Thoughts on Africa

Travelling across Africa brings up a lot of questions about poverty, local politics and foreign aid. Everywhere you go, people are asking you for something. Giving money to children, became giving sweets 'because we don't want to encourage them to beg’, and then developed into giving useful things like pens and paper. But begging is still begging, although it has evolved accordingly – as demonstrated by the children that shouted at us: "Hey Mzungu, give me pen!" Sometimes it seems that the whole of Africa is holding out their hand. Children ask tourists for money, pens and sweets, adults approach local charities or white business people, and African governments are appealing to Western governments for more foreign aid.

But what is the effect of all this giving and are we really doing them a favour? I was reading Paul Theroux's 'Dark Star Safari'in which he describes his oruney from Cairo to Cape Town, as we were travelling through Malawi and Zambia. His conclusion was that many charities do more harm than good, especially in the long run. A number of African economists argue the same, claiming that for Africa to escape poverty, foreign aid has to cease. And you cannot help but wonder what positive effect decades of giving have had. According to Theroux, Africa has only changed for the worst since he lived there 40 years ago.

I guess you could compare it to parents who are willing to give money every time their offspring ask for it - their children have difficulty become fully self-reliant and responsible when it comes to finances, knowing that there is always something they can fall back onto. Many African governments, in turn, are not dependent on their citizens to generate money through business or personal tax. Instead, they rely on foreign aid to fund their mansions, expensive cars and extravagant holidays. Some politicians, it is claimed, even try to make their countries poorer so that they receive more foreign aid. Why would they care whether the economy is booming and business if flourishing. It only means less power for them.

"Africans..." I have heard several times "...don't think about the long term effects of their actions". They rather make money now, charging exorbitant prices, than think about the effect this will have on future business. But who can blame them? In order to think about the future, to take a short term hit for a long term gain, you need to have some sort of security that your investment will pay off. And with so many insecurities - unstable governments, dictators, wars, famine, floods and AIDS - who wants to think about the future? Who wants to work their ass off today to make money for tomorrow? It's much easier to just hold up your hand.

And that is the sad thing about these charities, many of them, I'm sure, well meant, that there is no longevity. What's the point of setting up a school when there is no one willing or able to run it when you leave? Most of these initiatives are run by white people, and as long as there is no transfer of skills or people that are willing to take over, their efforts relatively futile. And even if you dedicate your life to working as a doctor or a nurse in some remote village, curing the sick and improving the lifespan of locals, what effect have you really had when there is no one to replace you when you die?

Africa, more than any other continent, is flooded with western rejects: second hand clothes, cars that are written off, mobile phones that are out of fashion. Most of it donated or sold to them by rich, first world countries. But if these items continue to be given at little or no cost, how can they ever by stimulated to produce on their own. How can a local textile manufacturer ever compete with free second hand T-shirts?

If disasters and misfortune generate aid, then who can blame the African people that perversely hope for these to occur? Theroux writes how the government of Mozambique gave people money after the floods to rebuild their house. As a result, locals starting praying for another flood. The owner of a campsite that we stayed at in Malawi told us a similar story. After paying his employees redundancy money when the campsite had to be temperarily closed, he found out after re-opening, that his employees were scheming
another shut down so they could receive a second pay out. It took the owner a long time to explain that if this happened, he could not afford to re-open again and they would loose their jobs.

During the day, we often park beside to the road to prepare and eat our lunch. Most of the time, the local community has gathered around us within less than 10 minutes. Sometimes they just watch and wait, sometimes they play and talk to us, sometimes they as for money, sweets, pens or food. And what do you do when you have leftover food. Do you throw it away, knowing that there are people that might be hungry? Or do you give them the leftovers, knowing that next time a trucks pulls up on the same spot there will be even more people hoping to get something, again relying on westerners to help them out?

“Every little helps”, I used to think, but now I’m not so sure. Dependency is not a good thing. Theroux describes how, perversely, those African countries that were boycotted by the west, became more self-reliant, developed more succescful industries and economies, and, ultimately, less poor than those countries who relied heavily on first world aid and donations.

As long as corrupt goverments are uninterested in the plight of their people, ignoring their responsibilties and instead leaving it to foreign aid workers to teach, feed and cure their citizens, I don’t think anything is going to change.

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