About Laɣim Tehi Tuma
Our Organization
In its 10th year, Laɣim Tehi Tuma (“Thinking Together” in Dagbani* and also known as "LTT"), is an undergraduate community-powered learning and inquiry fellowship program and non-governmental organization grown out of a grassroots collaborative between Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges and local educators in the rural community of Dalun, Ghana. The program is now also supported by a growing team of educators from University of Development Studies–Tamale (UDS), community-powered NGOs and collectives in Dalun, and other higher education institutions in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. LTT is emerging as a threshold between these communities and individuals sharing a vision toward reconceptualizing education—formal/informal, community-powered, and self-directed—centered by Black diasporic liberation and study.
*For some Dagbani language context:
There are many ways to write in Dagbani. Often “g”, “ɣ”, and " ' are used interchangeably in written representations. E.g. “Lagim” and “Laɣim” / “Titagya” and “Titaɣya”
Our Mission
The mission of LTT is to create a platform for collaborative thinking that co-creates education through study, intercultural exchange, internships within community-based partnerships, and through engaging Black study/ies to open questions about what education has been, is, and can be. LTT is designed to be an intervention in colonial pasts and to foster movement towards just and thriving futures.
Through study, action, and reflection, LTT engages several themes. The process of thinking together about education entails engagement with questions of history, culture, race, class, gender, and other dimensions of identity; of language, colonialism, nationality, and post-coloniality; and of the discourses of development, post-development and indigeneity.
Strands of the LTT Braid
Internships with Dalun-based Partner Orgs
Dagbani language & Dagomba culture engagement
Regional Immersion & Contextualization
Personal Inquiry Projects
Research Discussions
Topics have included (but are not limited to): Diaspora Ubuntu Philosophy & Pan-Africanism Education "Development" Religion Women's Empowerment "Decolonization" Liberation Black Studies/Black Study Professional Development
Committee Work
Committees have included: Communication— Responsibilities include: planning for and facilitating reflective sessions, collaborating with Communications Assistant, & keeping minutes for those who can’t attend meetings. Research— Responsibilities include: planning for text sharing and facilitating academic discussions. Health & Safety— Responsibilities include: encouraging practices that facilitate varieties of wellness throughout the program and checking in with other members. Black is Beautiful— Responsibilities include: facilitating workshops and liaising between internship sites to incorporate topics into their projects. Marketing— (Active during fully in-person engagement) Budgeting— (Active during fully in-person engagement)