Between Tema and Cape Town

Barry's thoughts today:  Today is the fifth day of six between Tema, Ghana and Cape Town, South Africa.

We had one study day without classes immediately out of Tema and I will have met my Liberation Theology class three times and my World Religions classes twice since Tema by the time we get to Cape Town.

The World Religions classes have read the famous Nigerian novel Things Fall Apart  which tells the story of a traditional African village that encounters British Protestant missionaries.  The falling apart of the traditional African world results in the main character committing suicide.  It's powerful.  We are reading it because it offers excellent display of the way in which everyday life was suffused through and through with the spiritual in a traditional West African village, and, both the damage and the contributions that the introduction of the Christian message did.

Today in World Religions I had Bob and Alice Evans as guest presenters.  They worked for many years in South Africa, at the invitation of Desmond Tutu, promoting non-violent social change.  They were both knowledgeable and charming.   I think they made a deep impression on the students.

My Liberation Theology class has been a source of frustration.  The material is hard; the students aren't as prepared as I had hoped and expected, and, the way I had planned to run the class (with regular student presentations) hasn't worked because of the students' struggles with the material and their large numbers.   We had a long chat about our shared frustration and from here out I'll be teaching more and students less.  I also think I will significantly reduce their reading load and seek mastery of smaller bits of material.

I was honored to be asked to lecture in the Global Studies class. All students have to take that class and presenting there really gives one a presence in the entire shipboard community unlike anything else.  I was asked to speak about Religion and Conflict in Africa.  The first half of the talk was about the vibrancy of Christianity, Islam, and African Traditional Religion (ATR) in Africa.  Though the statistics suggest that traditional religion is losing out to Christianity and Islam, I argued that the worldview of ATR remains alive even as people convert other religions.  I drew heavily on what my students learned on our field lab at the seminary in Accra where a Ghanian church historian talked to us about the way in which things like African naming ceremonies, the pouring of libations to summon the spirits of the ancestors, drumming and dancing, and even polygyny have become part of African Christianity.

 

In the second half I talked about the sources of conflict between Islam and Christianity and speculated about how that might play out in Africa, where Christianity is far less infused with the secular, consumerist values than North American Christianity.  I ended by suggesting that religious conflict with things like apartheid and unjust poverty are good things and offered the hope that conflicts between Muslims and Christian here might be mitigated by a shared confrontation with racism, poverty, and corruption.

I must say that the reactions to my presentation from faculty colleagues, and, to a lesser degree, students, have been very encouraging.

Now to less weighty matters.

The first day out of Tema, we crossed the equator at the prime meridian.  The shipboard community celebrated this rare occurrence with an especially vigorous "Neptune Day."  I was so busy preparing for the global studies lecture that I missed it!   It's impossible to miss all the people who shaved their heads in celebration.

The two biggest disappointment of this trip so far have been not getting to go to Morocco and that Desmond Tutu had to miss the voyage.  He was supposed to be with us from Ghana to South Africa, but had to cancel because he is receiving an award somewhere.   We did record a "happy birthday" message for him from the shipboard community on his 81^st birthday.  He has a long relationship with Semester at Sea and will be sailing on the entire Spring, 2013 voyage.

I have been leading worship every Sunday that we are onboard ship. A small group has been gathering for a brief celebration of the Eucharist.  I have offered a brief meditation on the scriptures a time or two, but this week I asked Kay Slaughter to do so.  She offered a really fine meditation on "sell all that you have and give it to the poor" in response to the gospel reading and her experiences in Ghana.   Kay used to work and live in Madison and now teaches Environmental Law at U. Va.  (She lead a delegation from the ship, including many folks from Charlottesville, to visit a Winneba, Ghana Charlottesville's sister city here.)

The food on the ship seems to have improved somewhat since the Canary Islands.   Lots of really fine beef stews and I always enjoy the fish.  Yesterday we had a chicken and sausage dish that was superb.  Notice everything I'm mentioning has to do with meat! Jayne I less pleased.

Our next report should be from South Africa.  I have a field lab with one of my World Religions classes on Thursday.  And then we're off for a three day Safari and the Kariega Game Reserve.