The Liminal Space

Ashley Visagie is a co-founder of Bottomup which promotes critical awareness among high school students. Ashley has a deep concern for youth in South Africa who suffer because of the unjust education system and seeks to contest deficit narratives. He is optimistic that a more fair and just world is possible but also believes that the kind of systemic changes required call for engagements that are not trivial or easily accomplished. Helene Rousseau is a co-founder of Bottomup and strives to facilitate critical education with young people. She has an interest in dialogical learning and the implementation of culturally responsive teaching. She loves curating resources and materials that are relevant to youth that can further develop their knowledge to promote a better world. From Bottomup’s website (bottomup.org.za): “Bottomup is a youth organisation promoting socially-engaged youth leadership. We believe that youth participation in society is necessary for building a healthy democracy and that if we are to build a more egalitarian and sustainable society, then children and youth must play an active role as co-constructors in re-making the world.” Ashely and Helene join us in this Episode. We trace their journey from the founding of Bottomup to where they are now. As the story of bottom up is unveiled we also hear how Ashley and Helene’s views, approaches and methodologies change. Particularly striking are their reflections on “Critical Hope” and they introduce us to the phrase “Children as co-constructors of the world”. The quote read by Helene in the episode is from Paulo Freire’s, A Pedagogy of hope: “The idea that hope alone will transform the world, and action undertaken in that kind of naïveté, is an excellent route to hopelessness, pessimism, and fatalism. But the attempt to do without hope, in the struggle to improve the world, as if that struggle could be reduced to calculated acts alone, or a purely scientific approach, is a frivolous illusion.” The paper Helene references on Critical Hope is “Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete” written by Jeffrey M.R Duncan-Andrade. The music in Episode 3 is composed, arranged and curated by Arkenstone (Rashid Epstein Adams).

Thandi Gamedze is a writer, a poet, a facilitator and soon to be post doctorate fellow at⁠ The Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice⁠, at the University of the Western Cape. The glue connecting all the varied bits and pieces of Thandi’s work is a deep commitment to the work of critique and reimagining (as both action and reflection) towards a world that is just, nurturing and kind. Thandi is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and works for⁠ The Warehouse⁠, an organisation which envisions a reality in which churches are living out the peace and justice of God for the world. Thandi joins us for this episode, and she reflects on the stories that currently ground her. Our conversation meanders through the story of Moses's liberation from assimilation into the Egyptian Empire of the day and then morphs into the liberative potential of the story of brown Jesus. We also speak about the ‘D’ word. Decolonisation of the Bible or Jesus or God will take work still but we at least begin exploring some of dominant narratives in Christianity (and its impact on the world) and what it would mean to reframe it in a decolonised alternative narrative.  We also hear two of Thandi’s original poems in the episode which is a catharsis and a balm. The first poem is “Jesus of Occupied Palestine” and the second is “Victory?”. The James Cone quote in the episode is from his book “God of the Oppressed”: “Christ is black, therefore, not because of some cultural or psychological need of black people, but because and only because Christ really enters into our world where the poor, the despised, and the black are, disclosing that he is with them, enduring their humiliation and pain and transforming oppressed slaves into liberated servants.” The music in Episode 2 is composed, arranged and curated by Arkenstone (Rashid Epstein Adams) and Pursuit.

In this first episode Rashid and Tristan share the vision and purpose of the podcast. This is an introduction to our thinking about why the podcast exists and what to expect from future episodes. We introduce this podcast as a liminal space. We introduce Cape Town as a liminal space. And then we suggest that remaining in the liminal space could spur on an imagination for a better world. Storytelling in turn helps us access imagination. The music in Episode 1 is composed, arranged and curated by Arkenstone (Rashid Epstein Adams), including the songs "Driftwood", "The Deep" and "Kai !Garib (Great River)".