It has been a great experience to formulate, design and carry out three full day Sababas workshops at ‘Ørestad 10 klasse skolen’, in Helsingør and ‘Magleblikskolen’ in Frederiksværk, where we followed the youngsters on the ‘journey’ where they with guidance from the artists expressed themselves through art. Furthermore, It has been interesting to focus on the same themes and subject matters that we worked with in Ghana at the Youth Home, both in relation to our final thesis research on youth and development as well as with the Sababas workshop. We are now able to compare our findings and get an insight into tendencies of similarity and differences between youth from Ghana and Denmark. This concerns what issues they are dealing with in their daily life - what struggles, challenges and hopes they have. What are at the centre of one’s mind being young in Tamale, northern Ghana living in poverty compared to being a young student in Denmark?
We, Maja and Mia, have enjoyed making these workshops, which are HeartRebels’ first workshops with youth in Denmark and therefore we were very exited to hear the reactions from the students, teachers and artists. Recently we received the evaluation schemes from the students, and overall most of them expressed that they gained a lot in several ways. Not only in relation to expressing their voices through artistic means but also from the cultural encounter with the artists from Ghana. The exchange - mixing cultures, backgrounds and views upon society enlightened them and gave them other perspectives on life as well as gave them the chance to practice their English skills. Many felt challenged and had to expand/cross personal barriers not only in relations to language but also in relations to putting their opinions forward and performing in front of their group and later the whole class. They, as well as some of the teachers, have underpinned that they would have liked more time to be able to go more into depth with the discussions and productions.
On the whole we are very content that the majority stated that they in future would like to be part of another Sababas workshop if they had the chance. Below are some of the student’s feedback comments (some are translated from Danish):
- What did you learn?
- That we are not as worse-off as we believe
- To think about other people instead of myself
- I improved my English skills
- Write lyrics
- How to make music and video art
- I learned about societal issues
- I have always cared a lot about Africa, because my family cares and I have family who comes from there. But after Sababas was here, my intentions for helping is now bigger, much bigger!
- That the Sababas people were like us
- How to affect your society, and that you find out what to do with your life, when you are ready
- A lot about Ghana and how to produce music
- What was the highlight moment(s)?
- To show the productions and learn about how they live (the Sababas artists) and how their days go
- It was fun to take pictures of people, and come up with ideas
- When Sababas showed what they were capable off
For the future we look very much forward to develop more crosscutting workshops, mixing arts, cultures, and subject matters such as politics, development, economics, journalism, globalization and so forth. This is definitely one of the central aims, by which we in HeartRebels believe that we can contribute with unique experiences that will enlighten and give confidence to the youth in Denmark and globally.
For more information about the the workshops or Sababas go to projects and then ‘Art to Action’ or press here