April 2008.

Four different kinds of workshops with four different target groups on Gorée island in one week.

For two days, representatives of woman’s organizations undertook an appreciative enquiry process that included plotting the treasures of Gorée; drawing images of hope; applying colour, sparkles and serious intent to the tasks of building their communities and tackling the problems that are gender-based.



The next day, students, teachers, artists, and other island people created dream trees and found ways to connect good ideas between environment, youth and tourism issues.

Without pausing for breath, onto a class of ten year olds at the local school (whose teacher had been with us the previous day) to investigate more dreams for the future. What are you going to be when you grow up?
“A fisherman,” said a little girl proudly.
“A general, of course,” replied the boy next to her, adding more glitter to the already glittery military uniform.
Of course.



Finally, coming home to the staff of the Institute for an in-house session, tracking and deepening the personal resources that support the ideals of open and self-reliant societies in Africa.

Common to all of this was the employment of understanding the best of what is, imagining how it could be different and creating the change. These are the principles that fire Madame Bliss W Browne of Imagine Chicago (www.imaginechicago.org), an intergenerational, intercultural civic project, founded in 1992 that has inspired a global movement on six continents. The aim is to cultivate hope and civic investment by building the capacity of individuals and organizations to envision and realize a positive future for themselves and their communities, wherever they are.



Imagine Africa Agora at the Gorée Institute was proud to host Madame Bliss for this whirlwind week, and to open to links to the Imagine movement through her. The sessions were rooted in stimulating the imagination at every turn; through symbol-making, the use of visual metaphors, colour, song, games and rituals. These were not talk shops but practical, vibrant opportunities to realize commonalities and to look to a future of possibility.

As Madame Bliss put it,

People find hope and inspiration by being connected to things that are bigger than they are. As meaning-making people, we need transcendent connections and a sense of purpose. The Imagine movement helps people connect to bigger wholes that are a place from which they can learn, draw courage and recognize that their individual effort is leveraged and exalted when put together with others.

Bliss W Browne
Ms Browne is a sought after keynote speaker, facilitator, consultant and trainer nationally and internationally. Formerly a corporate banking Vice President and Division Head at the First National Bank of Chicago, Browne brings a unique combination skills to her role as motivator of change. She has served in leadership capacities for the Parliament of the World's Religions, the Illinois Fatherhood Initiative, and the Community Advisory boards of the Field Museum and the Chicago Historical Society, among others. She holds degrees from Yale, Harvard and the Kellogg School of Management, and has received numerous awards and accolades. She has also authored two books and contributed to many others, as well as a range of journal articles worldwide.

Nicolette du Plessis
Programme CoOrdinator: Imagine Africa Programme
May 2008

Posted at Friday, May 02, 2008