Lessons from Africa
By Sally Jo Milne ’67, with Rachel Lapp

An older student reading an encyclopedia entry about South African history had a question. “We learned that South Africa had nine provinces,” he said. “This book says there are only four.”
Sally Jo Milne ’67 glanced at the thick volume. The boy was right about the current number of provinces – but “four” appeared on the page in black and white. It was then that she realized the thick book on the library desk was eight years old; the entry on South Africa’s political history was helplessly out of date.
“I thought, ‘Great, you are thinking about this, applying what you read,’” she said.
Having traveled to Africa four times during four decades to four countries, Milne has observed that access to knowledge is a much-needed commodity in many African communities. While inequalities between South Africa’s 75 percent black population and 25 percent white population are no longer state sanctioned, there is an imbalance in access to potentially empowering information – instructional and reading materials in black communities, schools and homes.
With her husband, Ron, GC professor of mathematics, Milne served two three-year terms with Mennonite Central Committee in Africa, at a teacher’s training college in Kenya and a seminary in Malawi, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They led a Study-Service Term unit in Côte d’Ivoire during the 1994-1995 academic year.
Past observation of educational systems in Africa prepared her – somewhat – for her most recent trip to the continent, this time to South Africa. An opportunity to combine professional interests in library science, education and her attraction to the African emphasis on relationships came in the form of a three-week assignment last summer with the World Library Partnership.
Milne spent July 14-Aug. 10 in South Africa with 17 other librarians from the United States with the WLP, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving global understandings and peace by promoting literacy, learning and access to information.
While she associates closely with Mennonite church-related mission organizations, Milne said she appreciated the focus of the WLP in establishing libraries in developing countries in an effort to support the empowerment of people who have been denied fair learning opportunities.
With Margaret Barnes, a public librarian in Portland, Ore., Milne was assigned to Mogosane, a small village in the northwest province near the Botswana border.
Milne said she realized again and again how deeply the apartheid system that oppressed blacks in South Africa continues to affect the society – subjugation so opposite in intention to how Milne has experienced friendship and sharing among the black Africans she has lived alongside and served.
“In African cultures, friendliness is a very different thing than in the United States. You don’t just say ‘hi’ to someone and go on; you stop for tea, no matter if it’s late in the afternoon. And your door is always open,” said Milne. “I found the people to be so friendly, so eager to learn. And they helped me learn.”
Apartheid still affects the black South Africans because, she said, “for so long, schools were not funded as another way of keeping the blacks suppressed. That is what we were still fighting against while we were there.”
She appreciated the WLP’s philosophy of asking the South Africans what they wanted and needed, rather than collecting old, outdated American books; they also wanted to support indigenous authors and publishers.
“When we arrived at the school, we were shown a bare room with a table, two chairs and several boxes of books the Department of Education had recently sent to the school,” Milne said. “We organized the 250 books for the 370 students in simple categories, then ‘built’ bookcases with locally made bricks and metal shelves.”
Once the collection was organized, the school children lined the windows outside. They soon poured in, until a “20 students for 20 minutes” rule was created so as not to overcrowd the small facility.
“We read to the children and showed them different books. Their faces were always absorbed,” Milne said. “If they didn’t understand a word, they would come to us.”
Younger students might grab a book and open it anywhere, she continued. “We naturally think about starting a book at the beginning, but many of the students had rarely used textbooks. When they did, they would turn immediately to the page announced by their teacher, so the concept of starting at the beginning of a story was very different for them. There were so many things to address.”
Milne was excited to see many of the brightest students sitting down with encyclopedias and reading them page by page. She thought the students might be most interested in literature, but history and science also proved to be sought-after subjects.
“It was wonderful to see students making connections and applying what they were reading,” Milne said. “The younger children were so excited when they read the Tswana books, especially, because they could understand them.”
A significant task proved to be guiding the teachers in using the library.
“Teachers were excited about this library … but then the question became, ‘How do I use this?’” said Milne. Some of the teachers had received teacher training but had not stepped foot in a library; some had been in a library but did not know how to apply it to the classroom. They asked questions about the materials, including English words and new information for which Milne had to formulate a simple explanation.
“The teachers were trained during apartheid – education for blacks was not equal training. Their inexperience with the library materials was not a reflection on them but the system forced on them,” said Milne.
Classroom instruction is very different compared to American schools, she continued. Teachers might have a textbook, or might not. They write notes on a blackboard for their pupils to copy and then “spit back” for a test. Even now, when South Africa’s national education offices order curriculum enhancements, teachers don’t know where to begin because of insufficient access to training.
“At another school – but it very well could have happened in Mogosane – a WPL librarian told me that she introduced a school principal to an encyclopedia’s index. The principal was thrilled and talked about it whenever he made speeches,” said Milne. “It seems obvious to us, but books and magazines or other reading material are not a natural part of their homes; hopefully, it will be different some day.”
Community members were also invited to see the library and take advantage of its resources. Women came in and were excited and eager to learn about the new materials – but first, they would need to learn to read.
Part of the WLP program is to raise money to buy in-country books. After watching the children and listening to the teachers, the librarians had ideas for more books; at the end of their stay in Mogosane, they returned to Pretoria to choose additional volumes to send back to the school. More books in Tswana – the local language – were needed, especially for the younger children, and the older students, seventh through ninth grades, needed more advanced books. Maps were needed.
“We think about South Africa as being progressive, but it isn’t for the black citizens,” Milne said. “I would love to go back to Mogosane and teach those women to read, help those teachers learn how to use a library in their teaching and help make books more available to those students.”

Sally Jo Milne is associate librarian at Goshen College’s Good Library.

Return to December Bulletin contents
The journey of the magi, and travel journaling, editorial by Rachel Lapp
Lifelong learning: the long approach home by President Shirley H. Showalter
A small boat on a big sea by Mary Lois Detweiler Miller ’50
On service: Ireland, Indiana, Mali by Jacob Liechty ’02
Pole position: uncluttering down under by Greg Lehman ’93
Dear Diary: GC senior reflects on Dominican donation by Alicia Montoya ’01

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