Abstract
Transformation may be on individual, societal and systemic levels. Through stories, we share individual experiences and the role that relationships play in our learning. Stories also make room for the interpretations that the reader may bring. Stories are key in African tradition. Stories connect us, teach us, and bridge the divide between physical and spiritual, fact and fiction, past and present: indeed, may dismantle dichotomies so fixed in our western thinking. Here we recount aspects of our personal learning through stories. Profound lessons may endure through transmission from elders, through apparent chance encounters, through unlearning and re-seeing. Transformation may not be a sudden renewal of being but a gradual and organic process of growing through, and into, awareness of one’s place in the world.
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Notes
- 1.
A non-alcoholic drink made from fermented millet meal.
- 2.
A beverage made from marula fruits. It can be made into either alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink.
- 3.
Juffrou is the Afrikaans for Madam.
- 4.
SEE Learning’ (Social Emotional & Ethical Learning). https://seelearning.emory.edu/node/5.
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Keane, M., Khupe, C., Mpofu, V. (2022). Reflections on Transformation: Stories from Southern Africa. In: Nicolaides, A., Eschenbacher, S., Buergelt, P.T., Gilpin-Jackson, Y., Welch, M., Misawa, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Learning for Transformation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84694-7_29
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