Time for a Rethink on Africa

international | miscellaneous | other press Monday August 24, 2009 11:34 by Digital Unity Team - SpunOut.ie

Reflections from Tanzania

Money matters in Tanzania. In Ireland the pursuit of money might, at least in recent years, be more about getting hold of the latest designer handbag, pair of Electric Picnic tickets or iPhone than affording rent or food, but this is certainly not the case in Tanzania.

The lust for income might also help explain why the concept of development is second only to religion as a unifying force for many in Tanzania and the global south. Granted there is a sense of community, fun, laughter and less of a rat race mentality that we in Ireland might envy. However, the lack of adequate food, housing, health, education and opportunities makes Ireland look like the fantastically wealthy paradise it sometimes appears to be to those who seek development as a national priority.

It might also help to explain the global immigration pushes and resulting tensions in the USA, Australia, France, England and Ireland. To the 1 billion people who go hungry every day in the developing world, these countries provide a comparatively luxurious standard of living. According to youth activist James Wandera, Director of Youth in Action the poverty cycle is very real and far from disappearing in Tanzania.

“Things are worse here than in the past. Many people in my community can’t afford to go to Secondary School because of the fees. Rural families struggle to afford life’s basics and their children, often as young as 10, move to cities like Dar Es Salaam to find a better life. Instead, they end up as street children vulnerable to criminals, drug dealers and pimps. Young girls in particular regularly get trapped by predatory older men, often married, who promise them a bright future but leave them alone and pregnant which only worsens the girl’s situation. They end up living in slums and face a life in grinding hardship because there is no state support and very little charity or community help other than the churches and groups like ours”.

James, who himself was homeless as a child, proposes a development system that is more about "teaching a man to fish" rather than hand outs and charity.

“We need government policy to move towards vocational training if we are to build a better country where people have a decent life. $100 can buy a sewing machine that, with the right training, could potentially feed a family and break a generational cycle of poverty.”

Environment, democracy, HIV/Aids, malaria, peace and food are all things we hear about Africa. Looked at in isolation it might be possible to see solutions to these problems.

However, collectively they are rooted in an underlying truth that countries like Tanzania are themselves caught in a cycle of historical injustices and public policy. This cycle is more about poverty than a dangerous notion that Africans are somehow naturally underdeveloped or impoverished.

Africa doesn’t need our sympathy or blind charity. It needs understanding, accurate portrayal and a hand up through long-term social investment. Most importantly, it needs a level playing field internationally so that the vast resources of its people and land can be harnessed for its own benefit. This way we might find ourselves in a more honest and equal relationship where the truth of Africa as a continent of vast cultural and resource wealth can reveal itself.

It is time for a re-balancing. Until the world’s relationship with Africa is resolved, we will all be involved in the shameful cycle of injustice and misery that has continued for much too long.

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Read/watch more:

Introduction article
http://www.spunout.ie/about/Blog/Digital-Unity

Tanzania Youth Vision Association
http://www.spunout.ie/action/Make-a-difference/Tanzania...ation

Who is a Leader (poem
http://www.spunout.ie/action/Be-inspired/Who-is-a-leade...%253f

Hands Across Borders
http://www.spunout.ie/action/Be-inspired/Hands-across-b...rders

FeminaHip
http://www.spunout.ie/action/Be-inspired/Youth-as-agent...a-HIP

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With thanks to the Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund and Connect World for their generous support of our project.

http://www.connect-world.net/Media_Focus/Simon_Cumbers_....html