Helping the poor Africans: another view

The hopelessness of Africa and the futility of foreign aid are themes that I've taken up three times in the last two months. Click on the "foreign aid" tag to go to my posts of October 20th, and November 11th and 18th.

In these posts I've recommended and quoted from excellent books by people who have lived in Africa and have seen through all the hokum put out by the "agents of virtue", as Paul Theroux calls them. Today let me add to the bibliography Kalashnikovs and Zombie Cucumbers, by Nick Middleton. (1994, Sinclair Stevenson, London; paperback by Orion, 1995)

Middleton made two lengthy trips through Mozambique before and after the 1992 peace accord which ended the long and bitter civil war between the communistic Frelimo and the white-backed Renamo. ("White-backed" doesn't refer to the colour of the soldiers' skins. It means supported by Rhodesia and South Africa.)

He describes Mozambique, before and after, as a place where the West runs into the heart of black Africa -- a country where the Kalashnikov meets the zombie cucumber. Those interested in obscure but potent drugs will find details of what the zombie cucumber is and how it affects you. Middleton does not tell us how to import them.

The part of this "anti-travel" book which bear on the subject of foreign aid show the contradictions of the modern business of doing good. Let me offer just a snippet:

"There are all sorts of motivations for foreigners to give things to...developing countries. In many casees there is certainly altruism... But there is often a degree of self-interest in the generosity too.

"Some aid workers...were not convinced that what they were doing was ultimately necessary, although they would never say as much on the record. When I asked one top employee of an international agency how much longer he thought his aid programme should continue after the ewar ended, he shrugged and said, 'Sometimes I think there was never any need. It's the need of the international community.'"

Kalashnikovs and Zombie Cucumbers ought to be read by the do-gooders at CIDA (see previous posts) and all those labouring under the delusion that foreign aid and charity will magically save Africa from itself.