Aid for Africa: Not pro bono

Dambisa Moyo’s new book “Dead Aid” challenges the Western history of sending aid to Africa. Building off the tradition of William Easterly’s “The White Man’s Burden,” Moyo criticizes celebrities who portray Africa as a desolate child in desperate need of saving. 

Moyo, a Harvard-educated economist from Zambia, says that foreign aid is preventing Africa from becoming self-reliant, and she proposes that within the decade, all foreign aid to Africa be cut off.

Moyo’s criticism, though difficult for all of us would-be do-gooders to swallow, rings true.

I have been “aiding” Africa for as long as I can remember. In my Sunday school class we used to sponsor an African child. We had a picture of a little girl, and we would send her letters. I remember dropping pennies into the jar below her picture, proud of the fact that I had helped her be able to go to school.

In high school, it was more of the same. Our volunteer organization fasted and collected coins to raise money to buy medicine and camels for people in Africa. Every year we would watch a promotional video that showed starving children halfway around the world while some Bono tune played in the background. All of us would walk away energized to raise money.

I never thought for a second that all of our quarters and fasts were not only not helping, but, as Moyo argues, that they were part of the problem.

Maybe our attempts to help were fueled by some lingering sense of a “White Man’s Burden,” or maybe there was a deep-seated sense of cultural condescension that drove us to want to donate to Africa. I’m not sure.

I do know that the Sunday school kids and, I suspect, most of the pro-Africa celebs are involved out of a true desire to do good – even if their efforts are blinded by a Western world view.

Good intentions aside, if there is a chance for true development in Africa, it must start with the people of Africa.

Now is the time to change our thinking about foreign aid. Microfinancing projects that encourage start-up businesses by granting low-interest loans to local entrepreneurs could be an answer. These efforts encourage ingenuity and foster African development from the ground up. It’s a real pick-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps approach that agrees with American individualistic sensibilities.

These efforts take the old fish problem and extend it for the 21st century: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. 

Invest in his start-up fishing business, feed his village for a lifetime.

If Americans want to make a real difference in Africa, it is time to change our conceptions about aid. We must look beyond the tear-jerking videos and U2 songs and start helping the people of Africa help themselves.