Since 2010 Ellie Putnam and I have been part of teams supporting Co-Counseling development in West African Francophone countries. 


Prior to that I was part of teams that led Community development workshops in other African countries, with Tim Jackins’s initiative and the support of the Re-evaluation Foundation. At that time Melphy Sakupwanya was the Regional Reference Person for Sub-Saharan Africa. She was always excited about the workshops. I remember sitting up with her the night before so she could welcome every participant personally. That work and bringing resource to the West Africa French-speaking RCers has been a joy and a privilege. It has been gratifying to see the growth of the Communities, the depth of RC knowledge, the effective use of RC, and the development of leadership. (There are also RCers in the French-speaking countries of Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC], and Gabon, and it would be useful for them to have similar resource.)


Over the years we became accustomed to getting e-mails from workshop participants excitedly saying that they went back to their workplace or community and organized a group to tell them about the ideas of RC.


We would often give an introduction to RC at the end of a workshop for the family and friends of attendees and would have thirty to fifty people attending. The participants knew this was a resource they wanted and could tell the difference it would make. One participant shared how he had laughed for the first time in a very long time. Some said they were feeling freer, more hopeful, and that they understood how these ideas would change their lives and the lives of their people.


One Community was started after a refugee, Cyrille Zounon from the Ivory Coast, by chance met the Togo RC leader, Missigbe Hokameto, and learned about RC. Cyrille attended our workshop and at the end said that he would start a Community in his country. That was in 2012, and he now has a Community of thirty-five people. The core group that he began with is still actively involved.


Since we have been providing resource to the Francophone Communities, another Community, also in Togo, has been started by Leonard Agoboyaya. He has twenty-five members in Kame, a rural area of Togo. The Community in Benin, led by Eric Amoussou-Guenou, and the one in Lomé, led by Missigbe, have been in existence for nineteen and twenty-one years respectively.


At one point we shared RC with twenty-five people from a country that had recently experienced a civil war. A community elder, new to learning about RC, said to me with respect and sorrow, “If you had come earlier, we would not have had a war.”


A few years ago, the leader of one country was pleased about his meeting place in a garden. The garden was outdoors and uncovered, and there were people moving about nearby. With the help of the Re-evaluation Foundation we helped him rent a small room where he could hold his Community meetings and have sessions.


I very much appreciate that the Re-evaluation Foundation supports the development of RC in Africa. I’ve made a personal decision to not take a fee for leading workshops there. This makes it possible for more people to attend RC activities and benefit from RC. Most of the attendees are poor and don’t have the resource to pay a fee for workshops or for transportation to get there, so every cent is needed by many who are eager for these ideas.


The effects of colonization, racism, attempted genocide, imperialism, greed and graft, and the other unspeakably inhumane treatment of the marvelous people of the continent that has been carried out by Europeans, are enormous and devastating to this day. 


My African ancestors were stolen from this continent. The pride, the brilliance, the persistence, the ingenuity, and the people’s sense of forging on despite the challenges that are ever present, is heartwarming. It is personally rewarding to share the hopefulness of RC theory and practice with my brothers and sisters, so they have these tools to fight against the daily assaults from the oppressions. It is a joy to see the numbers of African RCers, teachers, country leaders, and Reference People that have developed and are leading their Communities. 


These West Africa Francophone Communities that Ellie and I have gotten to know well are now being referenced by Chioma Okonkwo of Lagos, Nigeria. She has done a wonderful job developing RC in Nigeria and is now Regional Reference Person for West Africa.