Tangible Africa is shaping Africa’s future leaders at the Robben Island Museum’s annual Spring School programme, hosted this week on Robben Island in Cape Town.
It is the first time that Tangible Africa, an engagement project of Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department and the Leva Foundation non-profit organisation based in Gqeberha, has been invited to partner with this flagship youth development programme, which has been running at the Robben Island Museum since 1998.
Over 70 high school learners in grades 10 and 11 from African countries including South Africa, Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, are attending the programme aimed at nurturing a new generation of heritage activists. This year’s theme is “Youth-Driven Innovation: Pioneering Sustainable Development in Africa, Celebrating 30 Years of South African Democracy,” which focuses on leveraging youth innovation for sustainable growth. Tangible Africa Project Coordinator, Lizwi Gwaza, explains that in addition to activities like the Prison Experience, which takes the learners on a day in the life of a political prisoner, the learners could also select various learning areas to participate in the week. These include agriculture science, heritage workshops, business innovation, debating, journalism and interaction with former political prisoners on umrhabulo and integrational dialogue sessions.
“For the computer education learning area, I am facilitating learners from Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini and South Africa to learn about design thinking. They identify problems in their countries, provinces or communities and then come up with an innovative app to solve the problem,” said Gwaza.
Gwaza will also introduce the learners to RANGERS, one of the tangible coding games that Tangible Africa is using to teach and encourage computational thinking and problem-solving skills across Africa.
Tangible Africa Founder and Head of the Department and Associate Professor at the Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department, Prof Jean Greyling, said the Tangible Africa team has been pleasantly surprised with the way countries across Africa have embraced the coding movement.
“Across Africa tangible coding is accepted by numerous role players in countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, and Uganda. Libraries, especially in many of these countries, have proven to be very effective in introducing coding in their communities. One African country is currently exploring incorporating Tangible Africa’s material in official teacher training, said Greyling.
The team also experienced an encouraging uptake in rolling out tangible coding in Indonesia and Europe. The project team has recently returned from the USA, where various role players have shown a keen interest in rolling it out in schools. It is, for example, seen as complementary to the tools provided by the globally known movement Code.Org
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