I saw the first
white people in my life in 1969. That was in a refugee camp, during the
Nigerian civil war. Two Catholic priests and a middle aged lady in a bluish
gown. They brought us food, clothes and medicine. It took my little body time to
recover from the ravages of hunger and malnutrition, from kwashiorkor. But I
made it, thanks to the enormous responses from the peoples of the world.
Fast forward to
2012. I am alive; I teach at an American university. I, too, watched the video,
Kony 2012. I’m aware of the many celebrity endorsements of the video and the
backlash it has unleashed especially from some African intellectuals and some
liberal groups. Teju Cole’s “The White Savior Industrial Complex,” stands out
not only for its highly crafted, nuanced arguments, but also for putting
together decades of hurt, oppression and paternalisms from the West on Africa.
It is difficult to challenge the core arguments of the essay without appearing
to be against Africa. The success of the essay lies in the fact that it is
rooted in the time-tested model of African write-back ideology, the ideology
that has Africa’s victimhood as its first, inevitable premise. But isn’t Africa
a victim? Isn’t Africa easily taken advantage of by those who lack all diligence,
by western and African dictators and scavenger NGOs?
Cole’s eternal
wisdom, “let us begin our activism right here: with the money-driven villainy
at the heart of American foreign policy,” seems unimpeachable. It is another
version of “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye.” I resist
the temptation to infer that Cole suggests that white people should take their
hands off of African problems; he is, I think, only asking for due diligence.
Which is not to ask too much. Yet the idea that “the White Savior Industrial
Complex is a valve for releasing the unbearable pressures that build in a
system built on pillage,” appears more tricky than its “You hypocrite,”
version.
Back again to
1969, to the tragedy of Biafra, the one thing that made Steve Jobs to lose
faith in God. I was a seven year old boy then. I was one of those who had been
condemned by their fellow Nigerians to starve to death. You could count my ribs
from a ten-meter distance. And then the Irish came; those two Catholic priests
and a woman. They brought food. They brought medicine. God, they brought love.
Just like the Germans did (Caritas) and the English (Oxfam). This is no
fiction. This is no ideology. This is life. Raw as it gets. Now, I want to
repeat Cole’s injunction: Hey! Begin your activism in Ireland! I can’t say
that, can I? Or, rather if I happen to say it now, it is perhaps because I am a
middle class man, a university professor, enjoying the comfort of a
beautiful condo in Chicago North Side and an office at the Northeastern
Illinois University. If I urge Westerners to first challenge their ugly
governments before responding to human catastrophe elsewhere it is perhaps only
because some ideology might have made me forget the intervention of Europeans
who were moved to empathy by the horrid pictures of us Biafran kids. Were they releasing the unbearable pressures that
build in a system built on pillage? But this is not to deny that there are
many people out there scavenging among African spoils. But abuse never vitiates
use.
I know it often
sounds naïve to talk about international solidarity. We have all become dubious
because we have seen lots of abuses. Yet I’m one of those who cling to the
belief that people could still be moved by the pain of others, even those they
do not know. When flood hit Pakistan in 2010 some of my students went from
office to office collecting money, clothes, and food items for the people of
Pakistan. These were Caucasians, Hispanics, African Americans, Asians. My
students. Why did they do this? Were they releasing
the unbearable pressures that build in a system built on pillage? I didn’t
get that impression. I got the impression that they were genuinely smitten by
people’s suffering. And that is beautiful.
The Irish gesture
of empathy in 1969 which gave rise to “Concern Africa” didn’t mean that some
African countries haven’t been doing much work on the ground to save starving
Biafran kids. In fact the government of Gabon airlifted thousands of children
to Gabon. The same could be said of Kony 2012. We know that people have been
working in Uganda to liberate these abducted children, to rehabilitate the ones
freed. And for such works Jolly Okot (herself a victim) was nominated for the
2005 Nobel Peace Prize. So, what is the fuss about Kony 2012? That it is
flashy?
Shouldn’t we see
it as just one of the many attempts to stop the gross acts of inhumanity
playing itself out in Uganda and neighboring countries? It is an attempt that
might not be as effective as the ones on the ground, but gosh, it is a response,
and it has drawn global attention to a local problem. As the New York Times reports, the African
Union has gotten involved in the hunt for Joseph Kony. Finally!
The emergence of
Nigeria’s capitalist class, the new clubs of millionaires and billionaires,
some of whom didn’t have up to one thousand dollars in their bank accounts five
years ago, has taught me one more thing: the 1% everywhere, have one thing in
common: self-enrichment (mostly) at the cost of the rest 99%. Progressives
(should I say do-gooders?) everywhere should, I think, always start their
solidarity by adopting the perspective of the one in pain: the kids abducted by
Joseph Kony, the Biafran kids whose lives hung on a thread. They are the real
victims. If all our theories are not aimed at saving these people in need, we
might as well be making ideological noise.
I read “The White
Savior Industrial Complex” and I hear “The African Victimhood Complex.” Whoever
chooses to discuss Africa’s victimhood should do well to begin from the real victims
of global greed and callousness, from the perspectives of the abducted
children, of the victims of war, years of dictatorships; these real victims are
eager to accept relief from any person, from anywhere. Kony 2012 provides an
opportunity for Western and African human rights activists to work together to
help real African victims.
But I understand the catch 22 situation
African intellectuals have been forced into whenever it comes to altruistic
gestures from the West. It wouldn’t be wise to take in everything that comes
from the West. But it wouldn’t be wise to dismiss everything either, or to get
stuck in the write-back ideology of the past four decades. Doing so, and making
it our modus operandi, reduces us to the status of “fire brigade” intellectuals.
We easily serve up the powers of our intellect just to quell the fire of
Western assault, but quietly go back to our cells, even while greater fires eat
up our homes.
See: Teju Cole, “The White Savior IndustrialComplex”
See also, Jolly Okot, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQABpjCalJk
