Cape Town - In recognising that there are similarities in challenges and contexts across the African continent, the Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education, along with other South African organisations and activists, is currently in Kenya and Zambia to lay the groundwork for intercontinental initiatives in 2023.
Six Tshisimani staff left on Sunday and Monday, with three headed to Nairobi, Kenya, and the other three to Lusaka, Zambia.
The non-profit organisation is joined by other South African organisations and movements, such as Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM) and Inner City Federation.
Other countries represented are Mozambique, eSwatini, Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia and a number of mostly southern and east African countries.
In Nairobi, a planning committee meeting with country host Mathare Social Justice Centre is under way for a 2023 youth festival focusing on arts, politics and education. The location of the festival is yet to be decided on.
In Lusaka, discussions around land and ecological justice are being held, focusing on land justice, evictions, occupations, access to land, and the climate crisis, with country host Youth4Parliament.
These engagements will form part of a continental land school with land activists, movements and organisations in 2023.
“This is important for Tshisimani but also important for the social justice sector in SA because often it’s the case where SA activists, we kind of almost operate within the confines of our borders and our issues become almost isolated, as if we’re the only ones who are experiencing them within our contexts when the reality is that a lot of the things SA faces are seen across the continent,” Tshisimani digital media teacher Mohammed Jameel Abdulla said.
“There are so many similarities and issues that we collectively face, whether it’s corruption, unemployment, service delivery, colonial contexts, erasure of history, ethnic tensions, questions of imperialism.
“All these things are similarities we see across the continent, even though obviously there are differences as well.”
ABM member Babazile Gumede said the engagement was also important to fully understand xenophobia.
“We need to understand that we are one Africa and we need to be united with humanity, love and respect,” Gumede said.