„Students from Schools in Berlin Make Shoes Shine“


LISTROS e.V. hopes to contribute to a double change of perspective. We seek to offer a change of perspective about the perception of Africa using Ethiopia as an example. We seek to offer another change of perspective concerning the understanding and recognition of work and specific concerns about child labour.


In the common and one-sided perception of Africa in Germany, Africa is a continent in which chaos, crises and wars, severe violations of human rights, poverty, hunger, and cries for aid prevail. Africa, on the other hand, similarly is caught in a one-sided perception as victim of 500 years of colonialism, slave trade and racism, as a victim of exploitative interests and “deadly” foreign aid. Given this perception and self-image there is little room for self-determined and self-reliant development of Africa.


Neither perception fully reflects the reality in African society. In fact, most people in Africa act upon self-initiative and go to great lengths taking their lives into their own hands and make their lives worth living, despite all odds and adversities that doubtlessly exist.


The young shoe polishers in Ethiopia, called Listros, which means to “make it shine,” are one extraordinary example of this. With shoe polishing the Listros earn the money to pay school tuition and to contribute to the survival of their families. By definition their work is also child labour, but not child labour, as in many other cases, that prevents education and therefore must be abolished, but on the contrary makes education possible in the first place. Working as shoe polishers, the Listros experience the value of work and social communication in the working environment, early in their lives. They learn to take personal responsibility and how to find creative ways to solve problems. In this way the Listros are a metaphor for a German-African change of perspective.


In Germany the topic of labour and work perceives much attention as the number of unemployment and even homeless people is increasing. Wages for many jobs have become too low, forcing more and more people to take several jobs to make a living. People have to re-invent themselves repeatedly in their lives to escape long-lasting unemployment. In this difficult situation there is a high demand for creative solutions for the development of new jobs. Increasingly, jobs which have been common only in developing countries, are now becoming established in rich countries, as well. For instance, rickshaws have become a tourist attraction and an alternative transportation vehicle in a number of major European cities.


Whether rickshaw driving, the rendering of services and repairs of various kinds of household and office equipment or shoe polishing, the marathon world record holder Haile Gebreselassie, while visiting the LISTROS Gallery in Berlin in September 2009, put it this way: “for us this is labour!”


LISTROS Day focuses on the Ethiopian Listros and invites others to change their perspective. By honouring the Listros and their shining work in Ethiopia, LISTROS Association also recognizes and appreciates others in Ethiopia and Germany dealing with difficult phases in their lives and forced to continuously reinvent themselves and find new ways. In this spirit, LISTROS Association adopts the comment written in the LISTROS Gallery’s guest book by the Federal President of Germany, Dr. Horst Köhler: “We can all be Listros. We must dare to try it!” Thus, the motto of the LISTROS Day Activities: We can all be Listros.


Objectives for the Students

Taking the role of Ethiopian shoe shiners and actively participating in the development of a large event, students learn:

 
  • to approach an unknown field of work without prejudice
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  • to consider new, self-dependent and innovative ways to make a living given the growing fear concerning joblessness in society, and frequently also in one’s own family
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  • to approach others playfully but with respect, whether one’s opposite is a class-mate or an unknown passerby on the street
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  • to create out of a low-valued and despised occupation “Shining Works,” to turn “bad” things into “good” things – and use artistic means to do so
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  • to explain and justify one’s work in Germany to strangers largely unfamiliar and disapproving of such work
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  • to understand what is behind the Shoe Polishing Activities and to explain this to others: the problems of Ethiopia and the African developing countries, as well as methods of problem resolution, the Ethiopian shoe shiners and the difficulties connected with child labour, the question of equal partnership in German-Ethiopian relations, and current problems arising in the processes of globalization
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  • to use modern means of communication for the Activities, and to put photographs and videos online through such platforms as YouTube
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  • to organize a large, highly-visible and widely publicized event closely covered by the media, as a whole and in it’s individual parts with a high level of individual responsibility
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  • to analyse the Action in order to draw conclusions relating to every individual participant, to individual groups and school classes, and to the Action as a whole


    • The participation in the LISTROS Action “Shining Works in Berlin” can lead to manifold contacts to Ethiopia, out of which school partnerships can arise.