People in developing nations can be bitter towards international governments and NGOs that come in attempting to help but do so without regard to local culture.
However, that high-minded but condescending person doesn’t always need to be a full-fledged foreigner. On the Mozambique trip there was a Nigerian who, like many well-off Nigerians, was educated in the UK. When she saw people on the island living on poverty and farming plots she wondered aloud why they didn’t move across the bay to the city, where “surely they have affordable housing.” I almost laughed out loud. South Africa still doesn’t have affordable housing for millions, and a drive around Lagos should be enough to dispel any expectation of easily available affordable housing – especially in one of the poorest nations on the continent. I’m sure she could talk all about development theory and her whole purpose in being in Africa was to talk to people for a book she was writing, but she was missing the reality under her nose.
I recently read A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul, a book I highly recommend. It’s well-written and a good story, and it contains lots of truth about Africa. (Be advised that part of the book does revolve around an affair.) At one point the main (African) character reads some articles by a well-known European researcher in an African country who works for the government or a development group and realizes that "He knew so much, had researched so much. He must have spent weeks on each article. But he had less true knowledge of Africa, less feel for it, than [other characters]" because his was purely intellectual research.
No comments:
Post a Comment