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BARBARA MASEKELA IS THE SOUTH AFRICAN ambassador to the United States. She was educated in South Africa, Zambia, and the United States. Masekela taught at Rutgers University in the English Department for nine years until 1982. She has spent most of her life as a political activist working with the ANC Observer Mission to the United Nations, in Zambia at the ANC Headquarters. After Nelson Mandela was released, she became a member of the NEC of the ANC and later part of the negotiations commission. She also served as Nelson Mandela's chief of staff. Masekela was appointed as ambassador to France and UNESCO in 1995. She was executive director for De Beers and served as director on the boards of Standard Bank of Soudi Africa, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, the World Diamond Council, and the International Marketing Council. She is also a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and Nelson Mandela Foundation. After retirement in 2003, South African President Mbeki appointed her as ambassador to the United States of America in June 2003. She has two sons: Mabusha and Selema.
IE: Although you were educated in South Africa, you have been a professor at several universities in the United States. What was your experience like as a foreign scholar teaching? How do you think your teaching experience affects your role as ambassador?
MASEKELA: There is a very slight distinction in me work of teaching students about the world against an ambassador educating die world about Soudi Africa.
As teachers we encourage and inspire critical analysis of situations, greater interrogation of issues, and more lateral thinking. So too do I strive to deepen the understanding of the realities of my country and continent.
I have found my teaching experience in the United States extremely valuable as it empowered me as an ambassador to have firsthand experience of the culture and psyche of the United States and its people. I must add though, that die advent of die mass electronic media and information technology in general has muted curiosity. There is a marked tendency for passive acceptance and die information overload demands too many skills to enable selectivity.
IE: How has the end of apartheid in South Africa affected the higher education system?
MASEKELA:...