As its title indicates, this book expresses ideas that can only come into awareness and expression through walking, and sometimes struggling, together with others. I am deeply indebted to the many friends, colleagues, and family members who have shared this journey with me over the last eighteen years and more. It is thanks to their patience, kindness, and wisdom that the experiences that inform this understanding have been possible. I especially want to thank the Pazmiño Sierra family of Panecillo, Ecuador for welcoming me into their home and showing me the importance and durability of intercultural relationships. Vicente Pazmiño, in particular, was an essential partner in the early steps of this endeavor and has continued to be an important member of the team. Moussa Tembiné offered me friendship and hope of finding a shared purpose during my first visit to Mali, without which I would have been unlikely to return. Over the years since then, he has been not only an outstanding leader, guiding so many communities in forming and strengthening spaces for action, but also an important thought partner in articulating the particularities of the unique approach that has evolved through our collaboration. I have learned so much from him and from our shared efforts. The many donors who give to The Tandana Foundation have made this work possible.
Countless friends and partners in the communities surrounding Otavalo, Ecuador and Bandiagara, Mali, as well as staff members and volunteers in various countries have contributed important insights and perspectives that helped me better understand what it is that we are doing together. In particular, I would like to thank those who have given their time to sit with me for interviews: Alberto Alta, Julie Anderson, Tembel Bamia, Humberto Burga, Luis Chicaiza, Adrián Córdova, Maria Córtez, Tenné Fofana, Claudia Fuerez, Cristina Fuerez, Manuel Fuerez, Margarita Fuerez, Susana Fuerez, Peter Graves, Zachary Graves, Bob Herring, Fatouma Kamia, Ada Kanambaye, Adama Kanambaye, Oumou Kansaye, Ambajugo Kassogué, Kadidia Kassogué, Kessia Kouriba, Fatouma Kouriba, Martha Lanchimba, Audrey Ling, Carlos Lopez, Mónica Lopez, Susan Napier, Maria Esther Manrrique, Mark McGovern, Carmen Morán, Kurikamak Moreta, Segundo Moreta, Housseyni Pamateck, Mamoudou Pamateck, Alberto Panamá, Maria Panamá, Sisa Panamá, Eduardo Pazmiño, Vicente Pazmiño, Carol Peddie, Maureen Penman, Esther Perugachi, Francisco Perugachi, Humberto Perugachi, Manuel Perugachi, Maria Perugachi, Matias Perugachi, Susana Perugachi, Fabián Pinsag, Segundo Remache, Sarah Rothschild, Elé Samakan, Jill Spiker, Esaïe Tapily, Anouh Tembiné, Biné Tembiné, Marie Tembiné, Moussa Tembiné, Ousmane Tembiné,
As this work brings together theory and practice, my intellectual mentors have been equally important in helping to clarify my understanding. Shampa Biswas and Bruce Magnusson at Whitman College helped me begin to think critically about “development” in ways that were integral to the practice I began to form and also suggested resources that were helpful for this project. Many of the ideas expressed in this book developed through my Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at Skidmore College and benefited from the questions and comments of Sheldon Solomon, Jacqueline Scoones, Mary-Beth O’Brien, and Jason Pribilsky. Danielle Poe has been incredibly supportive of this work and provided innumerable insightful suggestions, from the first independent study she agreed to supervise for me through editing this manuscript and shepherding it to publication. She also introduced me to the Concerned Philosophers for Peace, a thoughtful and welcoming group who allowed me to present parts of this project at their conferences and then published selected aspects of it in two previous Philosophy of Peace volumes. While those chapters do not correspond directly to specific chapters in this book, the material developed in both of them appears in these pages. Comments related to those presentations were helpful in refining my ideas, and I particularly want to thank William Gay and Elizabeth Minnich for sharing feedback on a draft of one of the papers I presented and for corresponding with me about important ideas. Skidmore College provided a grant from its mals Scholarship Fund that helped me undertake a set of interviews in Mali, which provided key material for developing some of the themes herein. Hugh Taft-Morales and Danika Robison provided helpful feedback on another expression of these ideas.
This book would not have made its way into the world without the support of my colleagues at The Tandana Foundation, especially Aaron DiMartino, who encouraged me to devote the necessary time and attention to writing while they took care of much of the business of running the organization. My family has provided constant material and emotional support, without which I could not have even begun the adventure of connecting with people in parts of the world far from my home. My parents, Hope and Bob Taft, offered the resources, the examples, and the courage to strike out on a new path and have supported me unfailingly all along the way. John Tsukayama, my husband, takes care of innumerable practicalities so that I am free to think and to act and helps me see experiences from a different perspective.
I am grateful to all those who have welcomed me into relationship and agreed to climb together, forgiving each other’s errors, allowing each other