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I've
had connections with Africa (mostly Kenya, but include Namibia,
Egypt, Zambia, Nigeria, Uganda, etc. etc.) for nigh on 50 years.
What have I observed and learned in that time, and how do I see
the next 50 years for my favourite continent ? Big order
!!
A quote from a recent email from an old Dutch friend, a newly retired Mill Hill Missionary, said - "The aim of a missionary, is to make himself superfluous." As the wife of a mzungu teacher sent out to Kenya in 1968, this is certainly what we were doing by the end of the 1970's. It's like having children; there comes a time when they have to fly free, and make their own mistakes out in the world away from home. I've been watching young sparrows leaving their nests; unfortunately my cats catch and dispatch many of them, but some survive. So when the wazungu left Kenya, many systems we had set up, and to which we gave flight, have since failed and been forgotten.
I remember back in the late 1960's being concerned that we were teaching African students in the high school to become, in effect, white collar workers, taking over ex-pat office roles in the big cities and government offices. However, those jobs, even then, were filled in the three or four years since independence by the first wave of African 25 - 30 year old graduates, who would be 'on seat' (to quote an African expression !) for perhaps 30 years. Even by 1970 there was much unemployment of the 'educated' Africans, who were moving to the capital in search of work. Shouldn't the British ex-pat experts have been educating African students to become artisans, skilled in carpentry, building, electronics, plumbing, engineering, tailoring, agriculture, catering, how to run a business, and so on ? But what did the African students in schools have as role models ? White (or Asian) teachers, in white shirts, who rarely got their hands dirty in manual tasks ! I well remember the astonished row of faces peering at us over the garden hedge, as we dug our own garden, and grew our own vegetables, and did our own car repairs.
Now when I go back to Kisumu, I talk to many African children, and ask them what they want to do with their lives. 99% of them want to go to Nairobi and become doctors, teachers or nurses. And 99% of them will likely go to Nairobi, and end up unemployed, with no skills, and living on a dollar (or less) a day in the slums like Kibera, Korogocho and Mahira, or if they stay in Kisumu, then they might end up in Pandipieri, Nyalenda or Manyatta B. Is this what they have to look forward to ? And that mysterious 'dollar a day' we often read about in the news, how do they actually get that ? Small petty crime, drug dealing, scavenging and selling on anything useful found in the rubbish which is everywhere.
Kibera
slum housing - (photo from 'The Ed Colina
Foundation')
Nowadays,
many new roads and a new railway from Mombasa to the capital and
beyond are being built ... by the Chinese ! Kenya is a
rich country, and there is plenty of money being generated in the
country, but it seems to go only into the pockets of the 1%. Why,
54 years after independence, is Kenya still relying on foreign
engineers, architects and designers ? The labourers on
these projects are all more or less unskilled Africans.
It
seems to me that its easy to say the fault lies with the government
and the newly rich Africans …. but isn't what is happening all over
Africa just the same as it was when the Europeans first set foot in
the 'dark' continent ? They saw possibilities and wealth there for
the taking, and moved in, to exploit and plunder Africa, firstly with
slave trading, then gold and ivory, and finally, with land. The so called 'White Man's Country' of Lord Delamere, and written about by Elspeth Huxley. The
Africans were just a nuisance that could be exploited as cheap
labour, and then maybe given a little simple education, enough to be
able to serve the white man, but (hopefully) not enough to make them
want more. I keep thinking of a quote/poem by Desmond Tutu:
“When
the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible, and we had the
land.
They
said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes.
When
we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land. “
One 'growth industry' I
have observed over the years, is the huge expansion of different types
of Christian churches in Kenya; Orthodox, Pentecostal, Anglican,
Catholic, the 'Israeli' church, the Legio Maria Christian sect,
various American style mission churches .......... they all provide a
focus and support for people, and the richer ones like the Catholics
have done enormous good in pastoral care, medicine, schooling. What will be their future in Africa ? Here, friends were commenting that 100 years ago, we sent white missionaries to Africa, and that maybe its the time we had some black ones come here to invigorate our dying churches !
So now, its some of the
richer and more educated Africans who are exploiting other Africans,
and bringing in 'foreign' experts rather than training their own.
And maybe in another 50 years …. well, some sort of equilibrium is
what we can hope for, in a stable continent, which has plenty for
all, if its shared fairly. The white teachers, missionaries, settlers, medical people who came, stayed briefly and went, will mostly all be
forgotten, as they should be, and Africa will be for the Africans. As it should be.
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