The 2014 Janet Griffith Lecture: “Find the Connections”

On Jan. 24, NCS alumna Manjushree Thapa ’86 began the 16th Annual Janet Griffith International Lecture by asking, “have you ever felt like a complete stranger?”

 

Born in Nepal, but growing up in Canada and the United States, Thapa has navigated cross-cultural currents throughout her life. Now a novelist, translator, and journalist, Thapa was the writer of the Nepal segment of Girl Rising, a film which advocates for girls’ education in the developing world. Girl Rising is being screened and discussed in all NCS divisions.

 

In her speech, Thapa described how she lived in the Embassy of Nepal only two blocks from the NCS campus, but worlds away in culture.

 

“My sister and I didn’t go out. Makeup was banned. Coming each day to NCS was a different experience,” she said. “The girls at school were independent, questioning, thinking for themselves.” As a teenager she rebelled against her background, decided to become an artist, and studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design.

 

“I didn’t feel American or Nepalese,” she said. But shortly after graduation, she returned to Nepal, intending to stay for a gap year. She stayed for seven. Because Nepal was still very traditional, “I felt like an outsider in my own country,” she said. However, she saw stirrings of democracy which she found very compelling.   When she worked for an NGO in remote villages, she found women who were far from equal citizens, living lives of endless toil. “How could there be such disparity?” she asked.

 

Thapa ultimately found her calling as a writer exploring such issues; her first non-fiction book was a travelogue to then-restricted areas along the Nepal/Tibet border. In 2001 she published her first novel, The Tutor of History. Her book Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy for Democracy (2006) examines the recent history of Nepal, including the royal massacre in 2001 and the Maoist rebellion. “My books are about an era of nation-building,” she said. The nation she describes is complex: there are 125 languages and over 100 identity groups of very different cultures and values.

Thapa writes about different social movements, and found yet another in the writing for Girl Rising. In discovering the story of Suma, a young girl forced by the tradition of “kamlarii"  to serve as bonded labor--a form of modern day slavery--Thapa also discovered how women are dismantling the practice by standing up for their rights. The women of the anti-kamlari movement “have figured out their rights and given them form,” even forcing the government to take action, she said.

 

In response to the increased speed of globalization, Thapa urged students to “find a community of people with whom you have no connection, and figure out the connection….You have common rights as citizens of the world.”

 

Asked how someone might help, Thapa said, “There are two approaches to people in need. You can give them something, or, you can empower them through their rights. The point is not to lead them, but support them so that they can lead themselves….I believe in a rights-based approach, in helping people get an education. What kind of help will actually transform lives? Ask them what they think they need and want. Start a dialogue as equals.”

You can hear Thapa's address by clicking into the Cathedral audio album on this page.

 

The Janet Griffith International Lecture is named for retired NCS teacher Janet Griffith, who developed several new and innovative programs at NCS, including its international program.