TSU
Debate Team makes it back from South Africa
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The Texas
Southern University Debate Team, winners of the 2002 International Forensics Championship,
in Rome, Italy, in March, returned to the campus recently, following a two-week sojourn in
South Africa.
The team went as an emissary for the Mickey Leland Center on Hunger and World Peace, and
the University as a whole.
The trip was coordinated by Pearl Selane, a Ph.D. candidate at the University, and a
native of Durban, South Africa. During the two-week stay, the team performed every day,
including Saturdays and Sundays, sometimes twice per day, and in one instance, three
times.
The team appeared at local churches, high schools, colleges, Zulu University, city council
chambers, and parliament. In each case, the team received a thunderous applause, and a
standing ovation.
Following each performance, the team members were almost mobbed by eager youngsters
desiring autographs and the exchange of addresses for future correspondence. After every
performance, unanimous requests were made for the team to return next summer.
One of the performances of the team received special acclaim and a compliment from each of
the principals, for its content, which, they said, was so true to the history and current
life of the people of South Africa. It was the Reader’s Theater presentation,
entitled, “The voice of South Africa,” an original creation, composed by the
head coach of the past 53 years, Dr. Thomas F. Freeman, and the assistant coach, for the
past 28 years, Dr. Gloria B. Roberts, based on prose poetry, and drama excerpts from South
African authors.
Other Readers Theater presentations, also composed by the coaches, included: “So You
Want To Be Free,” “A Cry From Africa,” “The Way of the Cross,”
and “Man’s Response to God’s Call.”In addition to Reader’s
Theater performances, the team presented some of the individual events, that had won
recognition all over the country and in Europe, including poetry interpretation, prose
interpretation, dramatic interpretation, and duo-dramatic interpretation.
Selections by Langston Hughes, Dick Gregory, and Austin Anderson, moved the audience to
their feet, after every performance. Using the parliamentary form of debate, the team
argued such topics as the following: “This house believes that each local community
should develop programs of sex education utilizing resources of the home, church, and
community; This house believes that the government should provide scholarships for all
natives of South Africa to attend the University of their choice; This house believes that
more youths should be involved in programs designed to help prevent AIDS; This house
believes that negotiation is a more effective method, for development in South Africa,
than retaliation; This house believes that the economy of the world is closely tied up
with the economy of South Africa.”
In every case the audience held on to every word, by both sides, giving an equal amount of
applause to each side. The team members argued against each other, alternating sides, as
they moved from city to city.
The cities covered included the large urban centers of Capetown, Durban, and Johannesburg,
and the outlying villages, townships, and rural communities. Several audiences were made
up of students, from schools from four or more townships, who had come into the city for
these performances.
As an added attraction, the coordinator was presented in a Special Gospel Concert assisted
by the team members, rendering a vocal solo, a saxophone solo, and a praise dance, all of
which were enthusiastically delivered and received. At the invitation of the Mayor, the
coach conducted an all day workshop on public speaking, attended by mayors from
surrounding villages and townships, city council members, consulates, principals, and
counselors. Following the lectures by the head coach, the members of the team demonstrated
effective and ineffective methods of public speaking.
In addition, small break out sessions were held, following the major lectures conducted by
the members of the debate team. The evaluation sheets, handed in at the close of the all
day workshop and seminar, indicated that from the point of view of those in attendance, it
was the most valuable experience they had ever had.
Almost all of the sheets carried a statement similar to this: “Do come back next
year, and plan to make it a three- day seminar, instead of just one day.” Upon
completion of performances, the team was treated with visits in and around Johannesburg,
where they got to see the life of South Africa in the raw, including pockets of poverty,
hunger, and unemployment, with stops in Soweto as well as in Alexandria.
After visiting the gold mine the museums, the hospital, and the orphanage home, the team
was escorted to a small village, for a native cultural dance performance. The team was
also the special guests for breakfast of the Mayor at the Lodge, where one of the team
members was dressed in the native war costume, the meaning and significance of which were
explained by the Mayor, as he continued with comments on the history of the Lodge and the
meaning of the items in the breakfast menu.
Earlier, the team had been the guests of a female Mayor, the first in the history of that
area, who presented emblematic T- shirts to each of the debaters. The following students
constituted the traveling team: Montre Johnson, Beigh Jiles, Rashawn Carrington, Terrick
Brown, Ruth Quionnes, Kimberly Patrick, Sir Black, Michele Southers, Charlotta Smith,
Keith Brooks, Gregory Taylor, Noel Dean, Deondre Samuels, and Zakiya Larry, accompanied by
the head coach, and the assistant coaches.
The new season, for the team, began with the opening meeting of the team on Sept 4.
Participation on the team is open to all undergraduate students enrolled at the
University, without regard to previous training or experience. Interested students may
consult the coach, at any time, in Ed. Room 112. |
