Let me start by saying that I wholeheartedly and passionately believe in my country and my fellow country men, regardless of tribe, economic status or ethnic origins. I wholeheartedly and passionately believe in Africa, the organised culture (except the repugnant ones) and traditions of the people and I have dedicated my life to ensure that I grow in thought and reason and to develop my continent to the best of my ability.
I have seen the various emails and let me say that I love our thought processes and I think we are a generation that will shift our people to a better and more fulfilling dimension because we are open minded and are willing to listen and understand why people do what they do and what their motivating factors are.
Let me explain further.
In my various everyday endeavours, I was fortunate enough to visit Europe last year and the experience especially for some one who had never been out of Africa, was simply mind-blowing. I was awed by Europe’s smooth and wide roads, the fast trains, the quick police responses, rules of the roads that everybody adheres to, rules of driving, the vehicles and their humongous Airports (I got lost too many times).
On the flip side, I was shocked to come across an English white man begging me for spare change; I was a little uncomfortable when the lady behind the counter at the sandwich place did not say hallo to me before serving me; after falling down when the fast speed train took off, I was disappointed that no one on the train offered to help me up; I found it hilarious when I was invited to a party where you had bring your own food and drink; my colleague at work told me that she has no idea who lived in the apartment next to her, but what was really annoying was when she also told me that she does not see or speak to her mum until Christmas time and when she does visit, she does not carry any gifts for her; none of my hosts offered to show me where to get lunch when it was time to eat and non offered to walk me to the train station and instead I was shown the easy way to do so – to google the map to my hotel or take a cab. The irony of the situation is
that we never do that in Kenya when people from other countries visit, Infact, we treat them as guests with heartfelt warmth, comfort and compassion.
These are things I have never encountered before or if I had, then this was a real wake up call.
When I explained all this to a close friend, he reminded me not to ever forget that Americans, Europe and Europeans are way ahead of us; 200 years both economically and socially. Africa had been colonised and has suffered for a very long period and we are just starting to pick ourselves up, albeit slowly but, we are getting there. On the other hand, what is ‘getting there’ really, is it having gadgets, motorised or automatic vehicles and machinery, or having huge buildings and computers that can do marvellous things that hitherto man could not do or is it living in an organised community where proper healthcare, food, shelter and peace prevails among all members?
Let me digress a little bit.
At a holiday spot in deep Samburu in Kenya, I sat down and marvelled at the brain of the white man, who managed to settle in Africa, conceptualise simple housing, designed using wood and stone found freely from the surroundings and the genius creation of solar power and generators and various amenities to ensure that he could still get the comfort he experienced at home in the deep heart of the Samburu. Why do you suppose the various inhabitants of the area never dreamed of this? The funny thing is that the traditional Samburu homestead has now become a tourist attraction in this area. Tourists must pay Kshs. 700 to get in and view their way of life.
At a fundraising congress that I attended in the Netherlands, I was shocked by some of the images flashing across screens during the different presentations and these screens were showing faces of African children with flies on their pus infected eyes and noses. These images were the ideal images that fundraisers use to raise money for Africa and other third world countries. One of the presenters who is a guru in the fundraising field and who had been fundraising for over 30 years gave a lecture on the kinds of images and messages that sell and propel to action the various members of the public in Europe who are potential donors. This is how they do it, and this is how they have always done it, the pictures simply turn their citizens into donors for Africa. I doubt that any other picture would have the same effect on them.
When it was my turn to speak, I talked about fundraising from Africa, which is what I do and I presented various ideas on how Africa and Africans have their own solutions to their problems. I pointed out that a research from Forbes Magazine had reported that Africa’s wealth had actually grown by 5% in the year 2006. I mentioned some of our most outstanding achievements such as improved healthcare in public hospitals and our own work in my organisation where many community workers have been trained to work in areas where there are little or no health amenities. These health workers are able to diagnose and treat communicable diseases, help women give birth and where they cannot, they make arrangements to ensure that patients go to the nearest health centre. They also talk to people on what they can do to prevent themselves from getting these diseases.
(Community health workers are traditional healers (or witchdoctors), traditional birth attendants and other respected members of their own community who the people look upto for guidance or help in other areas of their life).
I then criticised some of the presentations that had been made before mine. I told them that cancer research institutes who have been in operation much longer than any of us have been in the fundraising business, have been raising money for years without ever showing their potential donors pictures of a diseased and or cancerous breast, cervix or penis. I talked to them about dignity and why pictures of bodies floating after the Katrina aftermath were never shown in the media. I asked for an answer to the age old question of why the AIDS/HIV pandemic has spread faster and further even after the fast picture of a naked African Aids victim was televised for all to see (and hopefully fear). I pointed out that poverty levels in the poorest parts of Africa have not reduced despite the huge amounts of Aid from the west. I even agreed with them that Africans have their problems yes, but so do the developed countries in the form of the Iraq war and other man
made atrocities such as 911.
The difference between them and us is that we are a continent full of hope and not of paranoia and fear. I challenged each one of them to withdraw their NGOs from Africa and watch as Africans rose to the challenge and moved to fill in the vacuum with hard work and a lot of discipline. I challenged each one of them to stop hiding behind the façade of what their organisations really stand for, and that NGOs that exist to help ‘save’ Africa are purely for selfish gains and to ensure that their citizens have jobs and that their various interests in many parts of the world are ‘taken care of’.
What I know for sure is that I have heard that thousands of American’s sons have died in the Iraq war; however, I am yet to come across pictures of dead soldiers’ bodies strewn across dust with blood spewing for their mouths and noses, and legs twisted in an inhuman way. I know for sure that the Katrina disaster killed many Americans but I never saw pictures of dogs eating up the bodies of dead humans after the scourge, I only heard about it on Oprah. I read about this today;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Australians
And it is shocking to say the least that Australia would have a secret such as this one which few know exist. I know for a fact that America rarely talks about the red Indians, the true natives of America who live without the various comforts that a common American would not live without, and we rarely see pictures of Americans who live in card boxes in LA on the cold concrete where right across the road there are fellow Americans who live in million dollar homes.
What I know for sure is that on Sunday the 6th of January 2008, the entire Kenyan country was united in prayer (Christian and Muslims alike) for one hour and all television stations in the country (except for aljazeera) was tuned into the televised prayers. While Aljazeera reported that tens of thousands of Kenyans had been killed, maimed or displaced in ethnic battles, Kenya was united in prayer with only one thought in common, peace. This was not reported either on CNN or Aljazeera. I know for a fact that Kenyans of means are gathering food, clothing, sanitary pads and water to various camps to help their fellow people and this has not been reported in the international media. I know that those living in high income areas have come together through their resident organisations to collect money to buy foods stuff through the malls and supermarket chains who are then distributing the same to those who have been displaced, however, I am yet to see this
on any international media. I know the middle income class have through churches, women organisations and various youth groups are forming security cauldrons where they lives so that those who are taking advantage of the situation such as armed hooligans, have to go through them first before reaching their men and women.
I probably don’t have all the facts, and there may be a lot more going on in the deep parts of the clash prone areas, but I am convinced that American and European television consumers thrive on bad news and that they thrive on bad news especially from Africa.
In Kenya however, we don’t believe in spreading negativity and paranoia to our citizens. I believe that everyone thrives on positivity and this is reflected in the way that CNN or Aljazeera packages news from their own atrocities in a way that does not draw panic from their own citizens or from the rest of the world.
If Africa is so bad, why then do they keep coming here? So that our poor can believe that they can’t live without Aid? So that Africans can continue believing that they are primitive and cannot lift themselves out of poverty? So that Africans can keep spawning a generation that only know how to receive and not to give? Why do you think Kenyans laughed Dr Alfred Mutua’s generous donation to Katrina victims? Is it because we were finally giving and not receiving from Europe for once?
I will never support any sort of focus on propagation of negative information about Africa and in particular, my country Kenya. It’s simply annoying and it does not do our citizens any good. However, I will support those who highlight where there is a problem and in the same breath highlight what Kenyans and Africans are doing to meet these needs and where the help is needed.
