US/African Educational Exchange
In our travel to Senegal we experienced the great wealth of knowledge that could be exchanged between our cultures. In the Senegalese, we saw a rich spiritual and cultural heritage that was still largely untainted by commercialism. We learned of the legacy of a patron saint of the country, Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba, who struggled nonviolently to end colonialism in West Africa. His writing, though still largely untranslated into English, represents a great contribution to humanity.
The International Peace Project initiated an educational exchange program between a school in Saint Louis, Senegal with one in Santa Barbara, California. A half-hour draft documentary was produced with participation from students in both Senegal and the United States. A visit from a Senegalese presidential candidate to the sister school in California was hosted in which traditional African folk stories were enacted for the California students.