Table Of ContentMNEIIGGRHABTOIROHNO, ODS, COMMUNITIES,
DANIADS UPROBRAANS MAANRDG ICNITAILZITEYNSHIP
The Pedagogy of Action
Small Axe Fall Big Tree
Edited by
Nesha Z. Haniff
Neighborhoods, Communities,
and Urban Marginality
Series Editors
Carol Camp Yeakey
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, MO, USA
Walter R. Allen
University of California
Los Angeles, CA, USA
This series examines the ecology of neighborhoods and communities
across the globe. By taking an ecological approach, the study of
neighborhoods takes into account not just structures, buildings and
geographical boundaries, but also human geography and the relationship
and adjustment of humans to highly dense urban environments in a par-
ticular area or vicinity. As violent events in marginalized urban neighbor-
hoods and communities across the globe have demonstrated, “place
matters.” The series aims to publish original research about the power of
place, that is, the importance of where one lives, how public policies have
transformed the shape and geography of inequality in our metropolitan
areas, and the ways in which residents impacted by perceived inequality
are trying to confront the problem.
Nesha Z. Haniff
Editor
The Pedagogy
of Action
Small Axe Fall
Big Tree
Editor
Nesha Z. Haniff
Department of Afroamerican and African Studies
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Neighborhoods, Communities, and Urban Marginality
ISBN 978-981-19-0800-2 ISBN 978-981-19-0801-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0801-9
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For Sithembiso Mntambo Nkosi
Sthe … We have scribbled you back into existence
Siyakuthanda, Siyakhumbula Wena, Sidumisa
We love you; we remember you; we honor you
Series Editor Introduction
We welcome The Pedagogy of Action: Small Axe Fall Big Tree to the
“Neighborhoods, Communities and Urban Marginality” Series. Dr.
Nesha Z. Haniff has written an eloquent, revealing exploration of how
marginal communities in South Africa battled the ravages of HIV/
AIDS. Led by Women, these grassroots efforts demonstrated the remark-
able agency, resilience, creativity, toughness, cooperation, determination
and vision marginalized communities can achieve in the fight to survive.
The Pedagogy of Action was developed and demonstrated across disen-
franchised communities in the United States, the Caribbean and South
Africa. The idea was to: “Teach ordinary women, regardless of their level
of literacy, a series of modules on their bodies and their reproductive
health, which they could turn around and teach to their communities.
The project showed how small cadres of women could be taught in such
a way that they would own the information and teach it back to their
communities.” Over time, this approach to the empowerment of disen-
franchised communities has generated hundreds of teachers and reached
thousands globally. This book recognizes how marginalized people and
communities will confront and change social inequality when they are
given voice and sufficient resources.
The Pedagogy of Action makes distinctive contributions by linking the-
ory, pedagogy and practice (action). The orienting framework combines
vii
viii Series Editor Introduction
rich theoretical perspectives from seminal, critical thinkers like Paolo
Friere, Audre Lorde, Karl Marx, Barbara Christian and Antonio Gramsci.
These scholars address the immense challenge of making rarified knowl-
edge relevant to the existential, or lived, realities of marginalized people.
Another problem is how do we recognize and validate indigenous knowl-
edge? We are shown how teaching—formal and informal knowledge—
can drive progressive social change. These complex elements are elegantly
merged, so as to translate grand theory into education for progressive
social change. We are urged to go beyond “knowledge for knowledge’s
sake”, to ask how can knowledge and educational praxis be mobilized to
improve life for those stuck on the margins of society?
Carol Camp Yeakey, Marshall S. Snow Professor of Arts and Sciences,
Washington University (STL)
Walter R. Allen, Distinguished Professor, Education, Sociology and African
American Studies, UCLA
Book Description
This is the story of teaching consciousness as a requirement for transfor-
mations in social justice. In artful narrative, Nesha Haniff traces her own
conscientization as a colonized child in Guyana, exploring the cultural
and intellectual forces that shape the creation of the Pedagogy of Action.
Drawing from Paulo Freire and Ela Bhatt, participants in POA teach an
oral HIV education module to marginalized communities in the USA
and South Africa, as the nexus for dismantling traditional pedagogies of
race, gender, empowerment, community service and American hege-
mony. The many challenges of institutional and cultural obstacles, mainly
those that excluded poor and black students from overseas travel, required
innovation and persistence. The book features chapters written by POA
students and South African participants reflecting on their own transfor-
mations. These authors are among the hundreds of participants who, over
15 years, in the practice of radical love, grew the Pedagogy of Action.
ix
Acknowledgments
I have placed very little emphasis on writing, even though almost all of
my work has been in academia where success is based on publication.
When I was a young ingenue in the academy, I thought I would be a great
teacher and use my classroom as a way to change the world, and then
academe would throw flowers at my feet. They did not. I did, however,
influence my students, who are now changing the world. But I did not
write. To me publishing was a kind of collusion, a kind of co-optation;
and so I remained “pure.” In retrospect, it appears uncomfortably holy,
impoverishing, and judgmental. Yet, I was happy. I was fortunate to do
what I love for many years, and I was rewarded by transformations in the
lives of so many of my students. I continued for many years to develop
the Pedagogy of Action as the crucible for students to enter the fire of
critical thinking and consciousness. This was a praxis which enveloped us
in our sojourn to communities of color in the US, to the Caribbean, and
to South Africa. We now refer to ourselves as the POA family. I am grate-
ful to all my students, especially those who have generously agreed to
publish their essays in this collection.
There were friends and colleagues who wanted me to write, who
admired my work; and I, of course, ignored them … until I retired from
the Pedagogy of Action in 2015 and struggled with the inevitability of
losing the history of this work. Fortunately, there came Walter Allen, my
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