By Adeola Oni-Orisan

“The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls - South Africa supports the development of a new generation of women leaders who, by virtue of their education and leadership, will lead the charge to positively transform themselves, their communities and the larger world around them.”
(Mission statement taken from the Oprah Winfrey Academy Foundation website )

Celebrity appearances by stars, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, and India Arie. Inspirational speeches by Nelson Mandela. And a stand-up comedy routine by Chirs Rock. No, it’s not the BET Awards. It’s the opening events for Oprah Winfrey’s new school, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. This project is definitely not just another humble attempt at bringing education to Africa. The school consists of 28 buildings set on 52 acres, complete with multiple computer and science labs, two theatres, a yoga studio, and the much publicized beauty salon. Although overlooked in most of the media attention about Winfrey’s school, there are also 152 girls attending. Each girl’s life story more heart-wrenching than the next. Everything seems to be in place: a group of impoverished girls yearning for an education, a $40 million school with the latest in cutting edge technology and teachers, and Oprah Winfrey, of course, mother to them all, but one must wonder if this will be enough to achieve the mission set out. Can money alone save Africa?

I’m not to criticize Winfrey for building an elite school to turn South African girls into leaders. The impact the school will have on the girls, South Africa, and maybe even Africa as a whole deserves some consideration. When you visit Winfrey’s website, you are welcomed by a quote by Winfrey: “The school will teach girls to be the best human beings they can ever be; it will train them to become decision-makers and leaders; it will be a model school for the rest of the world.” These are lofty goals, and it is important to keep track of whether or not they are being met and to what end. Inherent in all this seems to be the idea that the money Winfrey is throwing into the school can solve all of the problems that other institutions in South Africa might have been having. It certainly is a cure for the overcrowded, underfunded apartheid-beaten schools we all hear of in the news. Yet, as well meaning as Winfrey may have been in her endeavors to build the school, its first year has been wrought with controversy. Firstly, two students were supposedly asked to leave the school for speaking Afrikaans after repeatedly being told to stop. Since then, parents have expressed that the school is too strict, restricting parent visits and the amount of time the students can spend calling home. Most recently, allegations of sexual harassment by a dorm matron have surfaced, and several girls have spoken out against her. She is being accused of physically abusing girls, shouting at them, and in at least one case, sexual harassment.

Unfortunately, the attention to detail Winfrey placed on choosing window curtains and fine china for her girls, was misplaced when it came to finding respectable dorm matrons. Even so, this can’t be all Winfrey’s fault. Winfrey’s crusade is in no way a new one, and the issues her school is facing are probably not that new either. Language restrictions and punishments for speaking the native language date not so far back to the colonial era. The French required all schooling to be taught only in French and even schools in former British colonies today discipline students for speaking in their native language As for the issue of the school being too strict and restricting parent visits, such is the nature of many African boarding schools. At the boarding school in Nigeria, my father attended, student prefects were allowed to paddle students that got out of line. The frequency of people in dorm matron-type positions that abuse their powers to harass and mistreat those under them is debatable, but anecdotal evidence from Nigeria, for example, would suggest that it’s not too uncommon.

It is hard to tell at this stage if the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy will be a success. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity visited the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, so I don’t know what it’s really like, whether the students are really happy and really learning. Or have the students’ educations been overlooked amidst all the drama. It seems to me, though, after watching heart-wrenching videos of the girls’ tragic pasts that would bring anyone to near tears, that they do have more opportunities than before Winfrey took them under her wing. If education is supposed to open up doors and open eyes to new possibilities, Winfrey’ school is certainly doing so. It is her money, after all, and the truth of the matter is that she could be spending forty million dollars on just about anything else. As trite as it sounds, the youth are our future. What better way to affect change in a long-term way than to educate children. Might Winfrey have used her money more wisely in trying to support and rebuild infrastructure that already existed in South Africa? Maybe, but there is something to be said about the way she is treating her students. They are not poor Africans ignorant in their ecstasy as they roll around in the “first-world” hand-me-downs, but young women with needs and wants (sometimes frivolous) just like those of us living in America. I suppose Winfrey’s theory is that if change can only be affected 450 students at a time so be it as long as it is done right and with style, and who can disagree.

del.icio.us! | Share on Facebook

See Also:

No related posts

<-->

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 6:26 am and is filed under Voices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.