Black Women’s Narratives of NHS Work-Based Learning: An Ethnodrama by Warren Peggy P

Author:Warren, Peggy P.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peter Lang AG

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SCENE 7

Bittersweet realisation – hope we are the last

Final meet-up in the Frantz Fanon Lecture Theatre, 2nd floor in the University of Westmoreland

The first arrivals wait for the others in the staff car park where Mama B reserved parking spaces. For many, this campus setting makes them uncomfortable. As the group walk up the corridor they discuss some of the emotions racing around their minds and bodies: doubt, anxiety and fear. These emotions were both uninvited and unexpected so they choose instead to focus on aspects of resilience building, camaraderie and the fact that they now possess some insider knowledge.

They arrive at the lecture theatre which is spacious with large windows. Some head to the windows through which they see a range of sculptures, probably erected by students past and present. Akoben announces that the circle discussion, they had grown to love would never work in this space. On a large table at the front of the theatre was a finger buffet with an assortment of sandwiches, veg sticks, hot and cold drinks and fruit. The women looked at the display, totally unimpressed. They speak, but only hushed, undecipherable mutters can be heard. Sankofa appears distracted and disconnected from the group. She walks over to a large portrait of Franz Fanon hanging from the wall at the rear of the theatre, beneath the portrait is the following quote:

The imaginary life cannot be isolated from real life, the concrete and the objective world constantly feed, permit, legitimate and found the imaginary. The imaginary consciousness is obviously unreal, but it feeds on the concrete world. The imaginary is possible only to the extent that the real world belongs to us. (Frantz Fanon, 1956 in Wildeman 2008: p. 1)

She reads the inscription to herself and then re-reads it aloud. Following the second reading, she reaches for her iPad, capturing the inscription in ← 83 | 84 → a photograph and mumbles to herself how incredible it is to find words spoken six decades ago which conceptualises her approach to academic writing in her time.

It is not long before chatter and laughter fills the room. This group of women have grown together, they weave in and out of each other’s conversations. They are on epistemological and ontological journeys; they share their pride in what they are doing with heightened confidence that has grown out of their engagement. The initial emotions they experienced at entering the building seem to have abated.

Mama B appears, she looks flustered. She glances across at the food and mutters something about the absence of hot food. For a few minutes, she seems in a world of her own until Nsaa runs over to her and embraces her.

That embrace seems to free her from her deep thoughts and she emerges consciously into the space. She acknowledges the women, greeting each one by name with prolonged embraces.

Sankofa: (Interjects.) ‘Ladies, the session will commence in fifteen minutes.’

Some women head off in small groups to find the toilets, whilst others scrutinise the buffet removing the cling film.

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