Jessica Muse, now a senior at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University, began her journey to Africa in Steps, Rhythm & Movement of South African Dance, a course in the Open Arts Curriculum at Tisch School of the Arts. Next she learned about Topics in South African Culture, another course in the Open Arts Curriculum. Immediately, she thought, “I should do this. I am going to apply.” She was accepted to the class for the fall 2005 semester, and traveled to South Africa in January 2006. Jessica chose to stay in South Africa with a study abroad program at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She just returned to the United States in December 2007.
Jessica, in her own words
“The Topics in South African Culture is hands down the most influential and life-changing class I have taken at New York University. The program incorporated varied methods of learning (reading, discussion, lecture, seminar, performance, films, television, music, art galleries, food, you name it!) and was taught largely from a South African perspective. Each week we had someone passionate and experienced in their field engaging us as students and as people. These presentations were paired with weekly discussion sessions facilitated by Tisch staff who created a safe learning space where we were able speak our minds. They offered incredible support to us throughout the whole course and on the field trip. And the field trip...amazing!
I had the rare opportunity to meet with some of the most influential people in South African arts, culture and society. We were partnered with students from the University of Witswatersrand who were part of the transformative process with us; together we were able to enhance our learning about ourselves and each other. I would tell my South African friends at UKZN about this trip and they were amazed at what I had done. I climbed into a cave full of paintings where I was whispered stories of our ancestors, I went to Nelson Mandela's prison cell, I saw performances at the Market Theatre, I toyi-toyi-ed in Soweto. Talking about the trip at UKZN actually gained me respect as an international student. My stories told them that I wasn't in South Africa to surf, but for a real powerful cross-cultural learning experience, a journey that really began with Topics.”
Jessica, on choosing to study abroad in South Africa.
Once I was accepted to the Topics in South African Culture program, I thought about studying abroad in South Africa. I knew the Topics program would prepare me in a positive way for that experience. I researched various programs online and found one that linked me directly to the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Knowing that I was studying abroad in Durban, I was lucky to take advantage of the wealth of connections that the Topics program gave me access to. Little did I know when I applied to Topics that I would end up staying in South Africa for two years!”
About studying in South Africa.
My first semester at UKZN I took a course called Labour, Agriculture and Rural Development with Professor Harald Witt in the Economic History and Development Studies Department. My classmates, from diverse racial, ethnic and class backgrounds were incredible to learn from and share a classroom space with. Many of them were born in rural areas in Southern Africa and had goals to bring back home what they learned at university to better the lives of their family and their community. I heard stories of the struggle that it took to be there and was surrounded by an incredible drive to learn. For our class field trip in March 2006, we stood on a twelve hour bus ride to Maputaland in Northern KwaZulu-Natal. We were left in Mboza, a village where we lived together at an eco-freindly camp for ten days with youth from Mboza. I assumed that young people from half-way across the world from a completely different background would not share my interests. I was worried that there would be a language or cultural barrier. Most of my assumptions were wrong. A spark inside all of us was lit when we expressed our diverse histories and contexts simultaneously with our shared interest in positive change and development for our lives, our communities, our countries and our world. I learned from that week that I need to be careful with my assumptions and be ready to challenge them even if that breaks something down in myself. I learned that I need to not be so scared of what I don't know. I need to allow myself to be filled with so much uncertainty that I can be alternatively filled with so much cross-cultural connection and learning that I almost explode. By the end of the trip I felt I wanted to stay in South Africa. I was brought back towards a critical engagement with South Africa, its people, its culture, and myself that had begun with the Topics course.
A spark was lit, and Jessica decided to stay in South Africa.
Mboza was where the idea of staying originated. When I made the final decision in April 2006, I was on the roof of main building of the Drama and Performance Studies Department at UKZN. I performed that night (on the roof!) with the Flatfoot Training Company, a student-training program for contemporary African dance at UKZN. It's funny because I was connected to Lliane Loots who runs the company by Jay Pather, a Durban-born choreographer who joined our Topics group excursions in Cape Town. That was one of many fortunate events that originated with Topics. The performance was really incredible because the friends I had made in Mboza actually had come to Durban to complete the learning partnership and were in the audience that night. It was incredible to hug and speak with them after the performance because when they asked when I was going back to the United States, I could tell them that I was going to stay. I could tell them that I would be seeing them again, that I would be going back almost every other week to continue working with them. This was really powerful for all of us. We wanted to be part of making this learning partnership grow. During that field trip to Mboza, myself and other students also began an education project with the primary school there. I became part of the facilitation team for what is now called the Mboza Environmental Education through the Arts Project. Twice a month, collaborating students and professors from UKZN as well as dancers from the Flatfoot Dance Company facilitate three hour workshops using the arts to assist learners in building positive relationships with the environment, life skills, confidence and self-esteem. The project grew from 20 kids in April 2006 to 120 in November 2007. I am extremely inspired by these kids and their willingness to learn, their bright creative minds, open hearts and warm spirits. I am thankful to them and to the Mboza community for letting me in. Thank you for allowing us to overcome the assumptions we had about each other through dialogue and dance. I am happy and honored to be one of the few who stayed.
Jessica on change…
South Africa shifted my center, where I place myself in the world, who I conceive myself to be and who I believe I can become. I challenged perceptions of myself and perceptions of other people that I have, particularly prejudices and negative assumptions. Being back at NYU has definitely illuminated what I have learned studying abroad. I am constantly asking myself "From what perspective do I speak? From what perspective do my classmates, my professor, this book speak?". I learned that education is not about universal truths but about being critical and creative, looking back to look forward, looking out to look in. I have learned to be more human and always be conscious that we are all human. Our 'wealth' is in this acknowledgment of our humanness. As Mr. Z. Nyathi, a village elder in the Mboza community announced our last day in Maputaland at a braai (BBQ) on the beach, "Life is good and the fish is ready!"