We are back but Beyond Borders starts now

Between September 1^st – 22^nd 2010, 15 student footballers from the University of London lead by Toib Olomowewe (History & Economics), travelled across Ghana and engaged in grass roots organisation with local NGO’s and community groups, cross-cultural and political dialogue with students, and collected research on local perceptions towards education and development in the Southern regions of Ghana, using football as the medium of exchange.

SOAS Football Beyond Borders is a SOAS student lead project that uses the universal game of football to engage with communities across the world with the objectives to: include the voice of grassroots communities within the academic debate, break down barriers and prejudices, champion education, and create a transnational network of students dedicated to international development.

Paul Agyeman-Duah a Sociology and Political science student at the University of Ghana who was engaged through the tour reiterates its importance by stating, ‘in a global village international and cross cultural dialogue is important, football is a great means for this, football unites people, football truly goes beyond borders’.  

The students travelled across the Central, Eastern, Ashanti, and greater Accra region of Ghana over three weeks playing 7 football fixtures, running voluntary projects, and engaging in debate with students. The tour started in Legon at the University of Ghana before moving to: Kumasi, where the team played Kumasi Polytechnic; Elimina, where they played the University of Cape Coast and worked with the S.A.B.R.E trust that is improving the educational infrastructure in rural communities; before the tour closed in the coastal village of Kokrobite. In Kokrobite the team volunteered with the Kokrobite Chiltern Centre (KCC) that supports primary education in the village. The KCC was co- founded by Jane Zohoungbogbo who commended the project as ‘a great effort’.

Symeon Brown (Economics and Politics), a tour participant stated ‘Development is future business and I am thankful that I have been able to reconcile my development studies with grass roots development organisation and exchange ideas about the future of Ghana’s economy, education system, and society with the students that will lead Ghana’s future ’.  Timothy Omacar (African Studies and History) another participant said ‘travelling to Ghana was eye opening and the reception was amazing. Beyond Borders was definitely a huge success’.

More information can be found at the SOAS Beyond Borders online home http://soasbeyondborders.tumblr.com. From the tour four audio podcasts on: education, development, society, and investment in Ghana recorded over the tour will be available for download in December 2010.

Captain's Log: Development on my mind

The first 10 days of our journey was nothing short of mind blowing: We spent some time working with children that have special educational needs in a local school. We also volunteered at a hospital for disabled orphans. We were been given a “baptism of fire” by the University of Ghana football team. We were able to successfully engage in dialogue with the University of Ghana students. We were asked to name and officially open the “Beyond Barbers” barbershop in Kumasi. We have even featured on Ghanaian TV and radio!

These are just a few of the things we have been doing and it gives a flavour of what we have been up to. As we leave Kumasi, we look forward to our jam-packed schedule in Cape Coast. It involves 3 training workshops with children, as well as two volunteering sessions with a local NGO. Our games there are against two Div. 1 sides as well as the University of Cape Coast.

We flew out from Heathrow airport on the morning of September 1st and landed in Lagos later that evening. We then faced a 14hr overnight stay in transit whilst we waited for our connecting flight to ghana at 7am. The airport stopover was filled with plenty of conversation amongst ourselves and airport security, but on the whole was pretty uneventful.

The real action kicked off once we touched down in Accra. We were met at the airport by Eric K. Akwei, a friend of Tom & Jasper, and Doe Abega, a staff member in the sports faculty at the Univ. of Ghana, and taken to the university campus. The day was spent meeting various supporters of the tour ranging from the University of Ghana sports faculty, the Dean of Student services, and the executives at Gold Coast Matcom. Gold Coast Matcom are the sole distributors of Dimes juices, our team sponsor, in Ghana and have been incredibly generous in their support. They organised a 20 seat minibus and driver for our entire stay in Accra, as well as donating well over 1000: milk drinks, fruit juices, cakes, and biscuits to the Beyond Borders project and the University of Ghana students.

Once we had settled in we went about exploring the campus and two things immediately became apparent; the sheer size of the campus and the open and inviting nature of the students on it. The University of Ghana is the premier higher education institution in Ghana. It is a state university and therefore heavily subsidised by the government; fees roughly equate to £140 per academic year for Ghanaian students and £450 for international students (outside of Africa). To put this into context, private universities charge roughly £750 per semester, whilst the expected average graduate salary is roughly £200 per month. For the vast majority of the students in Ghana private university simply isn’t an option. The Univ. of Ghana is often ranked as #1, only occasionally being move to #2 by Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology. Competition for admission is ferocious, but this doesn’t mean that the students here are a bunch of lifeless bookworms and academic drones. Every night popular r&b music can be heard from any halls of residence until the early hours, this is normally replaced by a couple of hours of silence before the morning singers reclaim our ears. Football is played from 6am until darkness on any spare space, whilst handball, athletics, and hockey seem to be popular too. Basketball pick-up games are played through the night under the floodlit courts. This campus is a cauldron of energy and it is epitomised by the fantastic market we found. It became our daily stop for jollof rice, fish, plantain, pineapple, coconut, water, chicken and a raft local specialities we came to love.

We ventured out of the campus quite a few times and these visits opened our eyes as to what life is like for many of Accra’s inhabitant. At the University of Ghana it became easy to forget that we were surrounded by predominantly middle-class and well off students. However, our trip to the fishing hub of Jamestown painted a far more sober picture of life in Accra for the average citizen (picture). The time we spent at the hospital for disabled orphans was particularly powerful. It is hard to capture with words exactly what we witnessed and the impact this had on the team; I only hope the pictures can give you all an insight. As soon as we left the orphanage a great debate was sparked about the nature of development and the sustainability of it. As a SOAS student this was nothing new, however this debate has a unique angle to it. The debate had a new and localised tint to it. People we debating from the heart and offered their solutions according to what they had just experienced on the ground at grassroots level; this is exactly what Beyond Borders is about.

Captain’s Log: Toib Olomowewe

Football Beyond Borders 2010 kicks off

After all the hype, Football Beyond Borders 2010 was beginning to unravel. A day of travelling and then another to recover. Yet we now found ourselves on the side of a bone-dry pitch, on a humid Saturday afternoon. This wasn’t for the faint hearted; fast paced technical football from the Ghanaian University Champions represented a different footballing culture to the British one that encouraged hopeful long balls and last ditch slide tackles. We would soon find ourselves toiling away, “pass and move” with an effortless physical prowess that left us chasing shadows.

One-nil down at half-time and almost every sinew of energy exerted, “don’t chase the ball” just “let the ball do the work” the coaches told us. Yet the round ‘ball’ that we’d all grown up with, the ‘ball’ that we’d kicked together back home uniting us as friends now seemed so different. This was a ‘ball’ that was hard to retain and even harder to retrieve. British brute force was futile in the face of this African artistry, the Ghanaians danced on the ball and we were forced to watch and learn as we ran in vain. This was a baptism of fire into the Sub-Saharan African heat.

University of Ghana Radio Interview

 



We’ve just been interviewed by the University of Ghana radio station, ahead of our game this afternoon with the University team. We’re in fine spirits; though it was a bit difficult to rein in our confidence during the interview, and we’re now honour-bound to live up to Tim’s 3-1 prediction. Still, hopefully it’ll get the spectators out - and as Symeon pointed out, we’re here to meet the students and engage with the other team, and what better way to do that than to drum up interest in the game?

Arrival

We’ve made it to the University of Ghana in Accra. After a 24-hour journey, involving a 6-hour flight to Lagos, a 12-hour night stopover in Lagos Airport waiting for our morning fight to Accra, and a 1-hour flight into Ghana, we were picked up at the airport by friends at the University, and now we’re getting some well-deserved rest and planning our next steps.

Ghana has welcomed us - a couple of us have visited before and are admiring how much the country has developed in the last few years. The rest of us are struck by how beautiful the country is and how friendly her people are. Symeon in particular has been moved by his symbolic homecoming - though it took him 400 years to return to the motherland.

We hope to have the use of one of the University’s football pitches for practicing over the next few days - we have a lot of fitness and team bonding work to do before our first match. But we’re confident - already we’ve been through a lot, and it’s made us stronger, and we’re looking forward to the next challenge.

Why West Africa? Why now? Why you?

Earlier in June the World was watching Africa with expectation and excitement. Africa’s World Cup captured the commercial imagination of the World. Everybody remembers ‘that’ epic Nike advert that most of its stars ‘Rooney, Ronaldo, Ronaldhino, Drogba’ will want to forget. The music and atmosphere at the World Cup declared that ’Africa is open for business’. However, with the World Cup Circus having packed up and on the road the aftermath of failure does not not belong to Rooney, Ronaldo, Messi or the English press it belongs to all of us.

Development is failing: We are failing.

In 2000 the development of Africa was at the top of the international agenda. The UN Global Compact launched in 2000 and the Millennium goals were statements of intent. Since the campaign for international development launched in 2000 there has been mixed results. Despite unprecedented growth in some regions and increased investment in both portfolio equity and foreign direct investment the big development push has still not utilised Africa’s potential and has correllated with increased inequality and poverty particularly in West Africa. The poor are getting poorer. Development is failing. We are failing.

Future Business

The nature of development means that it cannot be solely discussed in the present. Development is future business. This is why students have an important place within the debate. The problems and constraints on development require a need for cross cultural dialogue, an exchange of experience and ideas, and the commitment of tomorrow’s decision makers. The vision of Beyond Borders is for tomorrow’s writers, academics, businessman, and policy makers in the UK to understand the issues and lives at local level to break down the barriers that prevent us from learning and maintaining sustainable development. We also need to stand in support and solidarity with grass roots African political activists that are fighting for growth to be filtered through to the poorest and are resisting the exploitation of Africa’s resources against the interests of African’s.

The World Cup failed but Football can still be a vehicle for change

Through education and extra-curricular mediums of literature, sport, and art, development can be returned to the peak of international agenda. We will use football not as a vehicle of exploitation but as a vehicle for change. During the past 100 years the provision, access, and control of football space became a crucial site of struggle between Africans and the local political authorities. It has become a political instrument, and to this day provides a contrast to the usual pictures of a pitiful and lost continent.

A new story for West Africa

We want to be a part of the writing of a new West African story through meeting and learning with the regions students, activists, grass roots communities, and volunteering with projects in building infrastructure, supporting families, and making physical and financial investments.

There is a need to create a network of, archives, historians, academics, and students to unearth new and untold stories. The tour will be championing a new story for the region and a part of creating this network, which has a five year goal to expand beyond West Africa to the entire region. The dialogue between students in West Africa’s leading universities with students from London’s leading universities is uniting academic metro poles to challenge the single story of Africa and write a new future into existence.

We need you

Beyond Borders is maintained solely upon those who believe in our mission.

We still have a significant financial deficit to honour the African families and communities that we have planned to join.

We need those who support our vision to turn this support into a minimum donation of £5.00.

Please donate at the side.

Being The New Guy

I first met Toib, Jasper, Alex and Erhan in October of last year, at the trials for the University of London representative side (ULFC). My memories of the day are bit of a blur now, the effect of a mixture of nerves, anticipation and the overwhelming amount of new people to meet (and try to remember the names of!).

However, one thing that does stick out in my mind was a brief conversation I had with the SOAS attendees whilst warming up. After the usual pleasantries I noticed the Beyond Borders logo on their track tops, and we got to talking about their recently completed tour of Syria, Turkey and Lebanon. Apart from the fact that just the idea of a month-long football tour of the Middle East sounded like absolute heaven to me, what struck me was the passion that all four of them clearly felt for the tour they had just returned from. It was a mental note that stayed at the forefront of my mind, perhaps powered by the massive amounts of jealousy I felt at their having such an experience. The more I learnt about last year’s tour from the guys, the more jealous I became, as it was clearly a once in a lifetime experience, both in sporting terms and in terms of having such a great opportunity to experience and interact with Middle Eastern culture.

So when Toib explained to me that this year they were planning a second Beyond Borders event in Africa, and that there were spaces available, I made sure he knew how much I wanted to go straight off the bat! And when he confirmed that Dillon Chapman (also from Goldsmiths) and myself were in the tour party, I was made up.

Any doubts or worries I might have had about the tour or about fitting in with the group have long gone by now, as the tour preparations are well underway. Getting to know the other guys has been a particularly enjoyable and easy experience, which is not always the case when coming into a new team from outside. Goldsmiths and SOAS seem to tread similar ethical paths, and the philosophy of the trip is certainly one that I, as well as all the other tour members, share, but it has been a relief to have fitted in so easily.

Knowing a few of the guys beforehand helped, but the main reason for the smoothness of the transition has been the welcoming attitudes of all of the other tour members. Every member to a man has been great at making the effort to make myself and Dillon feel part of the project and at ease. With a month to go, I already feel comfortable within the tour group, and I’m sure by the end of the trip we’ll all be even closer. In fact, we’ll probably all need a bit of a break from each other after that amount of time in shared company!

I can’t wait for September 1^st, I’m so glad to be sharing this unique opportunity with this group of guys, and I really hope that our going out there will not only be a great personal experience for us, but will be a benefit to the region and people we are visiting

** The Itinerary **

We will set off on the 1^st September 2010 for a period of 22 days. Initially we will be based in Nigeria before we move on to Ghana; travelling through Togo and Benin in transit.

Nigeria

In Nigeria we have agreed a partnership with the University of Lagos and they will host us for a period of 7 days. The University of Ibadan will join us on the University of Lagos campus and this will signify the start of an historic association. During the 7 days, the SOAS football team will play one friendly football match against the University of Lagos, and another against the University of Ibadan. We will also be engaging in two themed debates; one topic will be decided by the SOAS representatives, and the other decided by the University of Lagos representatives. Each debate team must consist of two male students and one female student. Whilst at the University of Lagos, the SOAS students will spend much time learning about different aspects of Nigerian culture. This involves excursions to local historical sites as well as informal Yoruba lessons with University of Lagos students. We will also go on a visit to the University of Ibadan campus.

At the end of the 7 day period the SOAS students will move on to Lagos State University where we will spend two days. We will play against their varsity football side in a friendly match and receive a tour of their external campuses. On the 10^th September we will continue our West African journey and head towards the border with Benin.

Benin and Togo

The distance between Lagos and Accra, our Ghanaian destination, is roughly 230 miles. However, we have allocated a whole day for this journey because we are keen to visit prominent sights such as the famous Ouidah Slave Coast.

Ghana

We will arrive in Ghana on the 11^th September. The team will spend 4 days in Accra; playing a match against the University of Ghana and taking part in various cultural activities. On the 14^th September we will take the short trip west to Cape Coast for its historical significance and to play a match with the University of Cape Coast.

From the 15^th September we will travel east to a small town called Ho in the Volta region. Here we will team up with a local NGO called “Disaster Volunteers of Ghana”. We will stay here for three days while we help to build a local school. There is a real community ethos in Ho and here you see children from the age of 6, right up to elderly citizens of 70 trying to help to build this community school. Their efforts would really benefit from having an extra 21 pairs of hands on the job, and it is important that our development aims are realised in the grassroots.

The final few days of the tour will be spent in the fishing village of Kokrobite. As the tour reaches its climax the SOAS students will play against a local professional side. We will also be conducting coaching sessions with local children, and visiting the local orphanage to spend a day helping out. During the stay in Kokrobite, we will be treated to a local dinner hosted by people from the village and will get to experience and take part in the Ghanaian drumming for which the village is particularly renowned. On the 22^nd September we will make the journey back from Ho to Accra and fly back to London.

Beyond Borders: You can come too!!

On the 1st September 2010 a group of students will do something extraordinary.
1st September is the date when 18 University of London students begin a wonderful journey that will see them explore the West Africa coastline. This journey is called SOAS Beyond Borders 2010 and we are inviting you to join us! We currently have space for two more University of London students (or recent graduates) to join the team.

The tour will last until the 22nd September and will begin in Lagos, Nigeria, before continuing on to cities & villages in Benin, Togo, and Ghana. The aim of the tour is to achieve cross-cultural dialogue and mutual understanding.

The tour involves university debates & football matches, as well as an orphanage visit and football coaching to children. In Ghana we will spend 3 days helping to build a community school in the Volta region; a town called Ho. This is in addition to a host of cultural activities that involve informal Yoruba lessons and visits to historical sites. The university debates will be with the Universities of Lagos & Ibadan and each debate team MUST consist of 2 men and 1 woman. For that reason, we PARTICULARLY ENCOURAGE women to get in touch.

If this is something you are interested in taking part in, or you want to hear more about the full aims & activities of the tour please contact the tour organiser: Toib Olomowewe, on toib.olomowewe@soas.ac.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!

Pearson pledge £3,000 to become a partner of Beyond Borders

Beyond Borders: West Africa 2010 is happy to announce that we will be working with Pearson to champion dialogue and development. Pearson Diversity have become a Media partner of Beyond Borders: West Africa 2010 through pledging £3,000 towards the project. Pearson Diversity maintains the argument outlined by John Stuart Mill that ‘Diversity leads to a progressive and innovative society’.

Each year between July and September Pearson run the The Pearson Diversity Summer Internship Programme*), a positive action programme which offers bright and talented final year students and graduates from ethnic minority backgrounds the opportunity to work within one of Pearson’s world leading companies, including Penguin, Pearson Education and The Financial Times. There are internships in a range of areas including: Journalism, Marketing, Publicity/PR, Sales, Finance, Human Resources, Production, Editorial, Research, Product Management, Product Development, Rights, Internal and External Communications.

To find out more information or to apply click below.



http://summerinternships.pearson.com/summer.htm

Beyond Borders 2010

In September 2010 18 students will tour West Africa with the aim of supporting the development of the region through engaging with students at the regions leadings universities and fulfilling development projects in local grass roots communities.

Right now the world is watching Africa as the World Cup illuminates the continent. The tour will continue to use football as a vehicle of change. The 18 students will play football with various university sides, host debates and discussions with them, and create a new cross national network of students, academics, and grass roots organisations whom are committed to international development beyond borders.

The regions that the tour will visit include: Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and Ghana. Development cannot be considered to be the sole responsibility of developing countries. Globalisation has made as all uniquely linked development is a committment that goes beyond borders. Furthermore, any plan of development is future business and requires long term committment. Therefore students have a central role in the development debate. Undergraduates and new graduates whom study or had studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Queen Mary, Goldsmiths, and the London School of Economics will be hosted by students at: the Univesity of Ibadan, the University of Lagos, the University of Accra, and Lagos State University.

Beyond Borders promises to be an exciting and progressive mission. Join us to champion development and diversity, through education and exchange beyond borders.