I’ve just returned from my first trip to Africa to visit Acumen Fund’s investments in South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania. One of the most striking things is that within 24 hours (5 airline meals, 4 movies and 3 hours of sleep) I went from sitting in the living room of a woman with AIDS in a poor semi-rural community in tropical Africa to picking up my daughter at elementary school, knee deep in snow, and somehow did not feel the culture shock I expected to feel. (Frankly, I felt much more culture shock readjusting to driving, and not having to lock my doors and worry about the carjackings of JoBurg). I suppose this is largely because the trip was extremely short or it may have to do with weak antennae on my part, but I actually think there might be two things: First, the kind of struggle and community support and perseverance I saw are not something so foreign to us in the U.S. I see the same kind of commitment, optimism and heartbreak in the U.S., particularly through involvement with urban community development corporations. Just add a few zeros to the per capita GDP and a decade or two to the life expectancy, and the circumstances, at their core, are not that dissimilar.
Second, the work we do, by its nature, is very hopeful, the people we work with have made a choice, and the trajectory they are on is typically a positive one. I am sure that traveling for a week in Darfur would be heart-breaking, but to see the faces of 22 people in an AIDS seminar at Broadreach in South Africa, or the 5 or 6 customers in the Healthstore in Kenya is to see people who are taking action, and for whom we have built the beginnings of a system that might make their lives better, through choice and dignity. That change in outlook, that optimism, is actually something that also struck me after visiting India this summer. If I had to take a job as a day laborer or taxi driver or busboy in New York or Mumbai, while the quality of life in New York is doubtless higher now, the prospects for the future (and my children’s future) may not be as bright in New York as they seem to be with all of the energy and innovation in places like Mumbai. While the starting point may be more miserable, the prospects sometimes seem marginally brighter. Then again, maybe I am just an optimist.
Brian, thank you for your interesting article; I always find myself thinking about culture-shock after long flights connecting me between what most would call “different worlds”. Yet, the culture shock simply does not kick in.You are absolutely right. Whether in Africa, India, or the United States, we are all the same. Our optimism and hope is the same, and demistifying our differences will be a bridge to better understanding and better successes in the future! I am very optimistic myself.
Reply to Karim BelayachiBrian, thanks for having a positive outlook on Africa. There are some people who just can’t see anything positive and their trips only reinforces the preconcieved ’stereotype negative’ images of Africa.
Reply to John Mary Lugemwa, OSBImpressions of Acumen from a first-timer
Hi Brian, thanks for sharing your impressions of your first visit to Africa. I’m sorry to break the chain of consonance from previous comments, but I’ll add diversity by differing. Three countries in a few weeks is far too little for the abismal differences to sink in. I grew up in Brazil, and have lived in the US, UK and now in Australia. Unless you spend some years in a developing country, you don’t really cross the chasm of alienation from the stark reality people live there. Yes, you learn to lock your doors and may even develop eyes on the back of your head, but you don’t get in true contact with poverty unless you’re there for some time. I’m glad you’ve put your feelings into words, though, because that is the very impression I get from the perspective of most of my friends that have grown in the ‘developed world’. Many of them show their concern for human suffering in the developing world and may even make their contributions through charity. But it is clear that what they are referring to is a far removed somewhat abstract reality that they don’t really understand. It is a good-willed simpathy at arm’s length. The cruelty of social injustice is far too heavy for most of us to accept within ourselves. This may be a way of dealing with it, and still making a contribution in the right direction. Or maybe knowing - even if only in the back of your mind - that you were there only temporarily, and that you were soon going to be back to pick up your daughter in school, knee deep in powder snow, also helped you cope.
Regards. - Andre
Reply to Andre LevyThere is definitely positive energy to be found in many places throughout Africa. What many people can’t seem to understand is by what processes Africans can make their ingenuity reflect society as a whole and build a different African enterprise altogether. Of course Africa is bourgeoning with creativity and innovation that is very dispersed and suppressed by many factors. Bringing it all together in some sense could impress upon people the idea that yes, while transnational NGOs and missionaries have some good ideas and are quite philanthropic, what is most needed is the technology transfer and basic human capacity to use email/blog/IM/webcast…etc that can assist in a truly African project. In other words, ‘thanks for the bore hole and the mosquito net, but can you teach me how to use email, develop a website from my village where I can start a blog and an African ‘wikipedia’, learn about my continent via google search, etc’? Wow.. this sounds really ambitious and like putting the ‘cart before the horse’. Nope. That’s the stereotype or paradigm that needs to be extinguished. You put a gun in a child’s hands in Sierra Leone and he learned how to use it effectively. You put a laptop or PC in a community center in a village in Africa and build the infrastructure and encourage the ingenuity around it, there will be accomplishments. No its not a panacea to all the bumps ahead for African freedom, but it creates an outlet for all the positive energy we never hear about.
Reply to Steve BrownIt’s a pity you could not spend more time in SA to enjoy the vibre! Africans take their time - they need to warm up - but when they do, they build up to a momentum that will live with you forever! Bryce Courtney in his book “The Power of One” aptly compares Africa to the music of the drum. I am a South African, and yes, I have been to New York and I currently live in daily fear of carjacking or hijacking (I have had my own share of trauma along with my immediate family)but the “drum” of the African people is their heartbeat and it takes time to understand. Computers, laptops, electrical equipment for the majority of Africans are light years away from their everyday! They prefer to cook over twigs, sit straight legged and strait backed on the grass and live for today and today only! Africa is struggling to establish it’s identity, to be recognised “first world” in it’s “third world” outlook. If there was no violence, war and corruption, Africa would be the world’s paradise of Eden.
Reply to Burgie IrelandDear Brian;
Steve thanks for your incredible comments but can we add primary education to the formula.
Congratulations on your recent trip to Africa. It sounds like the trip was short but maybe when you are home a bit longer you will be better able to reflect on the experience. When its a whirlwind (something we Americans are known for) I am not sure the impact hits you until a bit later. We lived in Angola for three years and visited South Africa several times. There are so many more and complicated challenges the country faces that the US began to tackle a long time ago. Its a complicated continent and unfortunately there just are no easy answers. At least its in discussion and perhaps with the issues on the table we can all get involved and stay involved to do something about it. Please try to go again, spend more time, research the situation - go to Robbin Island, Capetown, and jump over to the Kingdom of Swaziland. Trust me you will begin to realize the true inequalities and the lack of transparency in Africa.
Reply to Rhonda StaudtRhonda,
Reply to Steve BrownI definitely would not exclude primary education from the formula given it allows for creativity and innovation for youth in Africa. Something like Askoka’s Innovative Learning Initiative needs to be given serious consideration in governments’ primary education policies throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. A different view of the African child - teacher relationship must be addressed and encouraged in a society where there is a severe shortage of relatively qualified teachers and teacher:student ratios are unfavorable to say the least. Changing the role of young people, particularly those who excel, from merely slashing the grass outside the classroom and substituting for the janitor, to leaders of their fellow peers would be a big step in the right direction. I understand and have heard plenty about the constraints of primary education in an under-resourced system. But the catalyst for looking beyond the constraints and towards the opportunites that lie on the other side of these hurdles, is within the souls of the ever-so energized African youth, who given the opportunity to provide solutions and become leaders, will look at the mountain of constraints and see an anthill.
Wow, tis true Andre,
I live in Cape Town, and as you can see from the pictures on our website and blog, life for the poverty affected is harsh.
Thankfully, I live it - we all do, it’s IN OUR FACE, everyday. The recent power plant failure has brought even the well off to their knees without power, and sewage / health hazards to our prettiest rivers and beaches.
We are all equal. In this human habitat.
Still, locally I notice many people do not see the suffering of the many. Even those in power.
Recently I visited the USA, where I noticed, that graphic images of life ‘as-it-is’ sometimes is too much to take in, and arms length becomes a problem.
I suspect there are two worlds, and we each have to make our own plans to survive. Sad though, on every news map on every channel you always see all the continents, but the reality of their existence is non-tangible or simply too harsh to handle.
I sometimes feel like we are in quick sand and going backwards. I know we need expertise that we don’t have, and guidance from those who have learnt the lessons we face.
&re
Reply to InternAfricaThank you all for these wonderful comments. I appreciate everyone’s insights and reactions.
Andre, I do concur that a whirlwind tour of eight days on the ground is insufficient and will look for opportunities to spend more time confronting the realities of the poverty we are addressing with our investments.
But one of the things that attracts me to Acumen Fund and some of our peers in the field is that we assume that there is no right answer for development in Africa (or India), but that new solutions will emerge only by working closely with people on the ground, often young people, who either ignore constraints or don’t assume that they are insurmountable (as Steve Brown noted).
And I was struck this morning by an article in the New York Times Week in Review, “Misery Loves Optimism”, which describes the correspondent’s similar reaction to the paradoxical hopefulness given the bleakness of the circumstances.
I’d be curious to hear other reactions to the article.
Reply to Brian Trelstad