Do African’s want Western style development?

Do African’s want Western style development?

During the past 5 weeks, I have had numerous conversations with mostly Europeans and North Americans about the problems in Africa. Most of the views were that African governments were corrupt and only spent money on weapons and fancy cars; and the people of Africa have a different work ethic and aren’t interested in development, but only to get rich. Fairly pessimistic. At the same time, I had been reading The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, an optimistic take on development and the future of humanity. He argues that Africans do want to pull themselves out of poverty. Depending on who you ask, they’ll give you different priorities.

“They are uneducated and don’t know what development means, so they need education”
“How can the survive without food or water?”
“Treat their health, and then they’ll be in a better state to work themselves out of poverty”

It’s many things, and it’s complicated. We oversimplify it when we speak of Africa, a continent of over 50 countries, and numerous ethnicities. Most may not know that there is no Ugandan person. There are Acholi, Baganda, Teso, Banyankore, Bateso and a lot more tribes, and clans, families. People from the Uganda are vastly different from people from South Africa, and Ghana. Some countries are democratic, some are considered failed states. The contexts are numerous.

Some people I was just talking to were telling me about how the people from the DRC were happy with their lot, didn’t want Western style development. They didn’t want to work themselves out of their situation because they're OK with it!

I don't know enough. We all need to seek to understand the situation of the people who we claim to be doing things on the behalf of, before we actually do 'good'. Similarly with patients, we need to seek to understand their backgrounds before we jump in with a diagnosis, let along prescribing drugs, ordering investigations etc. The same applies for those countries and populations which we deem to be worthy of our attention.

I'm only talking about Western style development. We only ever think of European and North American development, but let's not forget the emerging economies like India and China, who have already waded into the mess with their own style of development. Someone once told me "China is the only country building roads in the Democratic Republic of Congo". Chinese businesses are opening up everywhere. Perhaps this is an option preferred by many, the option to build businesses and make money, which is what a hell of a lot of people want around the world, thereby putting their own destinies in their own hands (with the help of their wallets).

And what of homegrown development? What role is there to play for the future strong economies of Africa in helping their neighbours?

Initial observations about the North

About a week ago, I headed up north to Pader district to do some interviews. It’s a different country up there, mainly because of the 22 year insurgency that’s been going on and the fact that up until a few years ago, 2 million people, that’s the vast majority of the population, were displaced living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. The insurgent Lord’s Resistance Army, led by the elusive Joseph Kony had been fighting government forces, with the aim of establishing a country based on the 10 commandments. They’ve abducted tens of thousands of children over the years to be used as child soldiers (who are now the LRA themselves after growing up), porters and sex slaves. They killed indiscriminately; they mutilated genitals, lips, noses and ears and cut off the limbs of many of those whose lives were spared.

Largely ignored by the mainstream media, the conflict was allowed to reach a peak in the early 2000s. The government had been criticised for ignoring the development of the north, and many many NGOs and UN agencies have taken root in the area known as Acholiland, made up of the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader.

The security situation is much better these days as the LRA are in the border regions of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic. They’ve recently killed civilians and troops in South Sudan, and the other nations along with Uganda and the UN are agreeing on coordinated military action against him. This is worrying in a way as he will most certainly up his own game of abduction, displacing many more in an area where there are so many war displaced already from Darfur, Chad, DRC, South/North Sudan conflict.

It’s a bit messed up really.

My journey up to the north wasn’t the smoothest. At one point, I thought I’d be staying the night in a very small town/IDP camp called Acholibur. There was little transport passing through and the rain was torrential. What struck me in the north at first, was the number of people who appeared to have abnormal mental states. You don’t come across them in Kampala, but in the little town of Acholibur, there were 3 people who were definitely mentally disturbed.

A result of the upheaval experienced by themselves, but also of experienced by the society as a whole?

I hitched a ride with a World Vision Landcruiser to Pader when it was dark, and got into the GOAL office quite late, and a little hungry, but the football was welcoming. There was no running water in Pader, which is something immediately in contrast with what I was used to in Kampala. I’m sure there are many areas in the south without water, but this was the capital of the district. Many of the buildings were mud and straw huts, which are what you expect in villages, but not towns. An example of the extreme inequality of development between Kampala and the rest of Uganda.

I conducted an interview in the World Food Programme compound the following morning, surrounded by 6 humongous tents that housed tons of sacks of flour, and rice, and cartons of oil. This was an indicator of the response that is needed to address the problems following the uprooting of your life to be transplanted into an artificially created camp with little opportunity to continue living, farming and trading the way they were used to.
I carried on to Kalongo town/IDP camp, and the base of operations for the emergency programme of GOAL NGO. The area was beautiful, with large looming mountain standing sentinel over the town. Actually, Ugandan Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) troops were based up there maintaining a look out post. A very strategic position as when I went up there, you could see the various hills around the town, and see the lay of the land for miles. My guide, Peter, who has been out of school due to lack of money, pointed out how the LRA made their way from the road to Kitgum, through fields, copses of trees, to a small ridge next to the town where they waited for night fall. Then they made their move. Usually a small number around 6, where half would raid, loot and burn buildings, and the other half would kill and abduct.

You could see how the town was laid out, with brick buildings lining the road, and just behind them were the huts where villagers and IDPs lived. Using the zoom on my camera, I could see other IDP camps dotted around the area. Children from these camps used to commute into Kalongo time to seek shelter at night. These smaller camps were more vulnerable to attack you see.

Peter also told me about how the IDPs and villagers would gang up on the Karamojong now, to defend their cattle. The Karamojong are armed nomadic cattle herders who have been carrying out cattle raids and killings in the area also.

With the programmes that GOAL and other NGOs are doing, people are gaining a greater amount of food security as they are farming again, although this is barely enough to survive, and little gets to market to be generated as income. There have been many water and sanitation projects too, but I can’t really speak of their impact. I have nothing to compare to, and I didn’t visit any projects due to time.

For sure, the NGOs have made a difference, but real change can only occur when the security problems are resolved and economic development is spurred on by the government. They are the ones who can credibly steer the vehicle of change.

That’s all for now. I don’t want you (or myself) to get eye strain.

Interesting comments - tough questions

And before I hit the sack...

I got this comment (thanks Sunil) regarding my post about the roles of a doctor etc...

"Is your point that that doctor, or whoever, should be trying to change structures so that that person doesn't appear there in the first place? Getting the root of the cause? I'd love to hear some more of your thought!"

Perhaps this is asking too much of doctors, but shouldn't we be asking the rest of society? It's late. Hmm... I need to think about it after sleep.

I'm not mindlessly blogging now... shouldn't have started writing this at this time!

A long time no blog

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of blogging recently. Data collection has finally started big time. I’ve done 2 and a half interviews so far, which will keep me occupied as I try to transcribe them. I have an interviews lined up for the next few weeks and I’m hoping to head to Pader Town and Kalongo IDP camp next week to interview some other contacts who are based out there. Not sure what to expect up there.

I’m really looking forward to getting away from Kampala and being able to put into context, where so many of these NGOs work. I’ve read so much about the war up there too, I’m looking forward to seeing it for real. I’m nervous about the recent announcement that the Ugandan Army is planning fresh offensives on the LRA with UN backing! I think these will be largely confined to the border regions of Sudan, DRC, and CAR.

After hearing stories from Charles, the security guard at Red Chili from Gulu, I’d like to see the places he was talking about, and I look forward to speaking to other people about their experiences.

Most of the other International Healthers in Uganda have pretty much finished their data collection and they’re all heading off to see the gorillas, head to Rwanda and make their way to Zanzibar over the next few weeks. I wish I could join them in Zanzibar, but I can’t really change my flight from Entebbe and to be honest, I don’t really feel travelling and roughing it on the road too much right now. Just not in that frame of mind… It’s gonna be lonelier at the Red Chili without them though!

In other news, I went rafting yesterday on some amazingly intense/insane rapids on the Nile yesterday! It was so much fun. The boat flipped several times, swam a few rapids, thought I was going to drown at some point. Ask me for the DVD when I’m back to watch me fall out the of the raft and flounder.