The College at the Falls

This article is a to-do list for our College at the Falls (working name)

Begin thinking of possible names for the college

• A name should communicate both to Zambians and foreigners
• The name should be memorable.
• The word “Falls” may be good to include
• “Lumwana Falls” or “Muwambeji falls” perhaps? Maybe named after some characteristic plant or animal of the area
• Or maybe “Tembo Falls” hahaha Because this is our big “Tembo” and also because when we do something revolutionary we will cause a Tembo to fall down… double meaning hahaha - what do you think of that name?

The Tembo story

A hunter left his village early one morning to look for game. As he set out, he paused to pray to the great God to give him good fortune in his hunt. After a couple hours of walking through the forest, he came into a clearing, right in front of him, by sheer luck was an enormous injured bull elephant. Ordinarily an elephant is too big and powerful for a hunter to kill with only a single spear, but this situation was different, the animal was not able to fight back or run away, the best thing to do would be to kill it quickly and harvest the meat. There would be enough food for an entire village to eat meat for weeks! Running quickly, the hunter gripped his spear with both hands. With all of his strength and weight the hunter thrust his spear deep into the Elephant’s heart, killing it rapidly. As the hunter caught his breath he took a step back to look at the giant as it died and realized the enormous task that lay ahead - how would he be able to skin and process this great beast he had killed? How would he begin to carry even a small portion back to the village? He would need help. Excited at his good fortune, he sang to himself as he ran back to the village.

Tembo yetu; "Our elephant"

“We have gotten an elephant! Come quickly!” he shouted as he reached the village, “There is meat for everyone! Bring your knives, axes and baskets, we have a lot of work to do!" Excitedly the villagers gathered the tools they would need and began to follow the hunter, thinking of how full their bellies would soon be with the abundant meat they would be eating. Even the children came along carrying baskets and large calabash containers to fill with meat. Excitedly one of the children began to sing tembo yetu! tembo yetu! "our elephant, our elephant!” Soon everyone was singing as they hurried along.

As they entered the clearing, everyone gasped, what amazing luck! This elephant was enormous! They would be working all night, skinning the animal - hacking off large pieces of meat with their axes, cutting the meat into thinner strips for drying, loading the baskets, guarding the carcass against wild beasts and carrying baskets of meat back and forth to the village, while trying to keep everything clean. The task ahead was large but they began their work. One family began working from the belly, another beginning to work on the head while others began to cut into the different legs.

Tembo wandi; “My Elephant"

As the entire village got to work, the hunter stood back with satisfaction to look at the scene. Tembo wandi, “My elephant” he said to himself. He began to think about how this would change his life. As the people worked, he walked around and began talking to himself: "I can sell the meat from this leg for so much money, and from that leg I will make this much… now that I have gotten tembo wandi “my elephant” I will be a rich man. As the people over heard the hunter muttering to himself their mood suddenly changed, “My elephant?” they said “we thought it was 'Our elephant'. if it’s not Tembo yetu, 'our elephant’ than you can cut and carry it by yourself.

Sadly everyone picked up their tools and slowly headed down the trail, back to the village. Nobody would be eating meat after all, "tempo yetu" - had become "tembo wandi” and now it would rot in the forest and be picked at by the wild beasts.

When God gives you a tembo to deal with, it must either be Tembo yetu, “our elephant” or it will rot and be wasted. Build your “we”.

Begin to articulate the vision in writing

• First, tell others the vision many times until you yourself are saying it in a good way
• Begin to write it down AND recruit others (whom you have told) to write it down independently as well
• (We can compare these different versions and keep the good parts of each one)
• We need text written by Zambians as well as others.
• If there is a gap in the text - skip over it for now - we can fill it in later
• Don’t worry if you can’t answer the “How?” or even the “What?” but focus on the
• “Why do we need this?"
• Store all writing about the college at College description text

Research influences and write about how they relate to our college

• Educational Institutions Influences
  • Nkuuli - read about Deep Springs College - research online
  • Also read about Namwianga Mission School here
  • Saint Johns College in the US found here
  • The Putney School
• Architecture and Design Influences:
  • Jollyboys Lodge Livingstone [1]
  • Trevor and Monica’s house outside Lusaka
  • Deep Springs' Campus
  • Green School Bali

Begin making a list of people who can advance the vision of the college or can serve as a network for us

• We need an international team including:
  • Architects, Designers and Builders
  • Communicators (people who can talk, write, imagine, make images and do web)
  • Administrators (those who can calculate labor money materials needed and define a timeline of tasks)
  • Funders who can invest money
  • Future faculty and staff
    • Long-term professors in: Math/Accounting, rhetoric/literature/writing, general science, Bible/theology
    • Staff (these people support and train the students and should also assist in character development in:
    • Agriculture/Livestock, Mechanics (shop and auto), Facilities Maintenance, Cooking/food preservation, Administration
    • Short term professors in many fields
    • School President and VP (the serve at the will of the student body)

• General friends of the college
  • Jacob Burton - software & business
  • Andy Zenz and Joshua Cook - Design, Media and Photography
  • Steven Kluck and Ian Oster - Permaculture and site design
  • Mundemba Kyembe - construction and campus design
  • L. Benedict Schwartz - software, business and networking
  • Ed Ingve and Kevin Riordan - business and network
  • Dr. Phillip Mundemba - Leadership and theology
  • Christina Raines (Administration, curriculum development and writing)
  • Anthony Tako anthonytako@gmail.com

Other Nunnian Micro Colleges

http://mailchi.mp/dfee11e85e31/thoreau-college-1655921?e=cf73141c31

Why Tembo College?

When we think of Africa two words spontaneously come to our minds, ‘abundant resources’ and ‘poverty’. The truth of these two words has prompted and initiated much research and study as to how a society so abundantly blessed can remain so richly poor. In an attempt to contrast these two extremes, we should look at the facts governing these extremes.

Africa is a vast and exotic continent of about 1.2 billion people in 54 independent countries. Having total area of over 30 million square kilometers, about three and a half times the size of the United States. Africa is rich in mineral and natural resources with large parts of is terrain teeming with wild life and magnificent plant life. It possesses 99 percent of the world’s chrome resources, 85 percent of its platinum, 70 percent of its tantalite, 68 percent of its cobalt, and 54 percent of its gold, among others. It has significant oil and gas reserves.

In talking of poverty. Still today, over 40 percent of people living in Africa live in absolute poverty. According to the World Bank, absolute poverty means people whose income is less than $1.25 a day. Putting numbers to words, we can take a case of east Africa alone-south Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia- 28 million people need humanitarian assistance. About 6.9 million children are suffering from malnutrition, including more than 1 million who are severely malnourished or risk dying by the end of 2017.

Like many others before us, we were faced with a desire to commit ourselves in service to Africa and the world. To do this we have committed ourselves to learn from those who have gone before us but mostly to learn from those affected, as the African proverb says “the one who wears the shoe knows were it pinches best.”

Poverty has been defined as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor. Being from Africa and from much interaction with my fellow Africans, I can agree that these are the things that Africans experience. But after much discussions and research I feel that this definition points to the manifestations or fruits of poverty but does not rightly show or capture the entirety of the word. Even as Bryant Myers, a leading Christian thinker says “in order to diagnose poverty correctly, we must consider its fundamental nature.”

In my interviews and interactions on what Africans think is the cause of the problems in Africa and what solutions are available to us. It is amazing to see how everyone seems to come to the conclusion that Africa’s biggest challenge is its leadership. When I interacted with those in leadership, they in turn pointed out that the problem still is with the leadership above them. In all of these interactions it become clear to me that everyone distances themselves from the problem and deny responsibility when they point to a far off leader. To distance ourselves from the problem also means we distance ourselves from the solution to the problem. The challenge therefore, remains to show people that leadership begins with us – the everyday people.

I will use this information available to us to talk on the fundamental elements of poverty. The manifestations of poverty are as a result of an occurrence of one or more of four fundamental elements of poverty. These elements are: poverty of being, poverty of community, poverty of stewardship, poverty of spiritual intimacy.

Poverty of Being.

Poverty of being can be said to refer to self-valuation. This poverty can comprise from god-complexes to low self-esteem. It is in poverty of being that we find aspects of shame, worthlessness and inferiority. One might ask as to how this poverty can result in hunger, social and material lack-the answer is much in every way.

It has rightly been pointed out that one of the main things fostering poverty in Africa is its leadership. It has also been puzzling as to why many Africans passively sit by as their leaders make decisions, steps and policies that negatively impact development. As seen from my interaction with many Africans, we do not see ourselves as being part of the problem therefore part of the solution. Much of this is due to a poverty of being, many Africans do not feel qualified to interfere with thing ‘above them’. This causes many to sit by and watch decision makers make wrong decisions. Passivity does not in most cases result from people’s lack of capacity to form and think of intelligent workable solutions to their problems. The opposite is true in most cases as is observed in African homes and on the streets where people speak in hushed voices of the best solutions to problems they face. From this we see that the cause to this problem are feelings of shame, worthlessness and inferiority. This can be said to be poverty of being.

Poverty of Community.

Poverty of community is another fundamental element in understanding poverty. It extends from self-centeredness to exploitation and abuse of others. Though Africa has a rich history of community, the new generation of Africans who have been more exposed to western thought has drifted from the original sense of community. Poverty of community has played a large part in aiding to poverty as seen in Africa. This poverty seeks to satisfy the needs of the individual at all costs, even if satisfying this need causes great harm to others. It causes people to want to receive the most from society and give the least. Poverty of community has its expressions in corruption, injustice, power struggles and mineral related conflicts. Most leadership in poor countries fail to steer countries and institutions in the way that benefits the majority due to this element of poverty.

Poverty of Stewardship.

Poverty of stewardship has had devastating effects on society. It is essentially a loss of sense of purpose, it finds its expression in laziness, materialism, workaholics, etc. Stewardship brings with it responsibility, ownership, diligence and vision. Poverty of stewardship leads to abuse of power, unsustainable policies, and generally spells poor leadership. Much of the poverty experienced today is in some way connected to poverty of stewardship.

Poverty of Spiritual Intimacy.

Today much effort has been made to address the other elements of poverty. However, little to no effort has been directing to address this element of poverty. Poverty of Spiritual Intimacy is seen in the denying of GOD’s existence and authority. It can be argued that this element of poverty is central to all other elements having also the greatest implications. All other elements are reconciled when we have true spiritual intimacy. In God we find our sense of being, we learn to care and live in harmony with all creation and we find direction, purpose and meaning of life.

Even as we talk on poverty, one might wonder as to the relevance of all this information to Tembo Falls College. As has been the finding of many, we too feel one of the biggest challenge in Africa is its leadership. This flaw in African leadership is not due to incompetent educational institutions. Most African educational institutions offer curriculums similar to western schools also most African leaders have been trained by western institutions. The question then remains- if the problem is not due to variations in the content of materials taught, how can we as Tembo Falls College apply and position ourselves to train fully competent African leaders, equipped and ready to take on the problems of Africa and the world.

The problems of Africa can be traced to the first encounter between Africa and the west. Africans were exposed to an environment where they were made to believe that the west and everything from the west was superior. In an effort to make Africans submissive, they were made to become dependent. Because development, aid, leadership and direction came from the west. This environment created an African who felt inferior, dependent and without purpose. By the time Africans got their independence, the environment created by the colonial masters had grown roots so deep in the African mind and heart. It is these roots that we have to cut off if we hope to bring Africa into its original glory.

Tembo Falls College is dedicated to creating not only a learning institution but an environment that will nourish a sense of being, community and stewardship. This environment is designed to bring exposure that will transform the African perception of the world with its feelings of inferiority, shame, inability, self-centeredness and dependency.