ABSTRACT
Using an excerpt from Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen’s poem “Heritage” as an epigraph, this chapter begins with commentary on African Americans’ ambivalence about “Mother Africa.” The main section of the chapter focuses on the author’s work and experience in Ghana and South Africa. It details the ten-year partnership established between the MSU African American Language and Literacy Program and South Africa’s University of Bophuthatswana (aka “Bop”) and the two-year funded research training institute for Bop faculty in English, which included a month on the MSU Campus in East Lansing, Michigan (USA). Other sections of the chapter focus on the author’s work and involvement in Cape Town Hip Hop projects and publications; conferences, projects and teacher training workshops for Dr. Neville Alexander’s Project for Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA) over the past quarter of a century; conceptualization and planning for the Azania Foundation for Language Education, a non-profit NGO which the late Dr. Alexander and the author created as a teacher-student training and exchange program. The international launch of the Azania Foundation was canceled due to Neville’s untimely demise. Rest in Power, my brotha and comrade.
