The Dalai Lama, Apartheid, Boycotts and Peace
ESU Students Encounter the World in Cape Town, South Africa

When the South African government refused to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama in October, ESU Professor Sam Quainoo’s students got a first-hand object lesson in global politics.

With plane tickets bought and hotels booked, Dr. Quainoo, professor and chair of political science, and five students were set to attend the 14^th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Cape Town in October. They were stunned to find the event suspended when the other Nobel laureates called a boycott to protest the South African government’s action.

But rather than disappoint 150 students from 30 countries registered for the summit, organizers rallied. With only two weeks to regroup, they transformed the World Summit into a new event, the first Global Youth Peace Indaba from October 13-15. Indaba, a Zulu word meaning “dialogue,” is often used in South Africa to designate an important meeting.

Attending the Indaba with Quainoo were LaShondra Cherry, a senior majoring in Spanish from Tobyhanna, Pa., J.C. Martocci, a junior majoring in Political Science from Stroudsburg, Pa., Anthony Caprario, a senior majoring in Physics from Roseto, Pa., Colleen Sullivan, a senior majoring in Political Science from Warrington, Pa., and Laurienne Abraham, a graduate student studying history from Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Quainoo, who took students to the 13^th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Warsaw, Poland, in 2013, was sorry that his students wouldn’t hear from Nobel Peace Prize winners including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Walesa. But he was relieved that they would still have a challenging international experience thanks to The Albert Schweitzer Institute, in partnership with the Chaeli Campaign and the F.W. de Klerk Foundation.

For Quainoo, who has also taken students on numerous trips to his home country of Ghana, providing an international experience for his students is a critical part of their education. “We need to expose students to the world outside of home. We live in a global village,” he says. “Education is sometimes not in the classroom, but engaging directly with the world.”

With a focus on critical peace issues, Indaba sessions included panels on the moral and political significance of boycotts; the growing threat of nuclear war; women’s rights; and South Africa’s transition to a nonracial, constitutional democracy. And students still got to hear from Nobel Laureate F.W. de Klerk, former South African president, who gave the keynote address, “What Leading by Example Means to Me.”

One session also addressed the hot issue, “Should we have come to Cape Town?” which discussed China’s power in the world and factored in South Africa’s foreign policy. J.C. Martocci, a political science major, believes the Nobel Laureates “missed out on a huge opportunity to send a message to the South African government, China, and the rest of the world.  A protest organized with all of the laureates as well as the delegates could have been so much more powerful than simply them staying at home.  Could you imagine the image of all of us dressed up as the Dalai Lama walking through the streets of Cape Town protesting the decision? Now that is a message, that is an image that could inspire a someone to change.”

Besides the conference sessions, the ESU contingent experienced South Africa on a safari and whale watching. One of the trip’s most memorable moments was a visit to Nelson Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island, and a chance to hear former inmates recall their struggles to end Apartheid.

Back at home, the learning experience continues for the students by writing briefs on the trip, giving presentations in class, and meeting to debrief and further discuss their experiences. The trip has academic impact for Quainoo as well, with a planned paper comparing race relations in the U.S. and South Africa. “Dip below the surface and there is still economic apartheid in South Africa,” he says, noting that blacks still hold low-level jobs and extensive shanty towns contrast with the gleaming metropolis. While there is far to go in America, Quainoo says “In America, people of African descent have a better opportunity than anywhere else and our progress here should be acknowledged.”

When asked about individuals who had made the greatest impression on them during the trip, the students agreed it was the local students, professors and citizens who opened their eyes to the realities of post-Apartheid South Africa. And for LaShondra Cherry, it was much closer to home. “The person who made the biggest impression on me was Dr. Quainoo. Prior to this trip all he and I spoke about was either class or going to South Africa. I think over that week I learned so much about him, myself and the world by talking with him. He is a very influential person and I think one of my favorite parts of the trip was being able to converse with him and to get to know one of our faculty members better.”

The next World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates is scheduled for 2015 in Atlanta.

Quainoo definitely expects to be there with his ESU students.

3 Responses to “The Dalai Lama, Apartheid, Boycotts and Peace
ESU Students Encounter the World in Cape Town, South Africa”

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S. Quainoo

Posted November 22, 2014 at 10:12 AM



Thanks, Margaret. The Atlanta Summit will be honoring Dr. Martin Luther King. Looking forward to it.

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