January 24, 2011

Dear Students:


I have been away most of the Winter Recess. In fact, just one week ago I was in Dakar, Senegal visiting artists after spending the morning in Rufisque shopping for last minute items before my flight home later that evening. Sunday we caught a bus into Dakar, the number 83, which reminded me of AC Transit bus 82 that travels down what used to be E14th Street, now International Blvd. in Oakland, a line that passes through Oakland and Richmond, El Cerrito and Albany on one end and San Lorenzo and San Leandro in the opposite direction. Similarly the Dakar 83, which also looked like the newer AC Transit buses, just shorter, the upper deck a step up as well, passed through so many cities, I lost count, especially on the way back when every corner was our stop.

For only 275 CFAs, less than a dollar if 400 CFAs is the equivalent, but I was poked by elbows and I had to resist the urge to shove back because one father had his little boy wedged between his legs and then resting against mine, and at one point two women with babies on their backs were shoved into my side. There was not much courtesy in the way of letting mothers with babies sit. In fact, when a seat opened up after we’d been riding for what felt like hours, someone stepping onto the bus took it even after she saw the second mother with child headed for it. So the mother who was getting off first let the second mother have the seat. One woman had three children: one on her lap who was coughing a lot and two next to her. One man’s briefcase kept hitting the boy in his head. I marveled at the kid’s patience until the man finally looked down and moved back a bit. It was as we say a crush.

We thought we’d missed the last bus in at 5:00 or 6:00 PM that evening, so we were happy to see it. I only had 2000 CFAs and some change left by the time we were ready to head back to Rufisque.

I’d been wanting to get to the Artist Village in Dakar for over a month and it was my last day in the country so here we were, my friend Mouhammedou and I. Later Amadou met us. First we stopped by another friend, Suzanne’s home for a visit. She lives near Arafat which is near the stadium, Léopold Sédar Senghor Stadium, the largest stadium in Dakar where the FESMAN or World Festival of Black Art and Culture took place in December. Suzanne hosted me the year before last when I visited Dakar. Since then, her husband died and she wasn’t feeling well. He was an Islamic scholar and all his work was stored in an upstairs library. Her nephew who was living with her and a young woman she had adopted were back with their parents. She was still caring for her mother, but had had to retire from her job as a teacher since her mobility issues connected to her back hadn’t healed.

This was my third visit. I’d gone to see her when I first arrived and later before I went to Mali and now before I left for America. Her sister was there, whom I hadn’t seen in a while, well over a year, and a family friend, I’d never met only spoken to on the phone—he speaks English. We had a nice visit. I really have to learn French and Wolof and Bambara (for Mali). Although, French is spoken in both nations, it is really a language of the elites, so if one wants to talk to the people, she has to speak French. After a few phrases one finds the person one is speaking to often speechless or tongue tied. It is the same in Gambia, where the former colonizer’s tongue, English is supposedly the national language, but everyone speaks Wolof, a choice I applaud. Why give one’s oppressor that kind of leverage or power in one’s governance especially one’s life?

Last year I went to Haiti twice: for Spring Break and during the summer after summer school.

I like traveling in the African Diaspora. I don’t have many plans just a few contacts on the ground –a wish list which is flexible, and after I purchase my tickets I am off. When I went to Haiti the second time I wanted to get to the coast. It didn’t happen. I ran out of time. I also, didn’t have an opportunity to visit with people I’d met before, but next time. In Senegal next time I want to go to Casamance or the southern part of the country and get back to Gambia to say hi to friends. I have to see how I can manage that and still get to Timbuktu for the Festival in the Desert 2012.

I have never been in a desert, so Mali was a challenge. I met a woman in Dakar at a concert from Southern California, who hooked up with me and we traveled to Mali together. I already had my press credentials and added her to my media team. She and I shared a tent together. It was desert boot camp: mattress on dirt, when one swung one’s legs in either direction there was dust and dirt, without the occasional gusts of wind. Tracey and I teamed up at Hotel Des Almadies where she spent the night and then moved with me to the FESMAN Artist Village near N’Gor, a fishing village and island, I have yet to visit. It was also not too far from the Renaissance Monument, where I walked on red carpet, below a spectacular bronze emblem of African unity: father, mother and child.

Yes, it was pretty spectacular. President Abdoulaye Wade, of Senegal, (the country's third president since independence) spoke as did his invited guest, the president of Libya, President Muammar al-Gaddafi. The president of Liberia, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, was there too. Unfortunately, she didn’t speak. I was more than a little excited. Oh, did I mention that I was added to the American delegation the second day of FESMAN, which meant I was a guest of the government, which meant, the Republic of Senegal picked up the tab for my stay, hotel and then Artist Village, accommodations.

Every evening there was a concert or a play or something exciting happening. I had trouble getting around. Wyclef Jean gave several concerts, as did various international hip hop artists from around the globe like Super Natural who was there with his teenage son. Mama Africa was responsible for getting such a large hip hop contingent to FESMAN and almost daily she was taking artists to Goree Island so they could feel the agony and painful energy of the enslaved Africans before they were shipped abroad.

At the Door of No Return, they were flesh and blood witness to the return, not only were African descendents in the Diaspora still here, we were back. President Wade loaned Mama Africa his yacht for one of many visits. He was a great host.

It was a fairytale beginning that shifted, not back to sweeping embers from the fireplace, which might have been nice, since the desert was cold (smile), but gone were the chartered buses and FBI-type assistance once FESMAN ended when we were on our way to Mali, which went without a hitch. I loved flying Kenya Airlines (yes this is a sales pitch).

Okay, at the Bamako airport, we were met by Aissata Ba and Cheikhna Somare, friends of a friend in Chicago. The fairytale was not over yet . . . we still had a few pages to go when we met Mrs. Ba, who lived in the ghetto in a mansion—beautiful mansion. Now, the term ghetto is a loose one. There were just no mansions nearby to match hers, nothing close at all—which is what she wanted. A Fulani, she liked open space.

We spent a day and a half there and then were one our way north to Timbuktu by was of Mopti, a city I might explore on subsequent visits.

Oh, I didn’t mention spending New Years in Saint Louis, the former capital of Senegal. Akan was the headliner that night. I was not impressed and left to walk around the island. Earlier I’d gone to the museum and Tracy and I went on a horse drawn carriage tour of the island. I thought it strange that the Muslims went back to using a bell to announce the prayers instead of the human voice. Strange indeed, when Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, specifically enlisted the services of former Ethiopian slave, Bilal ibn Rabah, for that purpose. His voice was so lovely; tears would steam from supplicants’ eyes.

Okay, so once Cheikhna dropped Tracy and I off at the bus station where we waited for close to six hours, but maybe only four for the bus to fill, all the magic had dissipated and we were back to breathing dusty air (smile). While seated in the waiting room—I jest, a bench somewhat out of the direct sun, I made some of my best deals on jewelry and wraps for my turbans I would wear for most of my time in Mali. All that was visible was my eyes. I had the man who sold me the fabric, 500 CFA a meter, to wrap my scarf for me. Folks were so used to the dirt and dust that they didn’t understand the concept—dirty, that dragging the fabric in the dust was a turn off. I bought orange, blue, white, tan, green and yellow. I should have bought black and red. My favorite color was the green. Everyone in Mali knows were you are from based on the wrap—the only folks sporting the turbans are those folks from the north were there is a lot of dust and yes, conflict.

Camels and motorbikes were the chosen mode of transport, oh and 4-wheel drives. I rode motorbike—burned my thigh the first ride and have a mark now where the hot pipe singed it. I was lost when I met Yacouba; my friend Tracy had been looking for a bank and I saw her ride by waving on a motorbike and when I asked the guys seated nearby was she returning and they said they didn’t know, so I decided to walk back to the Festival, how hard could that be, right?

I could find the main street that ran into the Festival, so I kept asking people on the street if I was headed back in the right direction. When Tracy returned she was worried I hadn’t—she’d left word for me to wait. So Yacouba gave me a lift back after taking me on a mini tour of his town Timbuktu. Oh, did I mention he spoke English, really spoke English?

It was helpful.

I loved it in the desert, minus the dust, which I never got used to. I need to visit Joshua Tree in Southern California, which is in the desert and Death Valley of course, just to compare the two.

If asked what I have learned most from traveling, I would have to say faith in the goodness of others and belief in the kindness of strangers. I do not have linguistic access to anything if English is not understood, but I have met really kind passengers on buses who will take my phone and talk to a friend on the other line who can explain to them where it is I am going.

Oh, a phone is a necessary purchase –at least for me, when traveling alone. It was great both Mali and Senegal used the same monetary and phone system. Gambia was a different system. I don’t know about Libya or Guinea, where I want to go next time. While in Saint Louis, Mauritania was just across the border. I met a Peace Corp volunteer and his mother while at one of the interchanges—I am not certain which one. We were on our way from Dogon to Djenné, which is where the largest mud brick or adobe building in the world is built. Now that was phenomenal.

The architecture in Mali is so different from that in Senegal and Gambia, which reminded me somewhat of the architecture in Haiti. If I saw any French colonial representations, it was more the palatial plantation style residences, now hotels and office buildings.

I have been meditating on friendship and what or how one defines friendship. Mouhammedou invited me my last week to a get together with friends he’d know since childhood; they trade off hosting the Friday evening gatherings—where they’d thikr or remember God’s blessings and pray for the community and for the world. Seated in the twilight, the sun traveling south on the horizon, I listened to the harmonies of the baritone and tenor and bass voices, rising and falling. I recognized some of the words from Qur’an others from prayers. It was so lovely, so healing, so refreshing.

Later, Mouhammadou introduced me to his friends and told me that they’d been getting together since youth on Fridays, at first to listen to music and kid around and then as they matured and started families they began to turn inward and look at developing their characters and polishing their souls. The women came with little ones after the lights came on—I think the electricity came back on (a running joke, it’s presence always a pleasant surprise).

The women dressed in finery brought laughter and more chatter and then food arrived on platters—I was so hungry and was so happy I could eat it: chicken and not red meat. We washed our hands and passed around the bread to use as a spoon and dug in. Mame Fatim, dressed so elegantly in a blue tie dyed dressed took Pape Lyle’s teething and vomiting in stride, wiping it up and off her garment. Other mother’s nursed, while one toddler walked the circle of men shaking everyone’s hand as a father played with his young daughter. We walked back to Mouhammadou or Pape’s house to get our computers and then went to the Cyber Café for a few hours to check email. I was just transferring pictured to my portable drive. I couldn’t do that at Pape’s house because the best plug was in his bedroom and I didn’t want to impose; the other had a short and as I said, electricity was iffy—one never knew where it would be shut off and for how long.

In Haiti, my friend Rea solved that problem by having her own generator and also using a combination with solar as well. She captured rain water for her plumbing and then used the gray water for the garden—clearing a woman before and of her times.

So faith and friendship. I don’t believe any of us can do anything alone—I am freefalling because I have faith that I will fall into someone’s open umbrella. Like my friend Yacouba said when asked how much he was going to charge me to take me to the Festival Gate, his kindness to me could be an opportunity, but even if it wasn’t he believed that goodness was its own reward.

I too think goodness is its own reward. Get the book Random Acts of Kindness and practice one a week for the semester and reflect on how it makes you feel. This semester we are looking at Women and Girls. Our assigned book is Half the Sky: a book written by a husband and wife that looks at how with education, health care and economic opportunity, women and girls are escaping the cycle of depravation and despair. There are more women and girls in the world, yet they control the least and it would take so little to address the ills which plague this population if we made it a priority.

I almost got to visit a prison in Mali. I had a two hour visit with a prison warden and saw the compound where the women, some mothers lived. There was a school, an infirmary, a place for the mothers with children zero to four years old, a stand where the women sold crafts they made. Yet, despite the activity, the rehabilitation took place after incarceration. Most of the women probably couldn’t read or write in their language, let alone, French. The prison also housed children. In Mali there was no system in place for orphans over five years old, so the children without guardians or runaways lived in the streets and often committed crimes to get picked up for shelter.

Aissata Ba, my friend, is from Northern Mali and has relocated an entire family to her home to save their girls from early marriage and exploitation. She is sending the children to school, has set the mother up in a micro-business or shop and employs the husband, paying all of them wages. The children are both engaged to be married: five and thirteen years old. The mother was married at thirteen with two miscarriages and her first child at fifteen. At twenty-eight, she said she feels so old. She had an infant tied to her back and another under foot. Aissata, who is also a radio personality, has already spoken to her about birth control pills and her neighbor is ready to take charge of her life with no resistance from her husband.

This is not always the case; however, this woman is lucky, then again, when one leaves the confines of one’s closed community, often one’s mind expands as one’s experiences are broadened. It really is the case often that people don’t do better because they honestly don’t know what their options are.

So we will read Half the Sky and students have the opportunity to choose a book of their own with the theme: friendship. I recommend: The Kite Runner, The Pact and Sula. All three books, one a memoir, the other two novels, look at friendship as a theme. However, if there is a book you like with a similar theme, let me see it before you commit to it. The essay connected to this assignment will probably be the midterm.

In English 201 we are also going to read the play, William Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of the Shrew. In English 1A, Greek playwright Aristophanes's Lysistrata. There will be a short cyber-assignment attached to it. I like the Barnes and Nobles series of Shakespeare books. I have copies made of Lysistrata which like Shakespeare is published on-line.

Lastly, students will have the opportunity to read a book about a women they admire who exemplifies the qualities of a social entrepreneur, a business woman or a woman who has used her life to better society in some way. The woman has to live in Northern Californian and be alive. This is the final paper.

The book we will start with is Stewart Pidd Hates English, Second Edition, by Gary Politt, Craig Baker. It is a workbook which for English 1A should be a refresher and for English 201 maybe, maybe not. For English 1A I plan to run through Pidd in six weeks, so get the book. For English 201, it depends on student competency. We will finish the book before the first big paper is due, the one on Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. We will use it to practice paraphrasing and summarizing; citations, that is signal phrases and block quotes, MLA for Works Cited, etc.

I like film and theatre and art galleries and music, so film trips will be proposed; it would be nice to go to a play together and maybe a film or concert. As I said, I am still waking up at 12 midnight ready to go and at 3 PM feeling like retiring. There is an eight hour difference between West Africa and here. Can you imagine leaving Dakar at 1:30 AM, Monday, January 17, 2011, arriving in Virginia at Dulles, at 4:30 AM and then heading for San Francisco at 8:40 AM arriving at 11:30 AM—the same Monday, January 17, 2011?

Time is certainly unreal when so much can happen in 24 hours—

My granddaughter’s birthday was Saturday, January 22. Now eight, she attended the COA childcare while my older daughter, Bilaliyah, went to school here. Bilaliyah is finishing up this semester at Cal State East Bay. We went to Build a Bear where Brianna and a few friends, and her aunt, my younger daughter, TaSin. The kids made a stuffed rabbit, a bear and a dog. On Friday at Bree’s school, Bilaliyah took cupcakes and a bouquet of balloons, one which sang, Happy Birthday. I’d never heard of singing balloons before. Tweetie Bird was cute (smile).

Homework: Getting to Know You Essay (smile)
Your first essay assignment is to look in your life for a woman you admire. In a short essay, 4-8 paragraphs, about 250 to 500 words, tell your audience a little about her, your relationship, that is, how you met, what you admire, and list four qualities or strengths you find inspiring about this woman and how knowing her has changed you for the better.

Be descriptive, we want to see, hear and feel this woman’s spirit. This paper is due January 31, 2011. This essay needs to be typed, 12 pt. font, double spaced, 1-inch margins. Bring in a printed copy of the essay to class to share. Oh, for the creative writers in the class, if you want to personify an inanimate object with female references like the planet earth or your favorite car, you can.

Cyber-Assignment 1
Your very first assignment due the first day is to respond to my letter (smile). Write me a letter this evening telling me about yourself, what you want to share, that is, what strengths you bring to the class and what you’d like to take away from the class and what I can do to help you achieve these goals. Indicate in the subject line the assignment and the course title (English 1A, English 201 A, English 201 B) and day/time. I am teaching two sections of English 1A and right now, one section of English 201 A/B, a combined class, so if students do not indicate who they are I cannot sort by course, time, or class. Thanks! On Mondays and Wednesdays I teach from 8-10 AM and continue from 1 PM to 2:50 PM. I need to sort some things out re: assignments this semester before I can confirm office hours. My schedule is not what I planned last year, and I have to see the dean today to see what can be done with it.

My email address is for English 201: coasabirenglish201@gmail.com
For English 1A: coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com

My office is D216. I just moved there, so I don’t know the office phone number, so call my cell which I will give you today. This is the best way to reach me. If you text me I might not see it (smile). I have a radio show and a column in a newspaper, so I am a working writer. This is not my only gig and so I need everyone to be an adult. I will not nag you about assignments and though I am flexible, within reason and respond to students who visit my office hours and notify me in advance when crisis happen, which they—crisis do happen, especially around the time an assignment is due, there are certain academic standards I will not compromise, so if life gets too complex, drop the course and try again when you have more time in your schedule to read and write.

We have a few long weekends, like President’s Day and then there is Spring Break. There might me a Staff Development Day. I have to check, but the prepared student does not wait to the last minute to start an assignment. I encourage students to have a personal blog for saving assignments on-line, that way if a student loses the paper copy or the travel drive, it’s not lost. Also, make a practice of emailing assignments, even in draft form to oneself.

Reading and writing are time consuming and students really can’t fake their way through the process. I am very very good at what I do, just put my name in a search engine and read about me. I can help those who are committed to improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Some students come to English 201 and English 1A underprepared. This is only a problem when said students refuse to put the extra effort into the class needed to bring their skill level up. I cannot write student papers for students. I wrote this seven page letter without notes in two hours and could have gone one for longer. I love academic engagement. I love talking to people who have prepared themselves by doing their research and have formulated ideas on a topic we are about to discuss. I am not easily bored or discouraged, but the success of the class depends on the kind of students we have in the course. Last semester, students in more than one class didn’t read the books and so in class we were limited in our discussions. In one class I dropped all the English 201B students.

Students who come to class late without their readings and homework are headed for failure. I hope everyone seated here is serious and plans to be around in May for that A or B or C or CR (edit). Some students are starting their college careers this semester, others need this course to graduate (smile).

Again, if you need a drill sergeant, I am not the one. I don’t lock doors. I am pleasant. I don’t yell or scream. I treat my students as adults and expect them to handle their business and be in class on time and alert and prepared each meeting. I expect students to communicate with me in advance if there is any problem re: assignment due dates. I expect students to not make excuses for themselves, rather be responsible, get their children to school before class time, to make appointments outside class time, to eat breakfast before class, lunch after class.

I am not easy, but I am good and you will learn how to write better than you do presently. For students who were in Honors English in high school, you don’t have to take English 201 and I think you can challenge English 1A; check this with you counselor. For former students, you might find the journey through Stewart Pidd again boring, I am perfectly fine if you drop this class for another. I found last semester that students in all my classes who didn’t do a Pidd refresher, had problems with simple essay structure and of course with the grammar associated with this.

What else? I am time challenged, so if I can be at the college early then you can be on time too. I encourage students to take advantage of college life, clubs and certainly support services such as the academic labs: Writing, ESL, Math, and Accounting—all located in the LRC or Learning Resource Center, the “L” building. The library is on the first floor. If this is your first semester take College Success, a three unit course.

Audio books are also an option. You can put the book in a listening device and listen to it as you work, so don’t overlook this option—you also need a physical copy for in-class discussions. I am talking about the three books on friendship. I don’t know how one takes notes or annotates when you listen to a book, but I’ll leave that for you to work out.

Good Luck and don’t forget to visit my office hour at least three times this semester: the first month, before or just after midterm and then week 16-17 before finals. More on office hours in the syllabus. We don’t have a sitting final. Student finals are an electronic portfolio. Visit http://professorsabirsposse.blogspot.com (English 201) and http://professorwandasposse.blogspot.com (English 1A).

I will post notes from class lectures and homework there. This letter is posted there already and the syllabus. The assignment for the syllabus is to be posted there. We will meet once a week in an electronic classroom. We will also have a visit to the library for an orientation in February.

I like themes and so we will have an assignment and presentation on love to tie into Valentine’s Day and something on the anniversary of the War in Iraq and Afghanistan in March, not to mention International Women’s Day. There will be college activities next month, February, each Tuesday from 12 noon to 1 PM. If students attend they can have credit for that attendance if they write a short, 250 word response about the event. It is the College of Alameda’s 40th Anniversary year, so there will probably be many special events. If any student goes to any event at the college, said student will get class credit for attending if he or she writes something and turns it in. Email is fine, after a face to face discussion. Keep track of your extra credit assignments.

Textbook Recap:
Pollitt, Gary. Craig Baker. Stewart Pidd Hates English: Grammar, Punctuation, and Writing Exercises. Second Edition. California: Attack the Text Publishing, 2008. ISBN: 13: 978-0-9755923-4-2

Kristof, Nicholas D., and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.

I’ll have the bookstore get copies of The Pact by Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt with Lisa Frazier Page, Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and Sula by Toni Morrison, after we do a count and see who might want to read these selections. All the books are in the public library, perhaps even Peralta sister colleges, if not COA, Laney, Berkeley City or Merritt. If money is an issue use the public and institutional lending libraries for the books. Do not wait to the last minute to get the books. Several copies of Pidd are on reserve at the College of Alameda library. The book doesn’t circulate but there are about five copies on reserve.

Students need to choose a book by a woman author or about a woman, who lives here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Biographies and autobiographies are great. If you want to read a novel, let me see it first. Students will have a paper and a presentation based on the book. Choose one now and when we finish Half the Sky you can start reading it. The presentation and paper will be due in April.

I will give students more detailed essay assignments for each of the four essays: Half the Sky, Friendship or midterm, student selection, social entrepreneur.

Students also need a dictionary. I recommend: The American Heritage Dictionary. Fourth Edition.



Peace and Blessings,

Ms. Wanda Sabir, English Professor,
College of Alameda, Spring 2011