I have to say that I read Uzodinma Iweala's article in The Washington Post with great interest. I agree with everything he says in it as well. Please will Western Politicians, Liberals, Pop Stars and other forms of celebrity stop 'Saving Africa!' Very early in the article he makes this point -
"It seems that these days, wracked by guilt at the humanitarian crisis it has created in the Middle East, the West has turned to Africa for redemption. Idealistic college students, celebrities such as Bob Geldof and politicians such as Tony Blair have all made bringing light to the dark continent their mission. They fly in for internships and fact-finding missions or to pick out children to adopt in much the same way my friends and I in New York take the subway to the pound to adopt stray dogs."
I can't help feeling he's got this absolutely right. Especially the younger university generation at present seem to think they have to feel guilty about living in a country where they have the privilege of clean water, wealth, comfortable homes and education. This drives them to join any and every "crusade" from "save the planet" through to "stop the genocide in XYZ," zealously embracing the perceived 'cause' of whoever is behind it. Most have no idea what they are supporting except in the vaguest sense, most have no more knowledge than what they've read in posters or articles put out by the publicists who write these things with an eye on getting people to part with loads of money for the latest "aid" project.
Mr. Iweala touches on some of this in his article, but one thing I note he hasn't mentioned. This is that many of these "Aid" organisations are now multinational corporations operating under the banner of 'charities.' They enjoy the status of 'Non-Governmental Organisations' in receipt of large amounts of taxpayer money handed over by Governments to 'trusted' agencies supposedly not dealing with perceived 'corruption' in the target state. He does point to the fact that many Pop Stars and Celebrities derive huge publicity from their fronting campaigns, but he then goes on to say that they cannot and will not 'Save Africa.' In fact they are hindering its own efforts to do so.
As he rightly asks -
Why do Angelina Jolie and Bono receive overwhelming attention for their work in Africa while Nwankwo Kanu or Dikembe Mutombo, Africans both, are hardly ever mentioned? How is it that a former mid-level U.S. diplomat receives more attention for his cowboy antics in Sudan than do the numerous African Union countries that have sent food and troops and spent countless hours trying to negotiate a settlement among all parties in that crisis?
He is absolutely right to ask these questions. Africans are grateful for the help they receive, but let's give them some credit as well. Many of the problems they face today are the result of well intentioned efforts to impose governments and systems on Africans that are not native to them and have no roots there. Many of the economic problems arise from a lack of understanding of the way things operate in their cultures (Note the plural!).
I can only endorse his closing statement -
Last month the Group of Eight industrialized nations and a host of celebrities met in Germany to discuss, among other things, how to save Africa. Before the next such summit, I hope people will realize Africa doesn't want to be saved. Africa wants the world to acknowledge that through fair partnerships with other members of the global community, we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth.
We have to stop trying to 'save' Africa. We need to work with Africans, to provide them with the tools and the expertise - and then let them work out their own solutions.
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It is not often I get a chance to correct something Josephus has written, but this is one of them! The term 'Bantu' refers to a fairly large group of tribes originally from East and Central Africa. It includes the amaXhosa, amaZulu, Sotho, QwaQwa, Herrero, Tswana, Barolong, Barotse, Shona, Matabele, Pondo, Swazi and quite a few more 'tribes,' among them the Masai. All Sub-Sharan and from an area roughly from Ethiopia down the East coast and thence Central and Southern Africa.
ReplyDeleteThey share a number of genes, but differ on others. Interestingly, the recent Genographic Survey conducted by the National Geographic Society of the USA, turned up that while all the peoples outside of Africa share a single "Ethiopian Adam" marker, they fall into broadly seven main groups genetically, suggesting they are descended from roughly seven common ancestors. In Africa itself there are forty-five distinct genetic groups.
According to archeologists, the Bantu peoples started arriving in the northern parts of South Africa in the area around what is now Maputo and Northern Natal, around the same time the Dutch were pushing into the Southern tip of the continent. The original inhabitants, the Qoi peoples, made up of the groups known as Hottentots, Strandlopers and Bushmen got pushed out or exterminated. The Bushmen and Hottentots survive in the Northern Cape and Kalahari areas, with some presence in the Namib desert and Botswana. They built no permanent dwellings, and still don't. The Strandlopers died out completely as their only diet was shell fish and fish and their 'homes' very primitive shelters on the dunes or in caves.
The builders of Great Zimbabwe remain unknown, as the site had been abandoned by 1500 and was not reoccupied until the Shona peoples began resettling the area around 1750. One of the more interesting things about these peoples is their distinctive facial features. Each tribe has some distinct feature in their facial make-up and this becomes even more noticeable when they are seen beside people from West Africa and from the Congo West coast areas.
As Josephus says, the colonial imposition across tribal boundaries, the conflicts between tribes, between religious beliefs and over land and water rights are likely to keep Africa bubbling away for generations, but I firmly believe that only Africans can solve the problems and sort themselves out. Here's a small thought to finish. Africa, south of the Tropic of Cancer, has not, so far, produced a lasting civilisation or Empire. Could this be the future?