Final Work Sheet

XING 2010 FINAL GROUP PROJECT WORKSHEET Names_____Blake Daniels________



1. Identify your favorite class reading/s and explain why it was your favorite/s.

My favorite class readings had to have been the Walk to Nairobi and its partner article The Ethics of Eating Animals. What I found so interesting about these two articles was their means of proposing a similar topic in two very different contexts and even further separated writing styles. There was such an intimacy with the writing by Moore on his time in Kenya. This article also helped open my eyes towards sustainable work having a larger impact on community and heritage restoration. The second article also counter played the first well, creating a much more factual and cold truth, while still bringing forth some radical ideas. I think this is what kept me so in tune with this reading, he kept to the facts, yet used those facts to make some bold and radical claims to the necessity of a paradigm shift or revolution in our life styles. These two articles have impacted my further thought, and my thoughts towards this project.

2. Identify the class reading that has most inspired you in terms of giving you ideas for this project, and explain why.

The article Walk In Nairobi as mentioned above has played a large roll in my thought process towards Mamelodi and this project. I have been plagued with the fact that most effort needed in those areas revolved around medical aptitude and need. It wasn’t until the segment in this article about how even if the cure for AIDS was found, it wouldn’t be able to reach or be afforded by over 60 % + of the population of Kenya. It was at this moment that I realized that while these medical teams are necessary in health and post trauma/incident help, through the arts, education, and sustainable living I could fight on the “pre” side, attacking these innumerably large issues with fundamental acts such as planting a food source. It is through this food source that the woman who planted it can now feed and sustain her family, but not only that. The tending to the garden allows her to escape her domestic dwelling allowing her to break free of the domestic bondage she is living in. Because she is working among other strong and freed women she is able to begin to reinstate pride in her heritage of which Apartheid and her Husband have tried to suffocate. With her in freedom and working, her children are now able to eat and attend school, and her daughter chances of domestic rape are greatly lessened. This inherently begins to fight the spread of AIDS into the current youths generation. This is what inspired me, the idea of Kenny among other young men and women obtaining the deserved opportunity laying dormant within the resources held in Mamelodi.

3. Write down three issues that you are passionate about that relate to your project ideas.

1. The physical security and safety of the women and children of Pumaloy in domestic slavery
2. Effects of the Bantu Education system hindering self sustained education, hindering self-sustained governance.
3. Xenophobia amongst races, tribes, and countries oft due to cultural degradation
4. Self sustaining means of freedom (agriculture, arts, education) permanent routes out of bondage
and away from the rampant xenophobia.

4. Bold the most important issue you want to address through your project.

5. Explain in detail why you are concerned about this particular issue. (rationale)

The issue of self sustenance is one that has haunted continental Africa since the fall of the era of colonialism. The rise of Western AID would soon take place, and along with it a swarm of corruption, debt, devaluing, and dependency amongst countless other happenings and acts. This also brought about a huge wave of unemployment, as the West sought to modernize Africa by removing its self sustaining nature, but leaving it with broken and corrupt economic systems in post colonial times. In South Africa, this was coupled by the lack of modern infrastructure within the Townships and the long stemming roots of Apartheid that have just officially been abolished 16 years ago, though still find themselves deeply entrenched in peoples hearts, This has created an environment within the Townships, in which the men are unemployed and un occupied, often resorting to domestic violence, rape, malnourishment, abuse, and self mutilation within their own families. This can becomes a spawning point for the bigger issues the west hears about such as Aid’s, famine, and the immense crime rate. Everything mentioned prior wouldn’t hold the impact over my life if it wasn’t for the relationships I have within these very communities. That is why I am so concerned about this issue, because it is ravaging the lives of my own brothers and sisters, family of whom I love dearly and am so committed too. The initiatives fear to tackle this area and problem too, there is much good happening in Mamelodi right now. This includes an extensive medical network being put in place along with an eye care clinic. While these are necessary things, they oft tend to serve the needs post incident instead of working at abolishing that incident as a whole. I could almost have summarized this paragraph up with one name, that being Kenneth Mokenang and his brother Obri. My love for that boy shocks me, its irrational, it doesn’t make sense, and therefore it has blessed me to think irrationally and begin to unlearn many things in attempts to bring healing to the core. This is a grass roots initiative, and my hopes are for it to become fully self sustaining to the point where my name can be lost from its history. There is no need for another white westerner to come dictate the doctrine for a better tomorrow. No, I hope merely to attack these issues that plague my community back in South Africa by initiating an environment that is conducive too permanent routes out of bondage, and eventually routes towards college and higher education. South Africa needs economist, leaders, and disciples that are of itself, especially of its Townships. I hope merely to provide means so that Kenny may someday himself be the one whom performs that life saving surgery that kept his, or lead his fellow brethren forward as he claims oath as South Africa’s President.






6. Describe three creative actions that you could take in response to this issue that would either raise public awareness about, or actually take a small step toward easing this issue?

1. Establishing a murals initiative in line with the medical center being erected across Mamelodi over this next summer, and beyond.
2. Establishing something of a “Family Center” or “Womb” directly in the heart of Pumaloy or in sync with the Bophelong Orphanage and School, creating a conducive safe space for women, children, and young men and ladies to continue established community while enforcing life skills which will allow access out of bondage and into a self sustaining lifestyle that will eventually foster into accessibility towards higher education, and self employment. (possibly even building the center over the summer, modest in its means.)
3. Working with the Bophelong Schools and its partners in active and immersive education, one that looks beyond the history of Bantu education and the limitations of the classroom and prepares the learners for both higher education but also in the tangible use of the valuable resources at their disposal within the Township.


7. Circle the action that you think would be most interesting, practical, and effective.
(Though this is very fluid right now and may foster from other ideas to focus and narrow the proposition for
the actual grant writing proposal.)

8. Describe in more detail, how this action can become a group “project.”

I’ve found it hard as far as a group initiative here in the states, being that the level of commitment required is one of high stature since this project requires at minimum a summer, and by all means a possible lifetime dedicated to a community across the world. It is important for me that the roots for all this work comes first from relationship, and that it continues to be a partnership and family structure, in which responsibility and work is shared hand in hand. The brings up the first facet of the group aspect of this “project”. That is the fellowship in South Africa. In planning, this grass roots effort needs to be sustainable within the community, and I and the fellow initiators need to be nothing more than members of that community, not leaders, or foreign thinkers who have come just for a season to test their ideas. Group work within Mamelodi is key to that sustainability, it is only in the inception of that community and their willingness for action and work, even if challenging at points, which any progression in this can come forth. We will work only with resources available within the community (both material and people), and hopefully build and establish everything from ground up under the header of Bophelong and Charity and Faith Church, two self sustained organizations founded by and within the Township. As far as group work in the states, one of the key fundaments will be willingness for awareness, and spiritual and emotional support. It is not feasible, and maybe even harmful, to bring everyone involved in the states to South Africa, but in their words, thoughts, and actions back home forms a strong back bone both for me and for our community in Mamelodi.


9. Who will your project impact and how?

The women, children and young ladies and men of Mamelodi, specifically of Pumaloy and districts 13 through 21, though not limited and open to all who show up or reach out.

Who will be involved in this action?

Me and a small group already in South Africa working on the medical centers, along with key leaders in the Township such as George Michaela (Figure in Bophelong School), Tommy Schmidt (Helped head the arts program at school), Pastor Titus Sithole, Patricia, along with my fellow friends and family who are already fervent working in the community

Who is your audience?

Similar answer to whom it will impact, though funding is hopefully achieved through the Davis Projects for Peace, so they will be expecting documented results.

10. List at least 2 artists, designers, collectives, projects, products, websites, etc. that have addressed the same issue that you have chosen to explore as a project, or are inspirational to you & explain why.

1. Dan Eldon – Dan Eldon was nothing more than a child of a British family who moved to Nairobi, Kenya at a young age. He graduated from high school at the International School of Kenya, leading towards years that would take him across continental Africa, New York, California, Russia, and eventually to Mogadishu in route of photography, love, and experience. His mantra was always “Safari as a Way of Life,” and something about that free spirited proposal has always stuck with me. He documented this life safari in a series of collage journals that are dense enough to rival the thickest of any scholarly book. He was killed in Mug during a photo shoot at the age of 23. Eldon has been an inspiration both as an artist, fellow young man, and person. It is how he held his life, even at such a young age that has inspired me, no apprehension, never a wrong decision, just the next turn of the road.

2. The Women of the Bophelong Hospice – Patricia, Almada, Sboingylay. These are just a few names of the phenomenal ladies of whom work at the Bophelong Hospice in Mamelodi. These women arise at 5 am every morning and stay till the sun crest’s the mountain at night. It is because of them that Kenny is alive, it is because of them that I can call him brother. To answer why they are inspirational or meaningful would be redundant and unnecessary, especially after one has spent time in their presence. These powerful women of God have not only preserved and saved the lives of many fellow brethren at the hospice and in home care, but have also invested in me and our fellow community, even us who aren’t physically sick. Mamma Patricia, and the rest of her nurses, truly one of the greatest blessings I have received to date.


11. List 2 websites that are resources for your project.
1 http://bophelongcommunitycenter.org/
2. http://www.mamelodistories.org/
3. www.hivstories.org
4. http://www.dambisamoyo.com/deadaid.html
This list is not exhaustive


12. Identify the resources, materials and funding that you will need to make this project happen?

All the resources will be accrued from the Township and surrounding country of South Africa. That is something that is a very important issue of mine, being the fact that western projects have so often tended to rely so heavily on resource and material from the west. It follows the same constructs of the AID system in which a large amount of resource is injected for a short period of time to achieve an often unsustainable set list of goals. This process not only undervalues the people and resources within a community, but also serves to create a disastrous dependency, while reaffirming a notion of value in wealth instead of relations and enlightenment. I use the analogy of heroin when speaking of resource and material injection. This process of working is equivalent to the use of heroin, the user being the community may be struggling with a certain matter so they seek help from an outside source. This source for the user may be heroin (western resource, funds, materials), and so they inject it to achieve that certain high or temporary fix towards the problem. This is the same case for material injection during western projects, it causes a temporary renaissance in which anything the community needs is at their disposal due to the injection of the westerners. Unfortunately, much like heroin, that high wears of quickly and the westerners and their materials go away, often leaving the community it a worst state than prior. Even worst, the notion of dependency begins to occur as that given community begins to believe that only through those western resources is achievement possible. It undervalues and obliterates the phenomenal resources that lay right their within that community. Now reaching that self sustaining status within the community is a tough task that will take time. As for funding, I will be applying for the Davis Grant along with other grants from school. Resources from the community will include building material if center is decided to be erected, along with learning process of art making, agriculture, and education that are conducive and derived from the area.

13. Doing research on the internet, find 3 organizations, businesses, social service agencies, cultural institutions, funders, social groups or people who could partner with you or help you do this project.

1. http://www.davisprojectsforpeace.org/
2. http://www.engagemamelodi.net/ - http://www.mamelodiproject.org/charityfaith.html
3. http://www.africarevolution.org/
4. http://www.artworkscincinnati.org/


14. Create a descriptive title for your action/project.

“Bja Banalodi” - The Children of Melodies

15. Write a very short description of the project (who, what, when, where, why, how)?

This project is directly of, by, and for the people or the community of Mamelodi and Nelmapius, two townships north east of Pretoria in South Africa. This project will be the grass roots for a much larger vision of creating a community run “Incubation Center” in team work with the Bophelong Hospice and School. What will happen in this summer will be the beginning of a much larger scale effort that will take place in distance while I finish my undergrad, and in which I will return in full post graduation. Therefore this project will begin during this upcoming summer, and will last indefinitely, hopefully organically with no need for my hand in the coming years. This will happen in the Township of Mamelodi, in district 3 & 13 but not limited too. This project is meant to directly combat the issues created in and by domestic bondage due to the hostile nature of Township life, with hopes of providing people the skills for self sustenance, cultural revival, and eventually providing a means to higher education by providing a womb like environment which will prepare members of the community to foster in to rules of leadership both in Mamelodi and across the whole country. This will be a long suffering effort, starting this summer with the erection of the movement and place, establishing of leaders from within the community, and the first works to begin. This will exist and sustain itself within the community, eliminating any reliance or dependency, while directly attacking the issues of AIDS, domestic violence, family mutilation, unemployment, etc. at their core by allowing a route towards freedom, sustenance, and education.

16. Create a budget and timeline.


17. Visualize your idea to convey it to others….draw, collage, Photoshop, make a model, video, posters, book, t-shirts, et al.

layered drawing poster / t-shirt money campaign / airing of Kenneth video in altered context / photo documentation / audio output with minimal imagery of performance

18. Design a convincing way to display your project ideas and visuals that will convey your enthusiasm, creativity, and maturity as an artist to the people who can help make your project happen. Draw your diagram here.