, bornof the most sel fless love-that makes his newest book the one which is most certain to extend his vision and his consc ousnessi of pedagogic struggle to those in every continent, in every land, who need that vision and that consciousness the most. "I would like to engage in dialogue with you and your eo ­ workers ...." Freire has spoken words like these, no doubt at least a thou­ sand times by now, in starting a workshop, seminar or simple conversation. In "The Letters to Guinea-Bissau," he broadens the dialogue at last, to reach more than a highly educated few. It is, therefore-while not his classic work-unquestionably his most accessible. By my own taste, it is also his most powerful -and human. JONATHAN KOZOL Boston January 1978 • Venceremos-The Speeches and Writings of Che GUI!Uera, edited by John Gerassi (New York: Macmillan, 1969), p.