The
Oprah South African Leadership Project provides cross-cultural
immersion and international exposure through travel
and study in South Africa for Morehouse College students.
In the future, it will involve an exchange of students
between Morehouse and South Africa, and will encompass
ethical leadership training and community service
in both Atlanta and South Africa.
June
8, 2005
 Where
does a story begin and end? It never really does.
When
nine Morehouse College students went to South Africa
to study ethical leadership and HIV/AIDS the trip
was supposed to last 22 days, but what would be their
last night in South Africa, the students found that
their journey to studying leadership through the eyes
and ears of another culture had just begun.
Last
night, the last meeting of the nine students and the
Leadership Center staff members was convened in a
lecture room at the University of Cape Town. Walter
E. Fluker, executive director of the Leadership Center,
asked the students and the two staff members how they
felt about their experience.
 William
A. Moore ’06
“Cape Town is more like Buckhead [a club, shopping,
and tourist district in Atlanta] with a view, compared
to Johannesburg, which is more down to earth. The
trip was very humbling because it took me outside
of my comfort zone. When you’re taken out of
your comfort zone, you discover your true limits as
far as being a Good Samaritan in life. You realize
what you must do to make a difference in the world.
You know your part. This is one of the best times
I’ve had in my life, period.”
 Nashid
Sharrief ’06
“The experience that impacted me the most was
working with the kids at the daycare center because
it showed the level of community service that they
were at and how far we have to go over here in the
United States. Overall, we have to increase our intercontinental
and intercultural relationships among all Africans
in the diaspora, because we all have the same plight
right now. It’s going to take some collaboration
to make it happen. This trip made me think about a
lot of things that we do in the U.S. I like Cape Town,
but I believe Johannesburg is more my speed.”
 Jamison
Collier ’06
“I’ve been asking myself, what’s
next? I have a new sense of who I am and who I’m
going to become. When we first arrived, I felt like
I was back home for the first time. When I came to
South Africa, I felt like there was a missing piece
of me that had been found.”
 Bronson
Edwards ’07
“I was constantly told that coming to South
Africa was going to be a life-changing experience,
so I was open to…anything. Coming here took
me to another level in life, period. I’m living
life with new glasses. I came here to develop a greater
appreciation for what I have, and I’ve certainly
done that.”
 Mark
Rainey ’05
“I knew I was going to have a great time when
I came here, because I didn’t come with a whole
lot of concrete expectations. I was talking with my
friend before I came here about South Africa. I was
more excited about this than anything else and that’s
including graduation. This has been kind of like a
rite-of-passage ceremony. I feel like I bought myself
some new shoes, new clothes and being here has allowed
me the time to grow into them.”
 Brian
Buchanan ’07
“There are a lot of similarities I saw between
South Africa and the United States. I’m a person
who is closed up and keeps mostly to himself. But
seeing a different part of the world opened my eyes.
When Almamy [Sagna] and I were walking into the McDonald’s
and this boy said, ‘Nigga, what’s up,’
just his tone of voice made me want to change. I can’t
say that word anymore. I won’t say that word
anymore.”
 Almamy
Sagna ’06
“Johannesburg was 10,000 times my fantasy of
Africa. Seeing African people doing it made me hopeful
about the continent. Going to the Apartheid Museum
was very deep. Coming to South Africa has reminded
me how I can build on these experiences to measure
my own leadership abilities…”
 Arthur
Woodard ’05
“I’ve learned to be content no matter
what state I’m in. Just to see 30 or 40 school
kids running around chasing bubbles. Just chasing
bubbles. Just the simple stuff. I’ve learned
to appreciate the sunshine. What this trip has done
is helped me to learn not to worry about the stuff
you can’t change. Be grateful. This trip has
sparked a fire in me to tell others about what I saw.”
 Clint
Fluker ’08
“I learned about myself more on this trip. It
was an eye-opening trip, but being with Morehouse
students and working with the Butler dynamic was the
greatest thing for me. Being here—seeing everyone
happy to be here, discussing the issues late into
the night, building bonds like that—is the most
important thing to me. When I go back to the states,
my driving force is how to hold on to it.”
 Thomas
“T.J.” Prince ’75
“Etafeni was the punctuation to the whole trip
for me. I just wanted to give more. We’re so
self-absorbed in the West, and I’d like for
us to give in a more efficient way.”
 Rheba
Knox
“I was particularly struck by the parallels
between the U.S. and South Africa and the extremes
here, but I kept thinking about what could I do at
home? If you go into certain parts of Alabama, there
are places as bad as they are here. Probably one of
the most emotional experiences was the naming ceremony
at the church. Even with the poverty and suffering
that’s very apparent, the pride that everyone
takes in their work was very impactful.”
After
listening to their answers, Fluker challenged the
group to do three things.
“Make
a pact,” he instructed. “There’s
no way you can come here and have this experience
and not say, ‘We agree to do something.’
What you decide to do, you must stick to it.
“Second,
there must be a defiant act of courage. If you’re
not [angry] about what’s happening in South
Africa, you’re not awake. You need to get busy….”
Fluker admonished.
And
finally, he ended, “You must give back or else
you’ve cursed yourself.”
After
Fluker finished his challenge to the students, he
asked if there was anything else from anyone. I raised
my hand and said I had written a poem for everyone
while I was on the trip. It’s dedicated to the
Morehouse College and Butler University students who
went on the trip looking for knowledge and came back
with wisdom. The name of the poem is “regime
change.” It’s not talking about a literal
overthrow of government, but a coup of the mind.
regime
change
by monét cooper
too
many of us complain
looking for another
zora/martin/malcolm/fannie/ella/patrice/jomo/
savior
shero
but don't we know the power when hands become squeezed
into mighty fists
not to throw punches but to be about the business
of social justice
make freedom the only agenda on our lists
droppings of knowledge that light candles to darkness
that
start fires lighting up apartments
that ignite realizations
like
mark my words
i'll never keep a gun
never use it on another mother's son
especially when it's guns thats make negroes nigga
statstics daily
like
i know the phallic roots in every weapon, no maybe.
the way bullet spits out of cocked darkness, taking
life away, baby
so when you save me, you save generations of us
like
i'm loving so much i die to myself daily
so slay me
loving you so much i die to myself daily
loving life so much i die to myself daily
loving life so much i die to myself daily
like
many of us are too blind to see what lies before us.
and because we see black as an absence of light, we
let the system whore us
out to the highest bidder
we trade family heirlooms for wood splinters
true worship for strange religions
mother tongues for fool's riches
black skin for naked pictures
high art for manufactured widgets
strong threads for synthetic linens
rainbows for someone else's dreams
facing a mirror dimly, we don't like what we see
like
excuses enter our daily vernacular
stumbling through words we once mastered
like
disenfranchised voters screamin the time is now
the future is on your back
our backs
quit laying down. get the hell up off them and take
them back
if the only phrase you can muster is "it ain't
my fault" and not "the theives must be caught"
then you deserve to be jacked
like
when it's time for the coup
i don't want no nickles and dimes
i don't want a check
i don't want bling bouncing around my neck
i don't want dead presidents to line my pockets walls
or decorate my marble halls
i want my brothers and sisters freed from incarceration
i want drugs to leave the corners of my black and
brown nation
i want guns to find their way to melting stations
i want bullets out of their chambers and buried like
the lives of so many dead gangsters
i want to see my people grow old and die in their
sleep
not constantly visited by angels of death moving in
our streets
somethings wrong with our hearts because the food
is tainted
i want a new congress, a new president, a new court
system,
the scales of justice re-weighted
don't want my breath to be wasted
i want regime change.
Past
Entries
June
7, 2005
June
6, 2005
June
1, 2005
May
31, 2005
May
30, 2005
May 27, 2005
May
26, 2005
May
25, 2005
May
24, 2005
May
23, 2005
May
20, 2005
May
19, 2005
May
18, 2005
May 17, 2005
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