Stop trying to "save" Africa
Stop Trying to 'Save' Africa is the challenge by Uzodinma Iweala, writing in this past Sunday's Washington Post. Although thankful for all assistance from the wider world, Africans "...do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one's cultural superiority."
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.This is the West's new image of itself: a sexy, politically active generation whose preferred means of spreading the word are magazine spreads with celebrities pictured in the foreground, forlorn Africans in the back. Never mind that the stars sent to bring succor to the natives often are, willingly, as emaciated as those they want to help.
Such campaigns, however well intentioned, promote the stereotype of Africa as a black hole of disease and death. News reports constantly focus on the continent's corrupt leaders, warlords, "tribal" conflicts, child laborers, and women disfigured by abuse and genital mutilation. These descriptions run under headlines like "Can Bono Save Africa?" or "Will Brangelina Save Africa?" The relationship between the West and Africa is no longer based on openly racist beliefs, but such articles are reminiscent of reports from the heyday of European colonialism, when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce us to education, Jesus Christ and "civilization."
The author asks questions such as why Africans are not shown for the work they do supporting one another, or why the western press usually says countries in Africa were "granted independence" when often they had to fight and shed their blood for it? This article calls into question not so much the work that churches and other organizations do in Africa but our motives and how we present our assistance.
Read it all here.
I agreed with much of what the writer says, but whenever you are involved in an effort like this, you have to ask yourself whether you want an honorable eat-your-spinanch appeal to modest, self effacing people who will do the right thing for the right reasons, or do you want to take the culture by storm and change minds by the millions. If you want the latter, you can't be succesful without making your cause cool. And that comes at some cost. The question is whether the cost is worth paying. Sometimes it is.
Posted by Jim Naughton![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 17, 2007 10:18 AM
Money has not changed Africa. Adding a few outside stars is not going to change Africa. We can't change other people, or their institutions. But we can change the way we relate to them. And in that way, through people, encourage a change in the institutions (culture of corruption, screwed up policies of African governments) that devastate Africa.
Why is it so easy, from the outside, to destroy a culture than to build one? The state of Africa has a lot to do with colonial heritage, of which missions were a part. It is time to stop trying to save Africa as if we can do that. Only Africans can.
Posted by John B. Chilton![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 17, 2007 10:27 AM
The first step in any campaign like this is simply to get people thinking about an issue they haven't been thinking about before. Obviously Brad Pitt is not going to "save" Africa, but he may be able to get several thousand people (tens of thousands?)who weren't thinking about that continent last year, to think about it now. They may think about it in naive and self-aggrandizing ways at first, in which case all they are good for, in their numbers, is to put pressure on political leaders (not a small thing in itself), but some will move beyond a narcissistic involvement into something deeper. None of us know what effect such a change will have. But it is worth finding out.
Posted by Jim Naughton![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 17, 2007 10:33 AM