During the May 2007 intersession, nine UCA Students and one Hendrix College student traveled halfway around the world for a study-abroad experience in East Africa. Sponsored by the UCA Honors College and the Department of Sociology, the trip to Tanzania was led by Rick Scott, Honors College Director and Professor of Sociology, and Allison Wallace, Associate Professor of American Studies in the Honors College.
For most of the three weeks in country, the group lived on the campus of the University of Dar es Salaam, enjoying frequent academic and social interactions with African students and faculty. Topics explored included Kiswahili language and literature, African development, and the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda. Short trips into the city included a drive through a coastal neighborhood housing several national embassies, as well as visits to the National Museum and to an open-air market called Mwenge, where students practiced their bargaining skills as they shopped for gifts and souvenirs.
Excursions to other parts of the country included a morning spent at the U.N. Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (held in Arusha, a city in northern Tanzania); two and a half days of safari in the Serengeti and in Ngorogoro Crater, both of which lie in the Great Rift Valley; and two and a half days in the village of Bagamoyo, on the coast of the Indian Ocean, renowned center of the East African slave trade as far back as the 14th century. A day trip to the storied island of Zanzibar also added much to students? understanding of that trade, and of the Arabian contribution to East African history and culture.
Plans are currently underway to repeat the course with a new crop of students during the May 2008 intersession.
