Message-ID: <NCBBIBOGDODDOLCLEHGHCEGGCFAA.mzungu@lifeinafrica.com> Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 22:35:30 +0300 From: The Life in Africa Foundation <mailto:mzungu@LIFEINAFRICA.COM> Subject: still seeking stories... To: mailto:DEVEL-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Sitting back and just "listening" over the past few days has been most interesting. As Kerry pointed out, learning to listen is extremely important.One comment I would like to make is that in the original message which unwittingly sparked this heated debate, I used the term "pan-African diversity." I realize now that this term has different meanings for different people. I was referring to the geographic and cultural diversity across Africa. Others took it as an allusion to political ideology. That was not the intention -- my Ugandan colleague who proofed the letter for just that kind of potentially offensive terminology also missed it. Thus, I apologize for that error, and will certainly endeavor to avoid such blunders in the future.
The fact is, I agree with very much of what Nicole and others have said. As such, I find myself grappling with still unanswered questions regarding the Pan Africanist arguments against specifically what LiA is trying to accomplish. I hope some of you can help me to understand. Forgive me for posing these questions in the context of LiA's intentions -- I realize that Pan-Africanism is a much larger issue which has nothing to do with our organization's existence -- but I find I learn better when theory is applied to the concrete. And I am interested to learn about this.
The idea of LiA is to present and disseminate a side of African people that Americans/Europeans have thus far largely ignored -- that Africans are people, not statistics, and should be respected as such. The stories we disseminate emphasize Africans making things happen for themselves, according to their own individual priorities, and try to convince the readers that "success," "wealth," and "development" cannot and should not be judged according to Western values in another cultural context. Our target in these dissemination efforts is not Africans, but non-Africans, whose closed minded ignorance has wreaked so much havoc on this continent in the past.
The request for stories sent out last week asked *African* MFIs to submit such stories -- these organizations are (in my experience) most often indigenous, and African run. LiA provides a venue -- the hardware, the software, the labor and the audience -- for telling their stories (to try to open the minds of non-Africans). The ulterior motive is to get the non-African audience to make donations which can enable more Africans to have the opportunity (through credit from *African* MFIs) to create what they want to create for themselves.
In the course of the debate, several comments were made about foreign NGOs siphoning off contributions intended for Africa -- this is all too sickeningly true. However, I find the implication that LiA is (inevitably) doing that somewhat ironic, particularly since LiA is so new that we are not yet even able to accept contributions! And when we are able to do so in the future, we are dead against using contributions meant for loans to Africans to fund our own activities. We have publicly stated this in newsletters to our audience, and for this very reason are working to create diverse revenue streams and keep expenditures low (we are entirely volunteer run, for example). Donors will have a transparent choice of "giving mechanisms," so that what comes in to LiA earmarked by the donor for MFIs, goes directly out to MFIs. Our role in this case would be to facilitate the international transfer of funds (which can be quite expensive).
In addition, we also wish to encourage our readers to contribute or invest *directly* in the MFIs whose activities/beneficiaries they read about, bypassing LiA completely (ie, MFIs are invited to post the relevant details on our website). I assure you, if we were intending to siphon off the top of contributions to fund our own activities, that would not be the smartest way to do it.
Do African MFIs *need* LiA? I don't think so. Very many are doing quite well without us, which is why I, for one, believe their stories should be told. But perhaps some will see it as a business opportunity for raising some funds at a low financial cost. Will their participation benefit LiA? Of course it will, by providing the material that will help us to achieve our mission -- which in turn can also benefit them. If they do not need or want that benefit, that is their decision alone to take, as businesspeople who are more than capable of making decisions in their own best interests.
So back to the questions I am grappling with and wish to understand:
1) From the Pan-Africanist perspective, what boundaries does this approach cross which make it unacceptable and/or offensive?
2) Does offering a service to African MFIs, such as what I have described, appear to Pan Africanists to imply an attempt to control Africans? If so, in which *specific* way(s)?
3) If an African or group of Africans were attempting to do *exactly* the same thing, would the "middleman" role be more acceptable? (In different words, if my Ugandan colleague had signed the original message instead of me, would the reaction have been the same?)
4) Finally, according to the Pan-Africanist perspective, are there any circumstances in which it is acceptable for Africans and non-Africans to work together in business dealings or in partnerships for mutual gain? If so, how are those circumstances defined?
Thank you in advance to any who care to reply.
Christina Jordan The Life in Africa Foundation mailto:mzungu@lifeinafrica.com PO Box 28825 Kampala, Uganda http://www.lifeinafrica.com