It is not every day that you walk into a lectorium and are met by lecturers treating their students to the West African sounds of banjo music, but this is how a group of Community Development students on the Qwaqwa Campus sealed off a guest lecture earlier this month. The music and lecture on immersive community development were delivered by Dr Julie Shepherd-Powell, Assistant Professor and Graduate Programme Director of Appalachian Studies, and Dr Trevor McKenzie, Director of the Centre for Appalachian Studies at the Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. 

Immersive community learning builds bridges across social and cultural differences by closing the gap between institutions and their communities. Giving students a glimpse at the way community research was carried out in Appalachia, the guest lecturers emphasised the importance of getting involved in the lives and activities of the communities you work with.

Building capacity and cultivating ties

Through its partnership with the Appalachian State University, the UFS Department of Community Development – housed within the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) on the Qwaqwa Campus – got to explore the concept of authenticity and tangible community engagement within real-world contexts in conjunction with its immediate community, taking home some valuable titbits to apply to the Qwaqwa community as the community programme finds its feet and shapes itself for maximum societal impact.

The guest lecture was another fruitful venture made possible by the Mountain-to-Mountain collaboration-based partnership designed at its core to strengthen the University of the Free State and the Appalachian State University. A grant of R8 million from the US Embassy in South Africa funded the project in 2020. 

The colleagues spent a few days on the Qwaqwa Campus, where they drew parallels between their mountain community and the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains, while also experiencing the unique African flair for the first time. The talk about doing community development immersively was a focal point of the visit. 

Institutions responsible for honouring surrounding communities 

Dr McKenzie said when doing community work, it was necessary to value the knowledge-generating communities as much as the knowledge itself. “There is so much that we can do to show how much we care for that knowledge and the people who generate that knowledge in the communities.” Echoing his sentiments, Dr Shepherd-Powell said: “It is our responsibility as people at institutions in the regions where we are to give back and honour the communities around us. There are huge differences between here (Qwaqwa) and our mountains, but it’s also exciting to see the commonalities of the mountain communities – this beautiful wealth of resources and culture.”