Twelve students from IFES’ University Debate Club in Afghanistan were featured in a special debate held on February 25 to celebrate Black History Month at the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.
IFES’ University Debate Club is the first debate club formed in Afghanistan. The aim of the program is to foster a culture of debate based on the British Parliamentary model and to give Afghan youth the opportunity to enhance their public speaking, research, and critical thinking skills, as well as their self-confidence. During U.S. Black History Month, the goals of the club were expanded to include a deeper understanding of the challenges and triumphs African Americans have experienced.
Entitled “The Afghan Debates,” the session at the Embassy brought together IFES debate teams from three institutions of higher education in Kabul, including the Bakhtar, Kardan, and Karwan Institutes of Higher Education. The event allowed them to showcase their talents in front of an audience that included U.S. Assistant Ambassador Bill Todd and officials from the State Department and USAID, among others.
“The event I participated in at the US Embassy was a unique and remarkable opportunity for me to enhance my capacity, gain a great experience, and once again expose my talent and learn more,” said one of the students. Another debater commented, “I learned about the history of Black Americans and compared it to the current situation in Afghanistan.”
Established in June 2010, the University Debate Club has proven to be a great success that continues to receive accolades and support as word of the program spreads. Its reputation is mostly due to the students who have made a strong impression on those who have been exposed to their outstanding command of debate technique and their innovative (and often impassioned) argumentation skills. Indeed, it was after an interview with USAID representatives in January that the students were invited to debate as part of a special Embassy event the during Black History Month celebrations in February.
Organized by the Embassy’s Black History Month Committee, the debate was designed to engage and educate Afghans about important events in American history and to highlight similarities between Afghan and American experiences. The debate topic was: “In Afghanistan today, the educational ideology of Booker T. Washington is more relevant to social and economic development than the educational ideology of W.E.B Dubois.” The topic demanded students to make relevant, cogent connections between American history and the development context in Afghanistan today. Students researched the lives and accomplishments of these two influential African American scholars.
In their presentation, the debate club students did not disappoint the Embassy’s audience as they presented an impressive range of dialogue and debate technique. The Government Team argued that Booker T. Washington’s educational ideology is far more relevant to the Afghan context, where an acute lack of basic livelihood skills hinders Afghanistan’s development. Students cited various examples, emphasizing the need for tailoring and handicraft training for women, animal husbandry, and farming and food production, among other basic trades. The Opposition debaters provided an animated response and framed their counter-arguments from the viewpoint of American Scholar and Civil Rights Activist, W.E.B. Dubois. They argued that higher education allows Afghanistan to foster passionate and informed leaders who can lead the country on a better path. Such leaders are needed in Afghanistan to create stronger government structures, better development initiatives, and to represent Afghanistan in the international arena.
The debaters were honored for their skills at a special Awards Ceremony held at the U.S. Embassy on February 28th. U.S. Deputy Ambassador E. Anthony Wayne and USAID Mission Director Earl Gast presented certificates to all the participating students and plaques to the winning team of debaters. In a speech prior to the awards, USAID Mission Director Earl Gast thanked IFES for its involvement and dedication in establishing debate clubs at universities around Afghanistan.
“The debate event has refreshed our thoughts about the current situation and prospects for Afghanistan. As a debater, it gave us a phenomenal experience on how to debate in such situations. This event gave us energy to strive and struggle more as debaters in order to [reach] our future goal of becoming leaders and very good public speakers,” concluded one of the students after the awards ceremony.
The IFES debate student participants have indeed demonstrated great improvement with their debate technique over the past year. The IFES CEPPS program piloted the program with three schools in Kabul, including Bakhtar, Kardan, and Karwan Institutes of Higher Education. In 2011, the debate program has expanded to four additional schools, including American University of Afghanistan in Kabul as well as three universities in Balkh, Herat, and Nangarhar provinces.