Ep 15: The Empty Chair, Zimbabwe Education & Chasing Freedom (with Rebecca Zeigler Mano)

Doug talks with longtime friend Rebecca Ziegler Mano, founder of Education Matters and USAP Community School in Zimbabwe, about a life spent connecting talented young people with opportunity. They discuss why Rebecca has made Zimbabwe home for nearly 30 years, the complicated roles of language, race and privilege in education, the pressures students carry when they leave home, and the increasingly difficult realities facing African students studying abroad. Then they turn to Simukai Chigudu’s Chasing Freedom, a memoir that opens up questions about colonial history, diaspora, identity and belonging.Music for Doug Reads With Friends provided by Eiren Caffall.00:00 Rebecca Zeigler Mano, Zimbabwe & a Life in Education 04:12 A One-Way Ticket, $1,000 & an Unexpected Life in Zimbabwe 08:14 Finding Talent, Creating USAP & Building a School 13:26 Visa Bans, Language & What It Means to Educate Zimbabweans 18:13 Why Stay? Thirty Years of Life in Zimbabwe 20:53 Race, Privilege & Feeling “of Zimbabwe” 24:57 The Empty Chair & Preparing Students to Leave 30:33 OK, now the book: Chasing Freedom by Simukai Chigudu 33:13 Expectations Too Vast, Diaspora, Identity & a Life in Books