Mandela Washington Fellowship

at the University of Delaware

Of the Amish and a United Africa

Once upon a time, social media didn’t exist…Today, can you imagine not checking Facebook daily?

When I came here, I did not expect to find a community in the States that had no access to internet or electricity, and I was surprised there was one such group– the Amish. This changed my single story view of America.

I was interested to know how they existed and lived their lives. We had this visit scheduled in our weekly tours. The destination is the Amish Farm. Its is a unique community of sorts located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Amish are a Christian sect that separated from the Mennonites in 17th century Europe and began emigrating to America in search of religious freedom.

A photo, taken by Peter Kabethi, of an Amish farmer plowing the field with the help of his horse.

Why are they so unique? They use no electricity, don’t own cars nor drive, limit formal education to the eighth grade, live in rural areas, adhere to a statement of faith known as the 18 Articles, emphasize an agrarian lifestyle, use horses and buggies as their primary means of transportation, worship in homes rather than in
church buildings, wear some form of distinctive plain clothing and speak a German dialect as their primary language. The Amish call non-members  ‘English.’

One thing that stood out for me is that the Amish are the only closer people to Africans in America I have come across though they aren’t of African descent. The Amish appeared as a quite close-knit community and I believe as Africans we should learn from them in order to develop a united African continent. The mere fact that host family dinners and other general dinners we have been invited to, just like the one which climaxed our day hosted by the Kenyan community, seeks to forge a united African continent.

UD Mandela Washington Fellows huddle together for a photo in York, Pennsylvania

Just imagine how Africa would look like if we had such dinners everyday in Africa. Our dream as young African Fellows is to have one united continent and a visit to the Amish Farm in Lancaster, PA and a dinner in York should serve as a pedestal.

 


 

UD Mandela Washington Fellow Peter Kabethi poses for a photo at UD's Harker ISE Lab Peter Kabethi is a high performing, strategic- thinking professional teacher with more than six years’ experience teaching deaf students both in high school and primary schools in Kenya. He employs an interactive teaching style that encourages student participation and enthusiasm while facilitating learning. He chose to work in the education sector to act as a role model to the young deaf children and assist them in goal  setting so that they can succeed in life. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Special Needs Education from Mount Kenya University. In his spare time, he advocates for improving the economic welfare of the deaf community and members of his native community. Outside teaching, and to reduce communication barriers and make sign language accessible, he has started sign language classes in two private secondary schools. Peter is also the executive secretary of Deaf Empowerment Society of Kenya where he works with the Chief Executive Officer in identifying deaf adults who have passion for business. Upon completion of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, Peter hopes to bring his new fundraising, communication, project proposal writing and implementation, relationship building and leadership skills back to his community. In five years’ time, he intends to set up a listen up Deaf education campaign, a platform which will be used to raise funds to help needy but bright deaf students to proceed with their tertiary education.

 

 

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