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Ep 137  |  Mamphela Ramphele

Mamphela Ramphele: “The Art of Movement Building: Personal Liberation for Public Change”

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TGS137 Mamphela Ramphele The Great Simplification

Show Summary

Addressing the risks we face on a global scale is a challenge that can feel both enormous in execution and personally daunting. When it comes to finding the motivation and inspiration to do such work, one of the best sources of insight comes from the visionaries and activists who have come before us, who know what it takes to battle – and successfully transform – entrenched systems of power. What advice and wisdom can we learn from their stories and experience? 

In this episode, Nate is joined by Mamphela Ramphele, co-founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, which was instrumental in building the ideological foundation that galvanized the struggle for Liberation under the apartheid regime in South Africa, ultimately leading to its dismantling. She shares her wisdom gained from over five decades of movement building and liberation as a means of structural change; something that is deeply relevant to positive outcomes during the coming Great Simplification. 

What does it mean to be self-liberated and what role does this process play in propeling shifts in cultural values? How can we work across and within generations to create movements that transcend immediate and near term-goals? Is it possible to create policies founded on a deeper set of values- – and could doing so encourage more people to become ‘Guardians of the Planet’?

About Mamphela Ramphele

Dr. Mamphela Ramphele has had a celebrated career as an activist, global public servant, academic, businesswoman and thought leader. Dr. Ramphele was co-founder of The Black Consciousness Movement with Steve Biko that reignited the struggle for freedom in South Africa. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology, is a medical doctor, and is the co-founder of ReimagineSA, the former co-president of The Club of Rome, and is the Chair at the Desmond Tutu IP Trust.

In French, we have a motto that says that a simple drawing is often better than a long explanation. Jean-Marc Jancovici Carbone 4 President

That’s very understandable because with left atmosphere thinking, one of the problems is that you see everything as a series of problems that must have solutions. Iain McGilchrist Neuroscientist and Philosopher

We can’t have hundreds and hundreds of real relationships that are healthy because that requires time and effort and full attention and awareness of being in real relationship and conversation with the other human. Nate Hagens Director of ISEOF

This is the crux of the whole problem. Individual parts of nature are more valuable than the biocomplexity of nature. Thomas Crowther Founder Restor

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

00:00 – Dr Mamphela Ramphele work + info, The Black Consciousness Movement, ReimagineSA, Club of Rome, Desmond Tutu IP Trust
*Note: Whilst many publications refer to the Black Consciousness Movement as an “anti-apartheid” struggle, Dr Ramphele has noted that it should more accurately be referred to as a “struggle for Liberation”. 

01:07 – Apartheid

04:45 – Demographics during apartheid

08:25 – Stephen Biko on the philosophy of Black Consciousness 

09:26 – Owen Horwood

10:46 – University college at Westville + University of Zululand

11:10 – Stephen Biko’s writings

16:40 – Mandela in jail + Tambo in exile + Sobukwe in jail

18:00 – Frantz Fanon

18:13 – Barney Pityana

18:32 – Censorship during apartheid

18:40 – The Black Power Movement + student movements in US + liberation movements in Africa

19:25 – Dr Ben Khoapa

21:56 – Craig Williamson

22:22 – Desmond Tutu + South African Council of Churches + British Council of Churches

25:00 – Demond Tutu’s Ubuntu philosophy

25:30 – Anglican church and the Black Consciousness Movement

28:38 – Words vs Reality Earth Day talk

29:20 – Early African civilisations + mathematics in ancient Egypt + astronomical alignment of pyramids + egyptian astronomy 

31:38 – 11 official languages of South Africa 

32:00 – African National Congress

32:54 – Things are worse in South Africa today than they were in 1994

33:12 – Mandela’s presidency

34:50 – Flooding in South Africa + Droughts in Limpopo + Food insecurity due to droughts Southern Africa

35:28 – Youth unemployment South Africa + distribution of educational attainment 

41:31 – LEAP school system

45:20 – We are consuming more than our planet can sustain

45:58 – Multilateral institutions created by victors of WWII

46:48 – Casey Camp-Horinek, TGS Episode

48:40 – Genocide in Americas + genocide in Namibia + Opium War

50:20 – Early Dutch settlers in South Africa + indigenous relationship to Table Mountain

50:44 – Global Commission on Economics of Water

51:52 – Personhood of rivers New Zealand 

52:20 – Indigenous people make up 6% of population, but take care of over 80% of biodiversity

53:49 – Agriculture and the displacement of indigenous communities: Brazil + Indonesia

56:35 – African vernacular huts + energy efficiency of traditional homes in South Africa

1:01:46 – Planetary guardians

1:04:24 – UN Decade of Sciences

1:10:50 – Sandrine Dixson-Declève 

1:11:05 – Africa-EU partnership

1:11:40 – Global Compassion Coalition

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