The Africa Connection

Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up, your family. How did you come to Auroville?

I was born in Shashamane, a town about 250 kms from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. I was raised within a very large family and my father, mother, brothers and sisters were a major influence on me. My father was engaged with many aspects of life in our town – religion, farming and business – which taught me a lot about the various elements of the society.

The community I was raised in was religiously diverse and harmonious. Islam, Christianity, Judaism and others were all present but I found that I couldn’t identify with one exclusively. Instead I learned about all of them and found respect for the assortment of religions and belief systems surrounding me. I believe this is what led me to develop myself spiritually. I recognised all religions as one and took as my focus a type of Divine force, which could take several shapes and forms. For example, it could take the form of nature. At this point, I began to imagine a place like Auroville, filled with diverse peoples living in peace and unity with one another, even though I had not heard of the place yet.

At a Red Cross conference in Ethiopia in 2011, I learned about Auroville for the first time. I felt that my values and spiritual intention were aligned with the Auroville dream and I was very keen to participate in the development of the town. I first came here in 2012. Initially I visited for a six-month period, then came back for six more months, and on my third visit I stayed for a full year. After that I returned to Ethiopia, and attempted to take the Auroville life and values with me and embed them into my lifestyle there, but it didn’t work. I was back in Auroville within one and a half months of leaving. That was in 2013 and I have been here ever since.

In Ethiopia, I had studied ecological architecture and sustainable building practices, which have remained my passion. In Auroville, I started out working at the Bamboo Centre and then at Sacred Groves as a Coordinator and part of the Core Group. Currently Eric Clapton and I are the Project Holders at the Africa Pavilion, which has been a big responsibility and a dream.

How and when did the idea of the Africa Pavilion start? What are some of the key events that led to it?

In Sri Aurobindo’s writings, especially in his poem entitled ‘Hail to the Fallen’ dedicated to Haile Selassie, he expressed great admiration and sympathy for Africa. The Mother was of Egyptian-African origin too, so these are the subtle beginnings of Africa in Auroville.

More concretely, the relationship began early on in Auroville’s history, in 1966, when the Indian Government presented the plan for the town at a UNESCO conference and generated interest from Africa. Then came the Auroville Inauguration Ceremony in 1968 where significant support came from Africa – almost a third of the countries participating were from the continent.

Tekeste Kidan from Ethiopia was of critical importance when it came to connecting Auroville and Africa. He was a diplomat serving in the Department of Foreign Affairs in India and it was there that he heard of Auroville. Eventually he visited the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and established a written correspondence with the Mother. After his first visit to Pondicherry, he reported back to Africa’s world-level statesman, Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and to Archbishop Dioskoros of Ethiopia, a highly regarded spiritual leader, about the plans for Auroville. In turn, both these leaders wrote to the Mother. These were the first Africans to express in writing to the Mother their support for the ideals of Auroville. The Mother was deeply pleased by their support and blessed Africa and the African people very much.

It was proposed in 2002 that there should be a space for Africa in the International Zone for increasing the awareness of all African nations and for the participation of Africans in Auroville. It was also hoped that the pavilion would symbolise the spiritual realisation of the unity of Africa. The plans were sent to UNESCO and to African leaders. Tekeste formed many relationships with leaders across the continent as well as in the USA and introduced to them the concept of Auroville. You can refer to Tekeste’s book, “Towards Tomorrow – Auroville & Africa, A Journey Towards the Future”, to read his letters to Haile Selassie and to leaders such as Kofi Annan and Nelson Mandela as well as to learn about the development of Africa-Auroville relations.

After Tekeste’s retirement 1999, he came and settled in Auroville. He was a driving force of the work of the Africa Pavilion and was very active in trying to integrate his continent into Auroville.

Africa is a very large and diverse continent. How are you thinking about representing this diversity?

Africa is indeed extremely diverse but there are commonalities and themes across the continent and we can work with these to share with our community the spirit and experience of African life. Every Monday we have an African dinner with African tribal music. In Africa, food is a central part of life, in families and communities, who sit in a circle and eat together from the same plate. We lovingly prepare food for everyone – but only one meal as it is not supposed to be like a restaurant but a community or family event.

Music and drumming also are highly significant across Africa, so every Thursday evening we host the African Drumming Session, a bonfire and an African dinner. I consider this as one of the really special offerings of Africa Pavilion in terms of sharing the culture of the continent. In Africa, the drum is important, not only to the body and the brain, but also to the soul. The vibrations are cleansing and liberating, connecting us to the earth through our own heartbeats and the wider atmosphere. We generate peace in our surroundings with the drumming sounds, it isn’t just music. We use the drumming session to let go of the week behind us, to release tensions within and around us, and to come back to a place of positivity and peace. We begin and end the session in a circle and every week we are a group from all over the world. It’s a beautiful, joyful, shared experience and I would encourage everyone to come, join in, dance, listen quietly, however they feel they wish to participate. It begins at 7pm every Thursday and runs until about 9.30pm.

Africa is home to some of the world’s most beautiful natural spaces and we would also like to share that appreciation for nature and the environment at the site of Africa Pavilion. We are in the process of building a campsite – Africa Safari – for long-term volunteers and students of Auroville on the site of the Africa Pavilion. We have been busy clearing spaces for the tents and building showers and toilets for the campers. In the spirit of ubuntu, a group of us have been meeting on the site every Friday and we all are participating in manual labour for the development of the site.

Yoga classes, meditation sessions, building workshops and a variety of dance classes also take place regularly. The vision at the moment is to try and create a platform for introducing African culture to Auroville in a sustainable way.

I hope that as more African people come to Auroville they will be able to bring traditions and cultures through Africa Pavilion, which can then be shared with the wider community. The more African people we have in Auroville, the more diversity we can celebrate.

If there is one unifying idea in Africa, perhaps it’s the idea of “ubuntu”. Can you tell us how it is related to your vision and your work?

The concept of ubuntu is central to the ongoing development of Africa Safari and, more broadly, all our work at the Africa Pavilion. What is ubuntu? It’s a term meaning humanity but used in a philosophical sense it means the belief in a universal bond of sharing which connects all humanity. It is often described as, “I am because you are”. When we work together at the Africa Pavilion, for example when we were clearing spaces for Africa Safari, we weren’t doing it for individual gain, or each other, nor for a particular person or entity but for the purpose of human unity. We see our work as being of benefit to a wider spirit of connectivity with each other in the world and for future generations of the world. We are sharing ideas, culture, and learning with each other – singing, chanting and playing together.

What are you planning to do as the next steps?

Our next steps are to continue the development of the Africa Pavilion according to the original vision and plans for the space. We are about to start building the caretaker’s house on the site of the Africa Pavilion so that it will be inhabited at all times. We want to invite more people to come here so that together we can create a channel between Africa and Auroville. We want to create opportunities for African students to learn about Auroville’s sustainable development practices, which could address development issues in some parts of Africa, and be transformative for communities there.

Another aim is to provide accommodation where volunteers can stay at a rate that is affordable to them, close to the heart of Auroville. We would also like Africans students to come to Auroville for studies and internships. Africa House will provide a space for African people to come and stay and contribute toward the Auroville project.

Tell us about the design of Africa House and how it came to be.

In order to create awareness of the ideals of Auroville among the new generation of young Africans, it was proposed that an Africa House should be built in the International Zone in the area allotted to the African continent. The Africa House could accommodate African students and guests and allow them to directly experience Auroville. At the same time, the House will present Africa to the international audience of Aurovilians and visitors to Auroville’s International Zone.

The approach is to create a complex of buildings that will house activities and presentations related to all the countries and cultures of the African continent. A proposal for the layout of the Africa House was made in 2005 by Brook Teklehaimanot, Chair of the Architecture Department of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. The African Pavilion group is connected with AVI Ethiopia and with the Aurovillage project in Burkina Faso.

What are the challenges you are facing? How can Auroville help?

We have a couple of challenges. One is the financial issue. To advance the Africa Pavilion work we need quite a lot of manpower, especially for the building work. We don’t have financial resources for that, so we undertake the labour work ourselves. We don’t receive a maintenance for working at the Africa Pavilion, it doesn’t fall under City Services, so we have to split our time between the other roles we are committed to.

Another issue is the lack of help from Africa. At present, the lines of communication with Africa are not as strong as they were previously. Tekeste had built many valuable lines of connection with leaders in Africa, but recently he was quite unwell and unable to work so much. He left his body in June, 2017. We have started the research that is required to regain these contacts and connections. We would like to use the 50th Anniversary as a vehicle to engage African leaders with Auroville.

Auroville could help us through AVI and through using the outreach media to communicate what is happening at Africa Pavilion. Also, Auroville could be more present in the life of the Pavilion. I would like to share with the residents of Auroville that Africa Pavilion is deeply a part of the Auroville project and they should consider Africa Pavilion in the same vein as other pavilions, and of the same value. Our space is for everyone.