Written by Pemphero Banda and Kosar Mohammad Naeemi
Being back in class after a few years, was both an exciting and a scary experience. I used to hear a lot about imposter syndrome, starting my master’s degree got me closer to partaking in this universal experience. I shouldn’t lie I was consumed. I am sure if you are a young adult, on a verge of a new experience you know what I mean, this little animal can eat you up and if you are not careful you can succumb and not recognise the thrill of excitement that comes with a new experience. That was me, but the first class of Social Exclusion Key approaches changed everything for me. It reminded me that I was exactly where I needed to be at this point in my life. Not only was my excitement coming from how international the class is but also how real, deep and contextual the conversations are. I still remember how eye opening my very first lecture on power dynamics was. It got me thinking of the power I hold within myself and the spaces I occupy. The lecturer got me thinking of how inconstant the power dynamics are around me. It felt surreal for someone else to voice out the reality that we all are never neutral when approaching issues of social exclusion, either one of our dominant or subordinate identities are out to play and how with this reality I have the potential of being both an oppressor and the oppressed. You can imagine the disbelief I had; how can I, Pemphero be an oppressor. At the end, the reality is as individuals we have the power to write the narrative that we want to identify with even though reality does not Favor that idea as Chinua Achebe once said until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.