Utopias Bach Malawi

Led by Wanda Zyborska, Agnes Mpando, Esther Mwalilino and Brendan Zyborski, working with children in a multi-lingual after school club in Limbe, Malawi

In this Utopias Bach experiment, children in a multilingual after school club in Limbe, Malawi were taken through a guided visualisation to help them imagine a better future.  They were asked to think about something they love about where they live, and something they would like to change. They were shown a film made for them by the children of Gwalchmai showing them the Gwalchmai childrens' answers to these questions. They were very interested in hearing that the Welsh children live in a bilingual culture where Welsh is encouraged in school. Most children there are multi-lingual, yet the predominant language of Chichewe is not encouraged in most schools.

After the film and visualisation each child was given a hand made colourful cardboard box containing materials, and invited to make a mini-(utopian)-landscape, peopled by mini-people, of their perfect place in the future. Inside the boxes were models of tiny people and materials such as wooden shapes, play dough, soil and pieces of plants that looked like miniature trees of various types. They could choose which of the materials to use, and given small plates as sites for the miniature landscapes. They were allowed to take everything they made home with them, plus any surplus materials.  Presenting the materials for the workshop as colourful and attractive gifts encouraged a feeling of being special that seemed to stimulate their imaginations and resulted in a joyful atmosphere of deep engagement with what they were doing.

As well as the deeper intention of encouraging children to think about their environment and the possibility of influencing change the workshop engendered the pleasurable escapist benefits of this kind of mini-utopic imaginings, manifest in dolls houses and miniature towns and villages. The children will make a film to send back to the children in Gwalchmai, hopefully developing a connection between the communities.