It’s a thorny issue, this matter of poverty in Africa. It’s thorny because, like all human beings, we like to be treated with respect, we want to be able to hold our heads up high, and to feel our worth, with a healthy self-esteem.
But therein is the trouble. It’s difficult to command respect when daily on international news pictures of starving, malnourished Africans, pictures of war torn countries with the accompanying evils and abuse of civilians, pictures of underdevelopment, are flashing with relish, painting a picture that we all know speaks more than a thousand words. The mindset of the world is fixed as far as our continent is concerned. Little children learn early that Africa is that ravaged continent bedevilled by problems, that continent to which every so often they must donate a pound or a dollar to feed a starving child.
Of course there is a positive side shown out there too; that of endless grasslands full of wildlife, the delight of the tourist who also happens to be the International. So then Africa is portrayed as a miserable jungle continent full of wildlife.
We from Africa would love to shout from the rooftops and say that is not true. We would love to point out that we have real urban cities where many Internationals live alongside the locals, and some are never willing to go back to their lands, so much do they love what our countries have to offer. We would love to shout that yes we are blessed with wildlife but our continent is by no means a jungle where animals roam the city or even village streets, but stay nicely contained in parks. We would love to point out that only a small fraction starves, and that not all our countries are at war, and that even those that are, it’s often certain pockets of the country where rebels clash with government forces etc, while the rest of the country goes on with normal life. How different is that from the case of Northern Ireland and Britain? Or the Basque separatists? We would love to shout that most of us have never seen a dime of donor money, and our parents fed, nurtured and educated us all out of their own sweat, and that indeed again only a small fraction of disadvantaged people ever see this cash, such as a few children’s homes, a few slum dwellers, and a few members of focus groups like HIV sufferers etc. We would love to shout that most of us go through life without any clue that someone in the developed countries is meant to be spending sleepless nights thinking about our many problems and how to solve them.
To be fair to our donors we are aware that over the years a lot of money has flowed to our continent for all sorts of development projects, but we are also aware that much of that money disappeared into private pockets and often only served to soothe guilty consciences of the haves, or to keep the African regimes loyal to their donors. What should ordinarily have gone into building infrastructure, providing services and revamping African economies ended up being a trading card between the donor and receiver governments. With it the donor could demand change of policy, change of politics, change of economic model etc. All the time the common man toiled to survive, and now to also service the ever-mounting debts. It is precisely because of all these maladies that now we are crying for fair trade instead of aid. We just want to earn our upkeep like everyone else, in a fair market. Mark you we were still earning our upkeep even before, but then we also paid for debts whose impact on our country we barely saw. But I’m sure those at the top felt the impact alright.
Trouble is, we are unable to defend ourselves against the negative image and attitude against us since the problems mentioned above are too many, too glaring to ignore. Sure, not everyone starves, but one starving African child is one too many. Not everyone is at war, but any kind of violence is one too much. Not everyone is facing abuse or is unable to access basic health and education, but any such person is one too many. Our infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired; basic commodities like water and electricity that should long have been supplied to all are often inadequate. Droughts still devastate us despite fairly regular torrential rains, and the gap between the rich and poor is so wide that some of us might as well be living in Malibu while others are still deep in the proverbial jungle.
The colonization card has worn thin so let’s not even go there. 40 years or more after independence for most of our countries, we should have overcome any inherited problems by now. And if agreements made during or before independence have kept us tied to debilitating demands, then by now, as free nations, we should have found definite ways to disentangle ourselves from such. As a free nation I don’t expect to hear that another nation has control over any of our resources. Surely that defies all human reason and logic. Whichever way you look at it it’s just wrong.
All that remains really is for the world to level the playing field in terms of global markets, and for us as a continent to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Get to work weaning our governments and systems of the persistent cancers of corruption and complacency. Corruption has ensured lots and lots of public funds, earned through the taxpayers’ sheer hard work, have gone into private pockets. And complacency has meant that public officials see no need to do their job well or work to provide services to the people. The desire to work for the masses is simply not there. The willingness to develop the country is simply lacking. So long have they worked for their own interests that they don’t know how to work for anyone else. Unless it translates into some personal benefit, it’s simply ignored and left to crumble. Which is just not fair. The amount of funds that has evaporated this way, both from our pockets and those of donors, could long have developed Africa, and at the very least we would be middle income economies.
Africans work so hard, we break our backs for our families and our countries. In that we take real pride. What remains is for our leaders to begin to channel our resources wisely, sanely, equitably, and to use all the resources for the benefit of the whole nation, not just a few stomachs. Our leaders must learn to share; they must learn there is no virtue in living in a perpetual state of need and want: That respect has to be earned, and until we respect ourselves, no one out there will. Our leaders must help us lift our heads high by not using our ‘problems’ as a cash cow for donor money instead of fixing these problems which are really not that impossible to solve. To tackle the problem of development of slums, for example, instead of using these as a kind of tourist attraction that attracts huge amounts of donor aid. We choose to be respected, and we will no longer allow a few individuals to live off the suffering of others. With all the attention these slums get by now they should have been upgraded, wouldn’t you say? Isn’t that the whole point of donor funds? Coz otherwise the attention simply is not worth it and is an embarrassing eye sore.
In the end, we decide how the world sees and treats us, and since we are not helpless spectators unable to do anything, we will do our part. We will demand an end to corruption, we will demand that the taxes we pay be used to provide services and improve infrastructure, we will demand fair trade, we will demand stringent accountability in the use of public funds. We will demand impeccable behaviour of our leaders, and we will do our individual part to develop our beloved nation.
We cannot shout to be respected. Respect comes naturally when we behave accordingly. If we no longer need others for our basic survival, then they will begin to see us as respectable equals. But if we are constantly below everyone else in standards, and always needing their help to survive, then we can hardly expect much.
Our preoccupation though is not respect. Our preoccupation is a better nation, a better continent for posterity. Our preoccupation is to change how we are governed, and how we are served. Public service is, after all, about service, right? Not about chieftains and tycoons. All we want is a decent livelihood, quality of life and all that appertains to that.
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