Le renouveau congolais posted [Fr] a YouTube video which shows Louis Michel,
European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid and formerly
Belgian’s foreign minister, as he was confronted by Congolese
protesters during a talk given earlier this month on the EU and Africa at the London School of Economics.
The Batwa people were traditionally hunter-gatherers. In Eastern Congo, they lived off what the forest provided, until prolonged warfare and the creation of national parks ended their way of life. Neglected by the government, shunned by other ethnic groups, the Batwa live on the margins of Congolese society. They have no knowledge of agriculture or animal husbandry. They have never participated in a cash economy. They live in temporary villages in constant fear of being driven out by real estate developers or the government. They build their houses out of sticks and leaves and die of things like too much rain. There are about 3,000 living in the area around Goma. They want dignity, they want a way to live as others live, but how? No one can simply give that to them.
In August, I met an American girl in Kigali with a friend named Morgan, a student at the Université de Goma. On a whim, I went to eastern Congo, ostensibly to climb a volcano and see some gorillas, all because Morgan knew a guy who knew a guy who could get me a good rate. Morgan also happened to be one of the most extraordinary individuals I’ve ever met–a law student, an eldest son, the founder of his own NGO, and a good guy to have around the next time Mt. Nyiragongo erupts–and so on a second whim, I made a promise I intend to keep to Morgan and 3,000+ people. Needless to say, I never did get to see the gorillas.
In a series of posts, learn about the Batwa, the support Morgan’s NGO needs to help them, and how I hope to mobilize that support while avoiding all those pitfalls of aid I love to critique, but to which I can offer no easy solutions.
I’ve just read a headline I’ve been anticipating for some time.
China, Zimbabwe’s biggest trading partner and source of aid (in no small part because the rest of the world has embargoed it!) announced it will cut off all
non-humanitarian support for Robert Mugabe’s regime according to Lord
Malloch Brown, Britain’s foreign minister.
This is BIG NEWS, at least from where I’m standing.
China’s also gotten tougher on Sudan of late. Perhaps the powers
that be in Beijing believe they might gain more by playing better with
the international community.
At the very least, they can smell change in the air. Zimbabwe’s no
longer bankable, no longer a country in which to make long-term
investments in industries or in people. Politically, I get the sense
that things could turn in any number of directions at any moment.
This isn’t the Cold War anymore. China was cozy with Zimbabwe and sold
them all the neat internet filtering and radio jamming technologies its
own government so enthusiastically employs. But it was never about
ideology. It was about strategic interest. And for whatever reason,
China’s decided it’s no longer in its interest to throw its weight
behind Robert Mugabe.
(From the Daily Telegraph) Lord Malloch Brown said he had been informed of the
change by Liu Guijin, China’s new special envoy on African issues. He
said he hoped China would join the rest of the international community
in refusing to "offer a lifeline" to Mr Mugabe’s failed regime, which
has led to near universal unemployment and record inflation.
Privately,
diplomats believe that while Zimbabwe once seemed like an opportunity
for China to make diplomatic gains in an area abandoned by Western
countries, Beijing had been unable to avoid the evidence of the harm
being done to Zimbabwe’s people.
It was hard to see what long-term result China could get when Zimbabwe failed to meet basic standards of economic discipline
Last fall, shortly after I returned from Nigeria, I was accosted by a perky blond college student whose blue eyes seemed to match the "African" beads around her wrists.
"Save Darfur!" she shouted from behind a table covered with pamphlets urging students to TAKE ACTION NOW! STOP GENOCIDE IN DARFUR!
My aversion to college kids jumping onto fashionable social causes nearly caused me to walk on, but her next shout stopped me.
"Don’t you want to help us save Africa?" she yelled.
I was having dinner with a French-British Afrophile journalist friend here in Kigali the other night. It involved a lot of shouting and righteous anger even though we agreed with each other. Again the topic turned to aid. My journalist friend said something along these lines. I’ve elaborated:
France, 1788: The countryside is plagued by major food shortages. Mobs are lynching tax collectors. The government, which has squandered all of its tax revenue on foreign wars and luxury goods for the ruling elite, asks the international community for assistance. The World Food Program starts distributing grain. They are a major success! They save the lives of thousands who may have died of famine or malnutrition. (Had they known how many would have died under the blade of the guillotine, they would have given even more food.) The Bourbons live to see another day, and the international community implores them to be nicer. They run training workshops to sensitize the peasants on their rights as citizens.
William Easterly, father of the "aid harms" school of social justice, has an editorial in today’s LA Times that mentions TED in passing ("a recent African conference") and takes aim at the anti-poverty glitterati’s often negative portrayals of Africa:
JUST WHEN IT SEEMED that Western images of Africa could not get any weirder, the July 2007 special Africa issue of Vanity Fair was published, complete with a feature article on "Madonna’s Malawi." At the same time, the memoirs of an African child soldier are on sale at your local Starbucks, and celebrity activist Bob Geldof is touring Africa yet again, followed by TV cameras, to document that "War, Famine, Plague & Death are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and these days they’re riding hard through the back roads of Africa."…
Please don’t think me on a rampage against aid (OK, maybe I am), but I’d like to share with you a discussion going on at Global Voices in response to a blog entry I translated by a Rwanda-based Swiss blogger, Civiliste Guillaume.
In the original post, Civiliste Guillaume shares the his friends’ view on the foreign aid community (Fr):
In Rwanda, we have some friends who work in NGOs or at the United
Nations. They live more or less like kings, removed from the
population, they spend most of the day at the office…But how can they
hope to understand the reality that the people you want to help when
they themselves live in this way?!? It’s simply impossible. When we
talk with them we clearly see the extent to which they have problems
understanding the people they are supposed to help. It’s not by any ill
will on their parts, its because they are part of an organization that
does not let them. I’m not saying that we understand everything–far
from it–but for sure living everyday with children who are considered
less than nothing, we feel, rather than understand, a number of things
about their “problems” but also about their “dreams, projects and
desires” for the future.
I’ll stand up and shout when I think people are dead wrong or heading in a dangerous direction, but I’m generally the girl who sits back, listens and when she speaks tries to do so with conviction but hopes she won’t rock the boat too much. The flurry of blog posts, digg, newsvine and reddit comments, del.cio.us bookmarks, and personal emails (both laudatory and critical) since the article on aid/Bono/TED was (finally) published a few days ago has taken me by complete surprise.
I am really glad that so many people are debating these issues. And if I’ve been able to spark interest and get people talking about TED, aid, entrepreneurship, and the media’s portrayal of Africa in a meaningful way, even if it meant being uncharacteristically polemic, then I am happy for it.
But a few clarifications:
1) Yes I’ve been to Africa and no I don’t think all African children carry AK-47s – A few lazy readers have suggested I go to Africa and see for myself how wrong I am to take a few exceptional examples of African dysfunction to generalize for the entire continent.
Putting aside the fact that I had to be in Africa in order to have attended a conference in Arusha, I’ve been to seven African countries and in none of them have I seen an AK-47-toting child, people dying of famine or war, or any of the other completely ludicrous stereotypes that form the opening paragraph of the article.
This article originally appeared on this blog and has since been published at American.com. It differs slightly from the original version.
It’s time to let Africa imagine its own future.
Arusha, Tanzania–Africa is a continent of despair and desperation. Here, eight year-olds toting AK-47s massacre whole villages and eccentric dictators feast on the organs of the opposition, believing it’ll boost their mojo. Tsetse flies nibble on the eyelids of starving children who sport distended bellies like it’s their birthright, not to mention the fact that by the time you finish reading this article, another six Africans will die from malaria, five from AIDS, and seventeen from poverty and hunger. Also, the wildlife is beautiful and the people like to dance and sing.
That’s Africa, and it’s in desperate need of our help. Luckily, a few enlightened megastars from America and Europe have come to save it.
From an opinion piece from the Ugandan newspaper New Vision:
Due to Africa’s lack of understanding of the character and real
intentions of China, its relationship with the emerging Asian giant
remains largely unbalanced and unfavourable to the interests of the
African people
* * *
Uganda: African Governments Should Study Communist China
Dr. Kiggundu Amin Tamale Kampala
MUCH
has been- written about China’s burgeoning global influence and
pervasiveness as well as its seemingly insatiable desire to establish
and maintain strong economic ties with several African countries. Some
top-notch analysts have also described Beijing as a new Mecca for
global trotting- cap in hand African leaders.
However,
before declaring China as a close and dependable friend, African
policymakers need to ask themselves one important and valid question,
that is, does Africa understand communist China well? If the answer is
no, then, Africans need to find a way of understanding this hitherto
insular emerging Asian economic giant.
