Of Bombs, Blackness and Ideal Balconies: A Cross-Cultural Poetry Exchange

Students in Africa and Massachusetts learn to appreciate poetry together using technology. (January 2001)

When we first conceived of launching an electronic poetry exchange between our classes in Nairobi, Kenya, and Andover, Massachusetts, we weren't sure what to realistically expect. Will was to teach in Kenya and Bangladesh through a partnership between Phillips Academy and the Aga Khan Education Service. His main objective was to heighten cultural awareness by linking classrooms in the Aga Khan network (a group of educational, business and health care institutions dedicated to improving living standards in the developing world) with those at Andover via electronic exchanges about culture and country. Lou would be teaching a senior elective writing course at Phillips Academy, Andover. Neither one of us had attempted an exchange before. Though we were enthusiastic about the exchange's potential, neither one of us anticipated the impact that it would have on our students or us.

This exchange, and the subsequent one we launched between our classes in Andover and Bangladesh, inspired us to place the teaching of cultural awareness and tolerance, and the creation of discursive writing communities (communities that are engaged in evolving correspondence) at the top of our lists of educational priorities. We worry that, because of their flexible curricular nature, exchanges will be overlooked in our education system's push to create a set of replicable, universal standards that can be easily measured and assessed. By highlighting some of the powerful moments of our first exchange, we hope to illustrate the extent to which these projects can stimulate creative writing and critical thinking, and to offer persuasive testimony for making electronic exchanges a curricular priority in all educational settings.

We outlined the curriculum for a six-week poetry exchange during the Andover Bread Loaf Writing Workshop (a program affiliated with Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English) in July of 1999. In our planning, we were acutely aware that our students were not only in very different places geographically and culturally, but they were also in different educational climates. Nonetheless, we were confident that they could transcend these differences quickly and that, in fact, the differences would be a major impetus of the project. The Phillips students included seven African Americans, one Jamaican and three whites. The Aga Khan students consisted of eight Africans and two Asians.

Poetry as Empowerment

Our exchange between students in Nairobi and Andover was divided into three two-week units: African poetry, African American poetry and poetry written by the students themselves. Prior to the exchange, students from both schools were burdened with a fear and dislike of poetry. In the first weeks of the project, Will wrote to Lou, "The Form Five (senior) class was a known poetry-hating class. All of the teachers were thrilled that I wanted to try poetry with them because the previous year they had not only been disinterested but adamantly opposed to discussing or writing poems."

In an attempt to amend students' disdain for poetry, we facilitated writing exercises that encouraged them to take personal risks in their writing and to view poetry as a liberating, malleable medium, rather than a pretentious, rigid one. Students' attitudes changed surprisingly quickly. In an early exchange with Cynthia (Andover), Ruhila (Nairobi) expressed the sentiments of students in both countries: "There was a time when I couldn't stand poetry, but now I love it!"

Though it would be flattering to conclude that brilliant teaching was responsible for Ruhila's change of heart, we had one simple ingredient to thank -- empowerment. Long conditioned to dated British text syllabi and the role of passive, knowledge-absorbing student, the Kenyan pupils were thrilled to read and write about Africa and their own lives. On both ends, students were motivated by the fact that their audience was a group of peers on a distant continent.

Our unit on African poetry brought interesting reactions from both sides. Students were fascinated by how similar the racial issues were in African countries and the United States. The African poem "Song Of Ocol" by the writer Okot p'Bitek triggered the most powerful and emotional responses. Jamaican exchange student Katrina (Andover) was particularly moved by Ocol's position:

"I am going to tell you something that I've always felt but never really discussed out loud. ... When I read the poem I was astonished at how it sounded as if an extremely honest and perceptive Jamaican could have written it about Jamaica. The painful reality about my homeland is that the mindset of slavery and colonial days has endured long after emancipation and independence. ... Our endemic inferiority complex is Jamaica's 'chronic disease.' I believe we, as a people, need to overcome this battle first before we can develop as a nation."

It was apparent that students were learning from each other and taking a vested interest in the curriculum, confirming what we suspected: Powerful learning occurs when students read and write about subjects that have relevance to their lives and when they write for a genuine audience. Throughout the exchange, many of the participants discovered and revealed important political, personal and cultural sentiments for the first time in their lives. While this phenomenon can result from traditional pedagogy, the intimacy of the exchange catalyzed more breakthroughs than we had previously witnessed in our classrooms.

A Course Teaching Itself

The third exchange from the Kenyan students brought a surprise: They included a poem, "In Memory of Blast Victims" (author unknown), about the terrorist bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi in 1998. Aailia (Nairobi) wrote to Jennifer (Andover):

"'In Memory of Blast Victims' expresses the feeling the entire nation had toward the horrific incident. ... The lines that I found most touching were 'With open arms and smiles we welcome you all, but with your arms you kill and mutilate us.' The Kenyans were welcoming 'with open arms' but the others used their 'arms' to destroy our country. ...'Why bring your wars to us?' was the bitter question on every Kenyan's mind, as many lost loved ones and even those who did not felt the sorrow.

The Americans had to research the tragedy, for only a few of them even vaguely remembered it. By introducing "In Memory of Blast Victims" to their American partners, the African students had assumed control of the curriculum's direction. For the first time in our careers, it felt as if a course was teaching itself. This "takeover" of the project by the students stimulated the exchange. In addition to learning about the effect of the bombing on the Kenyans, it prompted the American students to think critically about the biases of U.S. media coverage. Their considerations provoked a discussion about how the media, while claiming to be objective, are often influenced by the American government and powerful interest groups.

The exchange was in full flight by the fourth week, when the students began studying the African American poems. The Kenyan students were pleasantly surprised at the number of poems that celebrated Africa. Nicolas (Nairobi) wrote to Chris (Andover), "I guess this is a common element in many of these African American poems--the praising of Africa's physical splendor--I guess I'm proud of it myself!" Nicolas's sentiments were echoed by a number of the Kenyans; they did not know how important Africa and its culture were to African Americans.

The Kenyans' ability to relate to the African American poems intrigued their U.S. counterparts. While slavery was a foreign notion to the Kenyans, the reality of oppression still resonated from the days of colonialism. James (Nairobi) wrote to Teri (Andover) about Langston Hughes' poem "Democracy":

"The fact that people are ignorant bores the poet when he writes, 'I tire so ... ' The poet is angered at the people's passiveness. I find it interesting that the same behavior of Black Negroes in America is almost exactly the same behavior as the average citizen in Kenya. It's the attitude of why fight a system that cannot be defeated? Why fight corruption if all are corrupt? Why risk your head today when you can survive like this for years? This attitude bored the poet just like it bores me. This attitude cannot be termed "passive resistance" but active acceptance of existing evils in society."

Heightened Cultural Sensitivity

Throughout the exchange, and particularly in the closing weeks, we encouraged the students to share original work. It was perhaps the passages that depicted personal or cultural revelation that were the most exceptional. Witness this letter from Vivienne (Nairobi) to Tiffany (Andover):

"Dear Tiffany,

I must say that I enjoyed this project so much. It helped me quite a lot. ... Last year February, I happened to lose my dad and it really broke my heart. When Mr. Marinell asked me to write a poem about my sacred place, I wrote about my balcony. It was the place we used to sit with my dad and have chats. So when it was my turn to read out my poem, I did but could not finish because I broke out in tears. Since that day, I have never felt the same. ... My point is that poetry has been a healing tool for me because it helps me express feelings the easy way. I would like to share this poem with you:"

THE BALCONY

An ideal place to sit and relax
Most of all it is my meditation spot
Reminds me of all the times I shared with my dad
A place where we could sit, talk
And have some dad-daughter gossip
This is before the cruel hand of death
took him away from me
Never to see him again.
Now it is not only a meditation spot
but a mourning spot too
So every time I feel like I miss him and feel low
I go to that sacred spot.

-- Vivienne

Though we'd traced the progress of our students' writing and critical thinking over the course of the term, it wasn't until the end of the project, when we asked the students to evaluate the exchange, that we were able to truly measure its impact on them. Ruhila's (Nairobi) comments illustrate the profound experience the exchange offered her:

"I'd never taken African poetry seriously before. ... We used to always read Robert Frost ... never any African poetry. I realized African poetry really is good. I've started liking my country better after this exchange. I used to hate this country!"

Perhaps this excerpt of a conversation between Muhammad and James (Nairobi) best illustrates the attainment of our project's ultimate objective: heightened cultural sensitivity.

Muhammad: When you start bridging gaps and educating people from each side as to how people on the other side think, function, believe, it'll help bring us together and stop all the discrimination and heighten our awareness to the real problems that are going on.

James: (long pause)... I think discrimination can be reduced. I don't think it will ever end. They say that the world is getting smaller, people are learning more about each other, but people don't have to like each other. In this exchange we've learned about the Americans, more about how their society functions. Even with the increase in communication, it doesn't signify that people will start accepting each other, but I think it's within our capability. If everyone just judges you by your character ... the goal of ending discrimination is to get people to look at your character, not just your color. I think the solution is time.

Muhammad: -- and education!

Learning Through Conversational Negotiation

Having never attempted this type of project before, we could not have predicted the extent to which cultural, political and personal revelations were possible. Among other things, our students reminded us of their capacity to learn independently and from each other, and that an instructor's role is equal parts inspirational and organizational, as well as instructional. In reality, though we offered students technical poetry lessons (we discussed style, rhyme, rhythm, meter, imagery, etc.) and feedback on their work, they ultimately found the language that made the discussion of culture possible. We merely allowed the dialogue to happen. Though this type of learning through conversational negotiation cannot be easily packaged and marketed by educational boards, we think it an essential element to include in a school's curriculum.

The exchange has taught us that technical precision, expression and critical thinking need not be taught in isolated contexts, and that cultural awareness and tolerance cannot so much be taught as arrived upon through intimate dialogue among peers. Though the students' poetry writing on both ends improved in a technical sense, what they gained from embracing writing as a tool for expression is not easily quantifiable and may not turn up on standardized tests. It is real, however, and worthy of becoming a priority, a standard, in education. Without enthusiasm for a medium, a student's mastery of it will be superficial and hollow. Without greater cultural awareness, we remain confined to the limitations of our own perspective.

Will Marinell, a former Teaching Fellow in English at Phillips Academy, is currently teaching creative writing and literature at the Baldwin school. Lou Bernieri is a teacher of creative writing and literature at Phillips Academy.