As an African teenage girl I have often been asked a lot of questions by foreigners that seem ignorant to me, to a point that I have to sometimes ask them if they are being serious. Then later I'll go home, put on the TV, and the first thing I see on the news-that is after all the announcements about the U.S. presidential elections, oh, and all the bombings taking place in the middle east- are little African babies with flies on their noses walking around with wildlife and not a care in the world.
When I was about 13 years old, I once saw some white foreigners taking a picture of one of the dirtiest places in my country's capital. I was shocked and a little confused by this scene, wondering why they should be taking pictures of that place and not a picture of any one of our beautiful landmarks as we usually do when we travel to a foreign country. Then it hit me; they were taking those pictures so that they could put them up in their little magazines and television shows, to prove to the world that Africa is not ready for complete self-rule yet, that we still need the help (intervention) of foreign -mainly western- nations for us to survive. From that moment on I never got mad at people asking me these impossibly dumb questions because I saw that it was their media that was feeding them all this sensational rubbish that they were foolishly eating up. This is a question a boy in my 7th grade class (I went to school in the U.S. for six years) asked me once "in Africa do y'all ride lions to school? Because my dad said that there are no cars there". I'm sure you can imagine my outrage at this, I mean, I may have left Sierra Leone at the young age of six, but I do remember that there were cars-and nice ones too!
Then there is the subject of children in Africa (i.e. newborns-20 year olds); yes, there are a lot of underprivileged children in Africa (keep in mind though, that there a lot of privileged ones too, just not as much as the underprivileged ones), and yes, maybe a lot more than the kids in America, but one of the main reasons is because America is a country while Africa is a continent. Of course there is no denying the fact that the children are considerably unhealthier here than in the world's more advanced continents. Kids do die from malaria and typhoid and even some unknown diseases (a friend of my sister's died last week from typhoid) that if they were in a more medically advanced country they would not be dying from. And I really do appreciate the help given to us by the U.N and numerous N.G.O's, and I do not wish for this help to stop, but WE ARE NOT HOPELESS THOUGH!!!!!! We're not, as hard as it is for you to believe, actually doing something to stop these untimely deaths from happening, we just need a little more time and money, and not your patronising sympathy!! As human beings we are capable of carrying on the same tasks and coming up with the same ideas as westerners. We're just not encouraged to do so. We are often told that we are hopeless (indirectly of course) and incapable of thinking for ourselves. I'm not using this as an excuse but it's just like a child that love's singing and wants to become a singer when they grow up. But all they hear from everyone they tell about this dream is "you can never become a singer because you're just not good enough". Now what do you think that that child is going to do (be honest with yourself)? Will that child continue to pursue it, or will they just give up and go on a completely different career path, thereby settling for way less than they are worth? More than likely that child will give up. Don't get me wrong - some will continue to pursue, but those are the highly motivated (and strong headed if I may say so) ones and they are few and far between. Well that's just the same thing that Africans (especially the youth) are going through, but in this case it affects a whole continent. Of course there are some of us (and I m proud to say that I am one of them) that will continue to fight for a change and improvement but then the rest will just leave everything to chance.
I just think that we don't need any more money from the outside world (i.e. everyone outside of Africa) because let's be honest the politicians will just end up eating it up and eventually improve the country with the leftovers. So all we need from the outside world is encouragement and support, and trust me, with that we WILL go a long long way!!
The best thing they can do for us is not to give us money, or to give us their sympathy, but to just give us the encouragement, support, and the confirmation that they believe that we can make it through by ourselves.
So what do you need? I'd love to help, in fact, I fully intend to invest my life in helping developing nations and conflict zones to improve the quality of life for the people. As someone who has lived in a developing nation, you may be able to provide me with more insight as to what exactly is needed.
Wow!! I never thought I'd get a reply so soon. To answer your question what we need is people who actually care about the state of the continent and want to help out not because thay saw a news article about Africa, but because they've been interested in the situation for as long as they can remember and will not put it on the backseat when someting alot more interesting comes along. If you are absolutely certain about helping all you need to do is gather up a few volunteers(ones that care as much as you do), come to Africa(because I've come to find out that most volunteers usually help within their commfortable homes by donating, and so don't actually know what is going on). Most importantly you shouldn't just bring along a whole bunch of foreigners and form some NGO, you need to get the Africans involved as much as possible, even more than the volunteers you brought along. We are tired of seeing people do work for us, it's time for us to do it ourselves. This may sound difficult and even expensive but trust me with enough faith and dedication, you can pull it off. Thanks again Lennon 12....:)
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"Never go with a hippy to a second location."
~Jack Donaghy
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
That is a really great blog. My father is from Africa as well, and although I never lived there, I saw, on visits to my family, that it wasn't a bunch of people living in huts dying of starvation. Now I know that he is most likely not from the same part of Africa that you must be from, but it can't be that much different. However, even I find myself succumbing to what I've seen portrayed of Africa in the media. Thank you for opening up my eyes.
Your welcome, it's just good to know that people are actually willing to accept that they have been made to believe something that was not true. Not everyone will be as openminded as you and will be willing to believe that not all the things that they see on t.v. about Africa are actually that way. It gives me ope though that there are some of you out there.....:)
Hello
I understand your frustration of how ignorant the West is about Africa. Such misconceptions have caused reckless giving that has seen the rise of dictators like Mobutu of the former Zaire (now DRC). I really don't think the world should completely leave Africa alone.Our problems are linked with the West and If anything I would like to see the West helping Africa in some way. It needs to go beyond charity though. Aid needs to be aimed at sustainable development which helps people eventually look after themselves as opposed to relying on imports. The problems of Africa are complicated, we cannot oversimplify the issues. As an African in school abroad I hope to learn as much as I can so I can help people beck home build up the continet.
Lets hope for the very best!
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tinacho
You are right by the way, the west should not leave Africa COMPLETELY alone. Yes, some if not a great amount of Africa's problems came about because of the West. I'm not saying that means that we ourselves are in the clear fro that, but in some ways we couldn't them. But it's a bit too late in the game for us to be plaing tha blaming game and leaving it all to the west to solve, they obviously aren't. So yes, we shold accept some help from them, but rely on them completely we ma not. You are also right about the aid for the sustainable development-keword being sustainable. To tell you the truth hat is one of the major problems of Africa, it sems as if everything was built to last only temporarily and that shouldn't be ow it should be done. Hoping for the best I'm afraid is not enough. WE NEED TO ACT!!! And with alot of volunteers rom home we can do this. By the way it is very commendable that you are helping out your family anyway you can. Let's continue to attract as much attention to this issue as we can and then I know we will definitely achieve what we strived to achieve in the beginning-freedom!!....thank you Tinacho...:)
That was an interesting blog. You are correct on the labeling theory. If nations continue to view the continent of Africa as hopeless then the people of Africa will become hopeless.
I understand what you are attempting to deliver as a message and I'm glad it is coming from the personal view of an African but I dont think Africa can tackle its numerous problems without financial aid from foreign countries. When i went on a service project to Tanzania this summer, we drove across country on the TanZam higway. This road is equivalent to your average main-street america width (not really a highway) but its impact on Tanzania was massive. We passed a huge number of transport trucks that can now deliver goods and boost greatly the Tanzanian economy wiht this road and we also saw charter buses that are increasing revenue from tourism. This highway was funded fully from $110 million in aid from the bush administration for the purpose of the building the highway and without that foreign aid it wouldn't have happened. It was good though that the u.S. didnt send people to build the TanZam highway but instead the Tanzanian government employed many people to do the work, and i agree with your point that the Africans should do it themselves. But from what i have seen I do not think that the developing African nations can get by on "support" and "confidence building' alone.
Government has no other end, but the preservation of property. - John Locke
Yes, some aid should come, but not alone. The aid should come along with the moral support. We may need the money but not the patronising aspect of it. It shouldn't be given as a handout, but as someting that was deeply felt. It should be given with the idea that we want it-not desperately need it. Yes it could be used to develop the continent (like the Tanzanian road you spoke about), but if it's going to be given out as if they are grudgingly doing so and in the back of their minds they don't think we are going to use it wisely, then thanks but no thanks. So in short aid should be given, but not patronisingly so.
This is interesting that you should make this point I and I agree with you to a degree. When studying the history of Tanzania, we took a look at the work of the first president, Julius Nyerere. Now Nyerere was successful in uniting the tribes into a country, and we saw his intentions by reading his famous speeches. In one of his most famous arguments he argued that Tanzania should not accept foreign aid because it would supplicate the African nation to the Europeans they had just gained independence from. Instead, he advocated for "generous" loans and foreign investment so that Tanzania would'nt be obliged to the donor nation. If this is what you are saying, then I would agree with you (although I dont necessarily agree with Nyerere socialism for Tanzania which ultimately failed)
Government has no other end, but the preservation of property. - John Locke