Omar

I attended the “Food For Thought” event organised by Crossing Borders where filmmaker Dennis Dalgaard presented his documentary called “Denmark does not exist”. The audience got to know the story of two Danish sisters whose mother is a black woman from Zambia and whose father is Danish. Even though they were born and raised in Denmark, they decided to leave Denmark and go to Zambia as they didn’t feel at home in Denmark. Their story involved different issues such as racism and belonging. My attention got especially caught by the issue of belonging. I am a white young woman from Germany and I have never experienced any kind of racism against my person or major struggle about where I belong to. I can only imagine how people with a coloured skin feel in everyday life when they are faced with different kinds of racism. I also can only imagine how it is to have one or both parents from a different country and growing up with different backgrounds and struggles in regards to where to belong. When I was thinking about belonging on my way home after the event, I realized that belonging can mean a lot, and something else to everyone. In the German language, we have the term “Heimat” which is actually a term that is difficult to define as it entails aspects that are not that clear to characterise. When translating it to other languages, I do not find a word that fully describes what I think of when I say the word “Heimat”. The dictionary offers me the terms “home” or “native” in English, “la patria” or “el país natal” in Spanish, as well as “le pays d’origine” and “la patrie” in French. But “Heimat” means something else than the country which you were born in. Germany’s Federal Ministry of the Interior even has “Heimat” in its name (Bundesministerium (Federal Ministry) für Inneres (Interior), Bau (Construction) and Heimat (translated as Community)). On their webpage, it says that “Heimat“ is where people feel well, accepted, secure, where they belong to and are part of a community. The main areas of the ministry involve social cohesion, volunteering, demography, spatial development, integration, religion, national minorities, and equal living conditions. The main aim of the ministry is to foster and improve the cohesion, sense of community, and identification with and in the country. “Heimat” and “belonging” can mean different things and can be applied on different levels. My main reference point will always be my little town of 10.000 inhabitants where I grew up and went to school, and where my closest family lives. My next reference point is Germany as I am a German citizen. On the one side, it is easy for me to link my sense of belonging to Germany. But on the other side, it still stays a bit difficult as I still do not know all parts of Germany. I realized that I need to know my home country a lot better to feel a stronger sense of belonging to this big country with its 83 million inhabitants. I might share this experience and thought with other people who also do not know their home countries that well. At university, we were once asked if we feel German/English/French/Spanish/Danish etc., European, or Cosmopolitan. It was a difficult question. I needed some time to find an answer. Most students (me included) felt European. Feeling European or even Cosmopolitan seems to be another layer of belonging. Also, in this case, I feel not completely convinced as I do not know very well all European countries. I actually have only been to a third of all European countries. I, for example, do not have many connections yet to the Eastern European countries. In this aspect again, for some reasons it is easy to say that I feel European, but there are also other reasons for letting me be a bit more sceptical about such a statement. Just this week we have been talking about nice places to go to in the Eastern European countries. Intercultural environments such as Crossing Borders as a work place or youth exchange programmes foster the exchange of information and the raise of awareness about other countries and cultures. We might then after a while be able to say with total pride: “Yes, I feel very European” or even “Yes, I feel like a global citizen or Cosmopolitan”. Everyone would write something else about belonging and “Heimat” as everyone has a different story and background. Some people have a strong sense of belonging to a specific part of a country, some people feel a very strong pride for their nation, some people have been growing up in different countries, some people have parents from different countries – everyone feels a different sense of belonging, to one, two or even more places. At Crossing Borders, I have already met a lot of people with different cultural backgrounds who are strongly connected to their home countries or the home countries of their parents. They work for Crossing Borders to change the circumstances for the society and find solutions to social needs. I am always very impressed when I listen to their stories, wishes, objectives, and struggles. Written by:  Simone Rom Simone is from Germany and started her internship at Crossing Borders in the beginning of August. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Management and Communication and is currently studying the Master’s programme Social Entrepreneurship and Management at Roskilde University in Denmark.

Thank you so much for joining us in commemorating and celebrating the life and legacy of Ambassador Zindzi, who passed away in Johannesburg on Monday 13 July and was laid to rest on Friday 17 July 2020. Thank you to all who spoke so fondly of Zindzi, recited beautiful poems, touched us with your music and gave her the memorial she truly deserved. Yesterday, our speakers described Zindzi as humble yet free-spirited, as someone who encouraged all those around her to speak up and ultimately, someone who loved to love. We at Crossing Borders, are heartbroken and devastated for the unexpected and massive loss of a beloved Patron and a rich source of inspiration. She was a light that will continue to guide us to continue, accelerate and expand our efforts to create space for dialogue and mutual learning alongside collaboration for people from across the globe on equal terms.  We are heartbroken, yet we are happy that we got to know her and can rest in the knowledge that her ideas, spirit, commitment to advancing equal rights, justice and truth-telling will live on. It will continue to guide us and the world towards more equality, more respect, more generosity, and the celebration of Ubuntu unity in humanity and diversity in cultures and perspectives. She was and is the true embodiment of Ubuntu, according to which we of each other.  We are heartbroken, yet take comfort from African beliefs, which she believed in, when the deceased lives offsprings behind, s/he is not dead. Those left behind will continue to remember, honour her/him, name the newborn after her/him while the dead continue to protect and bless the living. This African philosophy perceives society as a circular unit whose members are composed of the living dead, the living and those yet to be born. These three components are in constant flow and mutual reinforcement. Luckily, Zindzi left behind one daughter and three sons, who are all following on her footsteps to serve the community. She also has at least 9 grandchildren, two of whom lay to rest next to her and mom. Zindzi lives on.  Furthermore, in some African traditions, the number of years a in person’s life is counted according to the person’s contribution to the community. Thus, some people live thousands of years while others, whose lives were destructive to the community, are counted as a minus. In that way, we are happy that Zindzi did not only live for 59 years but considering her positive and rich contribution to her community and to the world she has lived at least 59,000 years.    So, let’s carry on the work. The road to freedom, equality, peace, and sustainability is long and bumpy, but together we can do it. Pictures by Kannan P Samy  More Pictures

Today, we received the sad news that Crossing Borders Patron HE Ambassador Zindzi Mandela of South Africa to Denmark has made the transition in a Joburg hospital early today 13 July 2020.   As someone who was born and grew up in the forefront of the struggle against the racist apartheid system, Zindzi’s life was defined by and a true embodiment of the struggle for freedom. Her father Nelson Mandela was snatched away when she was only 18 months and kept behind bars for 27 years. Her mother Mama Winnie was constantly in and out of apartheid detentions, including repeated banishments to remote areas. To attend school, she was sent to Swaziland along with her sister Ambassador Zinani. When the two sisters came for school holiday the apartheid police would make sure to detain Mama Winnie until they had to return back. The day her father was released in 1990, the apartheid police murdered her partner. This experience made her more determined to fight for fredom, equal rights and justice for all anytime and anywhere. Thus, as Ambassador to Denmark, she was unapologetic and undiplomatic when it came to people´s freedom and justice. Ambassador Zindizi unprecedently committed a lot of her time in Denmark to visiting, comforting, empowering, listening to, cooking, baking for and serving those who have been pushed to the margins of society: homeless persons, refugees, asylum seekers, victims of violence, deportees who were languishing in deportation centres. She also arranged family days and took part in International Women’s Day. She served as a true human rights ambassador and activist. As we join millions of others in paying tribute to her life, we at Crossing Borders say thank you dear Ambassador Zindzi N. Mandela for your inspiration, determination and couragous example in being the ambassador of the voiceless. We promise to continue your struggle for a better world for all.  In this heartbreaking moment, our sincere condolences and thoughts go to the entire Madikizela-Mandela Family and all those who were fortunate to be touched by you.  On behalf of Crossing Borders Mariano Davies, Chair Advisory Board, Sara Omar, Life Ambassador, Vibeke Quaade, Chair Executive Board and Garba Diallo, Executive Director  

Crossing Borders’ International Programme Coordinator Andrew Bende discusses CB’s approach to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals for ‘a better and more sustainable future’ and, in doing so, articulates why it is so important for these to be put into context.  The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were introduced in 2015 with the aim of achieving them by 2030. They have ambitious aims like ending poverty in any form everywhere, conserving and sustainably using the oceans and empowering all women and girls but inevitably, such grandiose goals draw criticism in a world that otherwise doesn’t offer much hope when it comes to sustainability. Even the UN’s 2019 Financing for Sustainable Development Report acknowledges that despite improvement with the SDGs increasingly being incorporated into public budgets and development cooperation efforts, this is not happening at nearly the pace it needs to. The fact that the goals exist on this high-up, policy level is not necessarily such a bad thing. Reflecting on a Crossing Borders project in Ghana which utilises local radio stations to debate the SDGs at a grassroots level, Andrew explains that awareness of the issues the goals want to achieve is already underway in many forms, thanks to the UN goals offering a comprehensive framework.   With environmental issues for example, it is easy to pass on the message of the goals. As Andrew says, “because local communities know there is an environmental breakdown, there is deforestation around them”, they can easily relate such happenings to the messages of the SDGs. Instead of spending time debating whether the goals will be reached, it makes better sense to start acting.   The project, named the Right to Communicate, was fundamentally intertwined with Crossing Borders’ central aim to educate global citizens, raise awareness of educators and create space for dialogue, all acting towards creating a peaceful and sustainable world. The Right to Communicate focuses on local radio stations in Ghana, which take centre stage in localizing the SDGs by articulating them into local contexts and bringing them to the grassroots level. In many regions, these radios are the single most reliable way of updating information and promoting local communities’ engagement in social, cultural, and political discourse. They are key stakeholders in local development and an example of channels through which the SDGs can be localized. Moreover, these community radios are themselves a space where power is contested among religious groups, the government, corporate interests and local groups, all vying for control of the airwaves. They are thus a true representation of a local and organic democratic context.   On these media outlets, local issues are discussed in a way that contrasts to large-scale news about global politics and they are often the subject of restrictions. They have the capacity to function as a breeding ground for collective discussion and present a direct challenge to the process of powerful groups funnelling dialogue in undesired directions. Because of this, community radios in Ghana are now restricted to a radius of only 5km, forty times smaller than some of the state radios. This is another thing The Right to Communicate advocates against. Andrew points out though that if on the ground level, the SDGs aren’t fitted to different contexts, there is a significant danger they will become “an added activity”, a restraint on the aspiration of improving local conditions. He recounts the response to him asking why the SDGs are so important in an interview with one of the community radio representatives: “It’s not a matter of whether they’re important – we know they are – but a question of whether we understand them.” It is thus essential not to use the SDGs on their own, but as a kind of guiding principle to add to work already being done on the ground level. “Do you see the effects of climate change happening? Do you see changes in how your environment is behaving in relation to your agricultural yields? If the answer is yes, then the solution becomes the most important and interesting thing in a discussion like that, not the continued pointing out of failures”. Where perhaps others can’t, Andrew lays bare the fundamental disjuncture between global policy and local context. His discussion of the Right to Communicate clarifies why it is so important to localise the UN’s SDGs, and puts frustration at seemingly far-fetched and high-level UN policy into perspective. As he stated, those goals are produced at UN level, and will inevitably reflect that process. “But at the same time, the SDGs offer a guide for augmenting local discussion and bringing it back to the wider world”.   According to Andrew, “nobody wants to be poor, neither for the world to be unequal. Instead, everyone is striving for a better future, but sometimes taking illogical decisions as a result”. He recalls a debate on a local TV station where the SDGs were tactically introduced – in this, the double standards of early marriage culture were discussed where parents favoured curtailing their daughters’ education and marrying them early to a seemingly rich man in the hope that this would give them a better life. Andrew argues that this in fact makes young women far less likely to end up in a high income band. When these parents were asked if they were “aware of the Sustainable Development Goal where everyone should have access to education? Do you have an awareness of SDG8 on gender equality and those that are marginalised from a gender perspective?”, they had no answer, but they wanted to hear more and to reflect on what equal opportunities for both genders meant. Such a fusion of the local and the global can also help to avoid Eurocentric or Western ideas of what it is for a country to develop and improve. Although he is from Uganda, Andrew says he is far separated from the specific situations in other locations of Crossing Borders projects, like Sierra Leone or Kenya. Every country is different, and developing sustainably in each will inevitably be different too. Each needs