Ubuntunomics

Open letter to Bono and Bob Geldof

Dear Bono and Sir Bob

As an African woman from Senegal, I write this letter with some sadness. I have been following you both since I was a young girl living in Africa in the 1990s. I was a fan of your music too. It was amazing to follow your exploits as a young Senegalese girl. And it feels strange now to be writing this letter to you many years later.
Bob, I don’t know if you remember Jacques Bugnicourt, the founder of Enda Tiers Monde in Senegal. He was always talking about you. I was one of his executive assistants in Senegal and Paris.
Bono, I am well aware of your work and your passion for Africa. I have followed your videos, actions and speeches closely and I comment regularly on the One Blog.
I am not writing to criticize or be disrespectful. I really want to enter into a sincere dialogue and try to make you think differently about Africa.

Here is my problem

I know you want to help Africa and Africans, like millions of people around the world. I also know that you have African friends that you want to support in any way that you can. I know you are doing your best to get Africa in to the public eye and reaching out to world leaders to make them more aware of Africa’s problems, an influence that your money and connections buy you. But I and many other Africans now feel strongly that it is time for you to take less prominent roles and to leave space for us to speak for ourselves.

I am saddened and frustrated that you cannot see this for yourselves and that there appears to be nobody in your entourage who is making you understand. Perhaps you are so convinced that Africa needs your help that you are failing to see the bigger picture. The truth however is that you are making yourselves unpopular in many communities both in the real world and on-line. Some will defend your intentions, but the rest feel resentment and frustration at your continued high profile and your influence, despite your decades-long status as ‘friends of Africa’. There is a feeling also that you are not reaching out to the people that can really help to bring tangible change to Africa. This is a failure and Africa does not need to be let down yet again by celebrities or other well-meaning people with supposedly good intentions. Africans have suffered for decades, but they are proud people. They are givers. The trouble is, when you go to Africa, Africans look up to you and smile and are open, but you in your celebrity bubbles fail to see how vulnerable they often are in their day-to-day lives.

The Africa you knew in the 80s and 90s has changed dramatically. The African Diaspora has matured and the African people have changed. They are now working hard in and outside Africa and they are telling you that a constructive discussion about the future of the continent cannot take place with you at the helm. Africa needs partners not masters. You need to step back from the front of the stage and let Africans speak for themselves and make their own decisions about their future.

I also feel that nobody can develop a strategy for Africa’s future without speaking to all Africans. Selecting a few African celebrities or well know names will not give you a complete picture of what is really going on. On the One blog Listening and learning in Africa, you pledged to listen and learn from Africans and Africa, something I know you have already been striving to do on your visits to the continent. But this is not enough. Why should Africans write to you — Bono and Sir Bob Geldof — about their future? What can you do that you have not done already? Why haven’t you asked the Globe and Mail to use a different format after the recent controversies surrounding you. Don’t you recognise that your approach has often been the wrong one; failing to engage sufficiently with ordinary Africans, sometimes refusing to hear more critical voices and using your influence in ways that do not always benefit the continent, while some much-hyped targets – the millennium goals for example – will almost certainly be missed? Don’t you think that Africans deserve an apology or at least an explanation for these failures? Don’t you think that this all smacks of arrogance?

I realise this sounds harsh. I know that you are good people and I know that you are friends of Africa. But please, it is time to start learning from Africans. In addition to the millions living in Africa itself, there are nearly 40 million living outside the continent who want to bring constructive change to their countries and be listened to as well. Please reach out to them rather than looking for solutions on their behalf! It is time for you to start thinking differently and showing a bit of humility. You don’t have the solutions for Africa. If you disappear tomorrow, Africa will still be here and Africans will take care of themselves.

Here are a few ideas that would perhaps enable new spokespeople to emerge and make it possible for you to step down gracefully and leave a positive legacy:

1- Start empowering and promoting African leaders, engage the grassroots in your discussions, share your expertise
2- Bear in mind that we need partners not masters.
3- Speak to and learn from the African Diaspora and the many amazing Africans who are already successful.
4- Be more approachable, even to those who might be critical. Celebrities have influence, but do not necessarily have the answers.
5- Do not impose ‘solutions’ on Africans.
6-Listen, learn and then act.

Thank you both for your time.

Yours sincerely
Mariéme Jamme
A proud African woman

After call (1million shirts)

I had a very constructive conversation with the 1 million shirts founder, Jason Sadler, and the international development guys on Twitter last week. Jason told us that he had simply wanted to use his involvement in clothes retailing and his marketing savvy to do good in Africa, using social media platforms as the springboard for his project.

My assessment after the call is this: Jason is a guy whose initial intentions were good but who was badly advised, so the basic idea was misguided, to say the least. Africa is an emerging market with amazing opportunities, but 1 million t-shirts – apart from being hopelessly inefficient – started from the assumption that Africa is full of helpless poverty-stricken victims waiting for handouts. So-called aid based on this attitude has to stop.

After the call, we had lots of reactions on Twitter and from the African Diaspora. The debate is still raging and interest in the project is now high. I think it’s fair to say that the follow-up call with Jason was very positive. We will all learn from it. And I think Jason has begun to learn about Africa!

Teddy Ruge – Founder of Project Diaspora – and myself will offer our support to Jason, and help him put a strategy together. We will keep the community up to date on our progress in the weeks to come.

G. Kofi Annan is compelling all the reactions in an ebook format. If you want to add your ideas, please contact him via twitter @gkofiannan

Another bad AID idea for Africa

I was alerted yesterday morning by Linda Raftree alias @meowtree on Twitter to the existence of a project to send 1 million tee-shirts to Africa. Run by a certain Jason Sadler, you can find out all about it here

Jason asks each t-shirt donor to enclose a minimum of $1 to contribute to shipping costs. The garments will then be sent to Africa’s t-shirtless and grateful poor. Jason is using social media to promote the message, including Mashable the high-profile social media platform, I assume because of the 2.6 million viewers following the site. You can imagine my fury when I went on to see the project being promoted on numerous sites as a means to helping Africans. As usual, I like to check the excellent Aid Watcher blog to see if people are talking about the project. Sure enough, they are, and I am clearly not alone in my frustration and anger, which only increased as I read the coverage of the project. I wanted to stay rational and calm, but I just could not help myself!

Having already emailed his colleague and got nowhere, I googled Jason, found his telephone number and called him in the USA. I wanted to find out what was going on in his head and get an answer from him. When I managed to speak with him, the conversation was heated. He could feel my anger. Why was I angry? Well, first of all, his idea is conceited, amateurish and idiotic. It will not help Africans. It is just another form of aid that is inefficient and unsustainable and will end up doing more harm than good. Those who know Africa well will agree with me that once the t-shirts arrive, they will end up in a warehouse – provided someone from the government authorises it of course. The possibility that the kids the shirts are intended for will never get them is therefore very real. And even if some are distributed, Jason will not be able to track who is getting them. But most of all, supplying a million old t-shirts, apart from being incredibly inefficient in terms of cost, does not address any of Africa’s many pressing problems. Lack of t-shirts is simply not an issue! All those who donated their $1 and t-shirts might feel good about themselves, but they will have achieved nothing!

Jason admits that he does not know Africa. Sadly, he has never been to Africa, like many Americans I meet. They think they can magically impose their ’solutions’ for Africans from America. Maybe Jason means well. Maybe he wants to help. But his idea is bad, the timing is bad and the project is insulting to Africans and Africa as a whole.

This is not an isolated event. Ideas come from America all the time. People with little knowledge and no direct experience of African decide they want to ‘help’ the continent. But these projects are more often than not damaging for Africa. This pattern needs to stop now and we need to recognise that some NGOs have failed and are still failing Africa!

I was born in Africa. I understand poverty and what is good for my continent and how we can reach out to the poorest of the poor. I visit Africa almost monthly and the dignity and pride of the poor are plain to see. They are not crying out for used t-shirts! How would Americans feel if we reverse the project and ask Africans to collect their old t-shirts and send them to the USA? Would Jason wear one? I think not. So please, treat people the way you yourself would want to be treated!

I and others are urging Jason to see the error in his idea and change strategy. He appears ready to listen .There are millions of ways to help people in Africa. Those who want to help just need to speak to the right people!

You can find excellent coverage of this story here:

Aid Watcher
Dear Jason
Blood and Milk

I am on twitter if you want to reach me @mjamme