Africa for Africans: Thoughts on Humanitarian Work

By Kennedy Odede in The Wesleyan Argus, 7th September 2010.

I want to talk about Africa as an African. I’ve heard so much about the continent since I was a small child, and now that Africa figures prominently in debates as I pursue my studies in the United States, I feel my perspective is an important asset for understanding these debates, and working towards solutions based on the questions they pose.

As you all know, Africa and its people have been used and exploited for centuries. Historians often say that history repeats itself. I agree that this is true when we look at how Africa has been treated for the past 200 years.

Foreign interest in Africa started with explorations to discover Africa, which led to centuries of exploitation on a number of levels. Now, there is a new way of exploiting Africa: trips to the continent that grant visitors more opportunities than the locals.

The work becomes trendy, something to flaunt to get internships and acclaim stateside. Many privileged young people come with the mentality that they want to “do something” to help change Africa. Many people publish books about Africa, as if they have the fortunate position of articulating the continent from a Western perspective, something the locals don’t have the affluence or time to do. Some people even go so far as to collect money by giving talks about Africa. These people are helping themselves in the name of helping Africa, feeding their own fantasies rather than facing the reality of Africa’s situation.

After publishing their articles, and making more and more money, these foreigners are invited into schools and colleges to give talks. If schools and colleges need someone to talk about Africa, I would encourage them to invite an African to talk about his or her experience in Africa. There is no way someone who visited Africa for less than a month will be able to start giving complex and accurate talks about the country. Furthermore, there is no one Africa, as it is composed of many countries, which in turn house a multitude of cultures. Africans are the best equipped to speak on behalf of Africa, and all of the diverse, culturally rich countries the continent contains.

Africa for Africans is what I’d like to advocate for. It is a phrase used by Marcus Garvey, a man who died fighting for the liberty of African people. African problems will never be solved as long as many advantaged young people from the western hemisphere think that they can save the world, starting organizations or volunteering in Africa without a deep engagement or understanding of the communities they seek to improve. Without understanding the complex economic, social, and cultural issues involved, volunteers take advantage of the community, and in turn, the community takes advantage of volunteers for a quick fix, a tiny drop of money. This is not challenging the community to engage, and this is not challenging the volunteers. Money alone does nothing, and volunteering alone does little more. I want to cry when these shortsighted organizers talk about Africa, and how they are going to solve our problems.

Some of these volunteers want to help Africa, but they can’t truly affect change through methods that do not involve full community engagement. Others do not really care about Africa at all, and come back to the Western world, get good jobs, and use their African experience for greedy purposes.

The reality is, not a single one of us, especially an outsider, is going to be responsible for solving the deep problems of a country, no matter how much we care about helping Africa. Africans can and must solve their own problems, but only if Africans are given access to partnerships and resources that were taken from them long ago, and are still being taken from them today. Africans also want the same media attention that the rich young westerners enjoy when they come back to their home country. I’m tired of seeing young privileged youth from the top universities given attention while the small people in the heart of Africa who are doing great change on the ground, both on their own and with outside volunteers, are not mentioned.

I speak from my own experiences. I worked in Kibera slums for more than ten years. I was used by people from the outside, who didn’t want me to see anything good from Kibera. They wanted to continue glorifying poverty, but they never truly cared. They came with their own ideas of how they could save Kibera and I turned a blind eye to them. I know money cannot solve Kibera’s problems. I know a few organizations working in Kibera and based in America who waste their resources by paying outsiders to come and run their organizations in the slums. They have good networks that help them exploit the people on the ground, people who never read their glossy brochures.

This kind of organization will never help indigenous organizations. In fact, they feel threatened by the indigenous organizations, the people moving mountains without piles of money behind them. The rich western organizations only help by organizing sports tournaments for those in the slums. This perpetuates the idea that slum people are only capable of kicking around a soccer ball, but are incapable and undeserving of a serious education. Instead of spending thousands on “community-building exercises,” like soccer tournaments or discussions, build schools and hospitals that are actually accessible (unlike the ones that pretend to be open to everyone, but secretly raise the prices when the foreign donors get back on their planes).

I’m writing from my own pain as a slum boy. We all know education is the only way out, but these organizations denied us education. They don’t want to engage the community, and they don’t want the communities to share their thoughts with them. I know they build hospitals in the slums, but they are all too expensive. When I founded a community organization in Kibera, some existing western organizations refused to cooperate with my organization. Even though many were not willing to work with me, there are a few organizations that believe in partnering with local communities to achieve their goals. For example, AFK exposed my organization internationally.

If other organizations can be like that, then a lot can be done in Africa. But many organizations still try to help communities without engaging effectively with them. They craft ideas in the Western world, and pretend that those are Kibera people’s ideas. They pretend that the organization is run by the locals as a way to entice donors, when this is rarely the case!

In fact, I’ve seen many organizations using Africans who are less educated as their partners to sing songs and stand as symbols of suffering. These same Africans are denied agency of power in that organization. They are being used in name in order for the organizations to get more grants. Any privileged person who wants to work for the poor must first respect them and treat them as equal partners. And they must know that poor people know their problem better than any outsiders ever will.

But these kinds of projects, admirable in sentiment but insensitive in implementation, will not last for long. You can fool the locals for a moment, but you can’t fool them forever, and one day they will stand up for their rights. They will stand with good friends of humanity all over the world who want to spearhead change from the ground level.

This is why I founded Shining Hope For Communities with my partner Jessica Posner: to create an organization that rejects the ineffective principles I have described above, and truly works with local communities to arrive at effective, long-lasting solutions. We are both equal partners in the organization, and bring different insights and experiences to our work. I bring my experience living in Kibera for twenty-three years, while Jessica brings her detail oriented, managerial skills. Our projects are also being prepared from the ground, where I grew up, and our goal in America is to find the resources to help implement the projects that the community has decided on. It must be said, though, that our work is not possible without the guidance, advice, and support from our board members and partners, who bring immense aptitude to the organization.

My hope is that Shining Hope For Communities will help transform what it means to be a charity organization in a developing nation, and prove that problems in such countries can be more effectively and positively dealt with by constantly working with local communities in true, 50-50 partnerships.

However, I know that I am not changing the world. In fact, I would urge people to try and restrain from using that phrase, as no one can change the world. It is too big a place. But I know that all of us, both outside volunteers and locals, can work together to positively impact society one community at a time.

Odede is a member of the class of 2012 at Wesleyan University. He is also one of the founders of Shining Hope for Communities.