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Notes from the Author

Origins & Destinations

And you can’t live in Africa without being constantly confronted by the countless

International Aid people. Confronted by examples such as,

UK students acting out as teachers. They themselves convinced they were not

suited to do this – or at least not suited to do this in Africa.

The newly graduated European sent to audit child soldier rehabilitation projects

for 2 European NGO. Educated yes – but unversed in the real life practicalities

facing an ex-child soldier in Africa. Still, it would look good on her CV. And of
course it would encourage other INGO to believe in her – and lead to bigger

projects for her!.

The loud-mouthed young American who, with her entourage, took over the

lounge in an eco-lodge, shouting out her statistics as they compiled some sort
of progress report. A person so out of place. The sort of person that Africans

̩̩
ɡ
mean when they laugh at the m'zuŋ u aid professionals portrayed in the Kenyan
̩̩
TV comedy The Samaritans.
The young Afrikaans woman who still referred to Africans working for her as

kaffirs.

The mature South African medical equipment specialist who gave ‘blow by

blow’ accounts of the way expensive medical equipment was being left
untouched simply because there weren’t the resources available to use them.

(This in a country where the national ‘quality’ newspaper was running a campaign for readers to
send in photographs of the ‘donated’ ambulances lying unused in complete disrepair.)

The worthy m’zungu group who gave themselves the ‘duty’ of erecting a school
building for a ‘not so rural’ African community. They will never realise how, as

they made themselves more ‘worthy’, they were at the same time castrating the

African fathers in front of their African sons. Nor that these African sons would
ɡ
̩̩
absorb all the wrong lessons. That the m'zuŋ u can, but the African cannot.
̩̩
̩̩
ɡ
That it’s natural for the African to over-respect the m'zuŋ u. That the African is a
̩̩
lesser being.
And so many, many more!

And the embarrassment caused by the statements made by ‘leaders’.