From Isaac Ochien’g, Counter Renaissance, Kenya

Obviously to give a description of what learning societies would be too defeating an exercise (this is something that was said at the very beginning of the conference) ...so I’ll just talk and talk and talk, much like what we did at the conference and remember, also, what Nyerere said about the Africans talking and talking until they came to an understanding of what they wanted to do! Just to be clear though, I am not saying that the learning societies should be about talking …  

 I have been editing The Counter Renaissance—a publication for African youth—for some time now. At the conference I felt deeply connected to people who were using their hands to create things and people who were working with people to do things (through theatre), those already involved with organic farming. (I know that we are all doing things in different ways but I do not know that ‘doing,’ in the manner of editing a publication, is actually doing!) …but I think one has to as much as possible…get involved with some practical things…the images I now have of learning societies is of people thinking and doing…not very different from what was said you might think. Maybe a small clarification would be in order. Before the conference this is how thinking—doing meant for Isaac:

Isaac seated in front of a computer working on The Counter Renaissance, then through the same Counter Renaissance—and consistent with the ideals of the same-- involving young African people in processes of change, of regeneration, of an affirmation of those things that are most important to us and to our people and to our communities and to our environments and to our worlds.

Whereas I have not in any way ‘abandoned’ this understanding, I now feel maybe there is a different way I should approach the writing in the sense that I should have ‘action’ or ‘doing’ precede the writing. Look, I sat with different people and heard about what they were doing. Of course I cannot say that I liked everything that I heard because I did not like it all. For example, there were people working with young people in spaces that did not seem to me too different from schools. I also sat and spoke with people working with artists in a manner that did not seem to be too different from the art institutions under government patronage. But rather than disagree or dissent or ‘switch—off,’ I found myself listening and connecting more to the sentiment…listening more to the spirit behind what they were doing. (Maybe this listening happened because of the manner in which the conference was organized—talk by all means but make sure you also listen good.) I found myself thinking about The Counter Renaissance and wondering whether what I write has ever truly been preceded by what I do! As someone editing a publication for young people, within the context of Learning Societies, The Counter Renaissance will have young African people (and even the not-so-young) doing things (whether writing, singing, drawing, farming, etc) then sharing these in The Counter Renaissance. (The latter process is what I would call a counter renaissance). It is very important that this emerges spontaneously so that in fact, The Counter Renaissance is not seen as only a publication…rather, a spirit around which people get energized to do things that both ask important questions about what they see and experience as well as regenerate---relationships, etc. At the moment I do not feel there is anything spontaneous about The Counter Renaissance…this is the tension that I am trying to negotiate right now…maybe things will get clearer when I get down to working with African people in Kenya but then again isn’t KENYA what I make it here, with the young university students here?

Whom can Shikshantar work more closely with? Maybe everybody at the conference! But I thought Jinin’s work was really interesting especially when he told me about his intention to ‘de-textualize’(my words) his work…we all know that attempting to put in words, even in the slightest, work of art instantly takes away a good portion of its meaning. Then Mandar is someone Shikshantar could probably get in touch with more… he has interesting perspectives about how to ‘manage’ the tension between being located in a village and sought of making sense, in that context, with what one is learning ‘outside’ (there is the question about whether all the critiquing and challenging, and even ‘learning’ that we talk about would ever make a lot of sense in the context/environment of the village and if so, then how does this get articulated?)

Some of the questions that I would like to share are;

1.       What are some of the things or ideas that you think a young person wanting to engage less with the text should do, or think about, in order to contribute to the realization of learning societies?

2.       Learning Societies is not just an idea we want to ruminate over…it is not just a phrase we want to ‘feel good’ about over breakfasts and lunches and dinners. Learning Societies is our lives, it is our relationships, it is an manifestation of our eco-humanness(sic). How might I make learning societies (or the ‘process’ of working towards the generation of learning societies)  less of an abstraction and more of a process taking place daily in our ordinary lives?