Blog 5: The theme emerges

Blog 5: The theme emerges
December 26 – Nkhata Bay

It has been many years since I was involved in the development industry, or the aid business as I prefer to call it. I was a fresh faced Canadian who had applied to CUSO to see Tanzania, the newly independent country where my friends Ulli and Weidi came from. My evolution from that point took me from naïve and relatively stupid to a serious, knowledgeable person in the NGO / solidarity business. The eleven years I spent from 1968 to 1979 were exciting and deeply formative years. More recently, over the last 27 years I have been involved in the field of education in the Quebec college system and again acquired a deep knowledge and pedagogical expertise dealing with the multicultural mosaic that is young Canada and students otherwise left behind by the educational system. That has been a slower, less exciting, but nonetheless dynamic and rewarding path with patience one of the virtues acquired by dint of persistent hard work.

The formation of the liberation years in Lusaka from 1976 to 1979 was decidedly anti-imperialist. Western capitalism with its voracious appetite for African resources and cheap labour was consistently falling on the wrong side of justice and equity. The west supported apartheid and lauded the jailing of Mandela as a communist trained terrorist, while NATO supported the Portuguese army which was brutally repressing the Africans of Mozambique, Angola and Guinea Bissau. We, in the anti-apartheid solidarity movement, knew we couldn’t overthrow capitalism as a world system, but we had no choice but to combat its uglier manifestations in colonialism and apartheid. We allied ourselves with unions and churches and campaigned relentlessly until our African brothers and sisters could rule their own countries and lives. At the same time the Ujamaa socialism of Nyerere, the writings of Kwame Nkrumah inspired the hope that there was another more equitable way to share this earth.

The union work and social justice work and in many small ways the work with students in The Learning Centre have continued this effort to build a better more just world.

Now, In December 2007, a new path is opening that looks like it may lead to an amalgam of the two parallel and seemingly disconnected paths my life has led to this point. For this trip, the watchword is “solidarity not charity”. The focus is a group of families in a very small village in rural Malawi, one of the poorest countries of the world.

The struggle is different in historical terms. Globalisation is the present form of capitalism and its spread is broader and more deeply and insidiously implanted than ever before. The grip over the poor countries has changed from colonial occupation to financial and resource debt manipulation. It has also been reinforced by the creation of a generation of African leaders and business people trained in and committed to the Adam Smith school of private enterprise. The World Bank, African Development Bank and IMF have sent out from their ranks well trained and competent people who now rule countries like Malawi, Botswana and Liberia to name but three.

Yet the reality of everyday life for people in rural areas of Malawi has not changed regardless of the language we use to define the geopolitical reality that governs the ruling classes of Malawi and the dominant paradigm of the World Bank. They remain essentially poor and exploited as cheap labour. Their lives are harsh and despite all that they are survivors who work hard and adapt to circumstances that offer little opportunity.

As part of my reflection I have been looking back over 39 years of visiting Malawi and trying to see the difference.

In 1968, Malawi was newly freed from the colonial yoke. There should be no illusions about the legacy that colonialism left. Economically, the mother country had created and entrenched economic dependency on the metropolis with raw products flowing out and manufactured product coming in. The imported materials always cost more than the exported materials received and the balance of trade was weighted to ensure permanent dependency.
A consequence of this was to force otherwise self-sufficient peasants to drop food crops and focus on inedible cash crops – tobacco, tea, cotton. The prices of these on the world market stay perennially low as huge multinationals manipulate the world prices through cartels. Today, the farmers of Malawi are very bitter about how little they receive for their tobacco on the auction floor. They did everything they were advised by the experts with respect to good agricultural practices and they were rewarded with returns that almost do not cover the cost of their inputs. Gillian Bowman’s nephew with the BBC did a really good documentary on the way the prices are fixed by the big companies so the buyers on the auction floor keep the prices low to increase their profit and to the disadvantage of the poor farmer. (Do a search in BBC under “tobacco Malawi” and it should appear).

Reflection from 39 years of hindsight.

I do not see a change in the basic structure of the economy. Rural poverty has remained entrenched and hunger has now become chronic. In many regions, the land has been stretched to its limits. Large estates stand side by side with tiny plots. Cash crops compete with food crops and no-one has any room to expand. Hence the future on this path of economic development offers very little possibility.

Culturally, the imperialists brought their churches during the Victorian period and rewarded converts with education, health care and jobs. Traditional practices were labeled pagan and had to be abandoned. The gender roles in the core structure of the matrilineal societies were pushed into the classic male vision of Victorian society of the women as chattels, as infants. The economy reinforced this as men were encouraged to grow cash crops while food crops were for consumption and not revenue and thus became a women’s priority.

Reflections of 39 years of hindsight.

Today women remain economically the most disadvantaged and the largest percentage of poor households are headed by women. The older churches still remain some of the most conservative in the religious world and are especially vigourous on maintaining the classic gender roles. The newer churches proliferate at an amazing rate and have huge establishments from which they perpetuate very conservative visions of male-female relationships and the Muslims are also busy with their missionary work, putting up mosques in the most remote villages and they too are decidedly anti-feminist. Well off the road in the midst of deeply Catholic Mtendere, we saw a substantial little mosque and related buildings. While progressive church people in North America have moved far passed some of these archaic visions, the missionaries and their churches in Africa are still promoting the traditional family values of male as boss and wife as obedient infant.

Prognosis: Nevertheless, there are some strong forces lining up against the more backward elements of this gender imbalance. The reality of the AIDS pandemic has forced discussion out of the religious closet and onto the front stage. Men still have their way, but there are campaigns against spousal violence and child abuse, and condom ads are everywhere. Women have a better chance now than ever to at least assert their rights in sexual relations, but there is still a long way to go.

In search of a theme: How will things be different today?

It is embarrassing sitting with the elders and even my peers as they ask for help and money as though this little bit here and now is going to make any difference in their long term. It has been this way ever since I came to Malawi in 1968. Nothing is changing the root causes of their situation.
On a personal level, I am free of my commitment to nine-to-five work to help one small group of people in Makupo, Malawi to free themselves of dependency and become more self-sufficient and self-sustaining. They will tell me what needs doing for the long term and through the money they earn, never have to ask anyone again to pay for short-term needs. A few really competent family members here in the country share my commitment to this form of community development and as a spin off they too may benefit as intermediaries between the Canadian end of the spectrum and the Malawian.

In Canada, critical people and progressive organisations are looking for credible intermediaries as the aid industry heavies fall into disrepute for a variety of reasons.

The thousands of Africans living overseas are but one example of very directed support who are contributing through remittances to helping people at home and with focused support their efforts can become developmental and long-term. No agencies deal with or recognize this form of family support. Those few Malawians of my acquaintance in Canada give willingly and derive no personal benefit from the support they send home. Their collective efforts have in some cases surpassed much of the formal aid in quantum figures and still goes largely unrecognized.
It would be important to lobby the Canadian government to recognize this contribution and allow some benefit through income tax returns or whatever. Another would be to set up an entirely above the board non-profit with charitable status that would research the needs at home as the expatriate Africans see them and articulate project packages allowing income tax receipts for money otherwise sent home straight without any recognition.

The theme was supposed to be building one world. That is already being done by the Africans. They live in the west and send support home and the people at home welcome strangers into their midst and offer them their hospitality without any question.

Now the issue is how can Canadians young and old come for a short visit and overcome the urge to simply throw money and material goods at the poor world without understanding the more complex nature of created poverty and how the domination of the west is what must change to allow for real development to occur. Solidarity not charity involves working together for structural change in Canada and focused support for self-sufficiency in Africa.

No answer yet, but working on it. The theme emerges from my ruminations and a few quiet moments.