Dark
Light

Suggestions

Oxfam’s Book of Lamentations

January 13, 2024
5 mins read

By Tolu Ogunlesi

Thursday, January 3,
2013.

Oxfam, the UK charity,
recently released an updated version of the Book of Lamentations.
Something about how “the relentless focus on ongoing problems at the expense of
a more nuanced portrait of [Africa], is obscuring the progress that is being
made towards a more secure and prosperous future.”

That’s Chief
Executive Barbara Stocking, as quoted by the BBC. Apparently the charity’s
been doing some polling recently (in the UK), and coming up with interesting
results. In one poll half of the respondents confessed that Africa conjured for
them images of hunger, famine and poverty. In another poll, almost half of the
2,000 respondents thought Africa’s biggest challenge was hunger. Three out of
four were suffering from ‘Africa-fatigue’ – that debilitating condition that
afflicts well-meaning foreign philanthropists exposed to an endless stream of
images of suffering and torment originating from the dark continent.

A distressed Oxfam
has since gone ahead to launch its latest Africa campaign, in a desperate bid to
shift the world’s attention from African Hunger, to
African-Hunger-Backdropped-By-Stunning-African-Landscapes.

That’s, in a
nutshell, the story.

It left me a tad
puzzled. A w-t-f puzzlement. As in: is Oxfam for real?

Let’s even forget,
for a moment, the unforgettable fact that Oxfam has probably done far more than
any other organisation in propagating these images.

Let’s focus on
something else that struck me about the story: the way blame is being placed
squarely on the shoulders of The Images.

Oxfam appears to be
saying: Put All The Blame On The Images. Not the people hanging on stubbornly
to those images in the face of alternative evidence.

Am I alone in
thinking Oxfam’s lamentations suggest a British public that is at the mercy of
what they are fed.

Helpless Brits who
somehow cannot — despite all their efforts — rise beyond the bombardment of
pity-evoking images of Africa,

One might as well
rephrase Dame Stocking as follows:

Oh poor helpless
people of Britain, all they’re being fed is harrowing, unhelpful images of
Africa. We need to stop that. We need to feed them something different. We need
to change their diet.

That’s the summary
of the Oxfam Lamentation. It’s

In whose
interest?

The whole set-up
suggests that Britain is now guilty of the sort of intellectual laziness once
associated (almost solely) with America (er, sorry). Clearly the surveys say
far more about the British mind than they do about the African condition. Now
we know, courtesy of Oxfam, that all along we’ve been depending on a bunch of
wallet-opening puppets to deliver us from ourselves.

Now the puppets are
growing weary, the strings fraying, the wallet-opening mechanisms aging. Now we
have to refurbish the puppets, oil the creaking joints with a new, more
positive type of ‘communication’. Landscapes, not Hunger!

A mindset that
elevates what the British public thinks of Africa, over and above contemporary
reality, and that suggests that it is in Africa’s interest for that thinking to
change, is not only faulty but dangerous as well.

To put it less
mildly, who — apart from Oxfam, obviously — really cares, in 2012, what the
British public thinks about a continent from which they fled in varying stages
of undress a half-century ago? What’s that proverb about crying more than the
bereaved?

In the 21st century
are people still allowed to be zombies gobbling up everything they’re
fed by a collaboration of powerful media and NGOs?

I seriously doubt
that it is in Africa’s interest for Brits to change their perception of Africa.
Instead I think it is totally in Britain’s interests to change its perceptions
of Africa. That problem, is Britain’s, and no one else’s. If the Brits insists
on seeing Africa primarily through the lens of philanthropic intervention, in
2012, good for them.

Let them stay
thinking that way; let Oxfam, with its its Africa-emblazoned super-hero
capes, stay convincing itself that it has a duty to alter global
perceptions of Africa, while the Russians and Chinese
— and diaspora Africans, who must have once assumed they’d
left the continent for good — boldly head out to the continent to
engage in potentially more useful ways.

Alternative
images

Granted that those
starving-children-and-dying-mothers images form a sizable part of African
exports to the West. There may be little we can do about that, as long as we
have a West obsessed with delivering Africa from itself. But what about the the
tens of thousands of kwashiorkor-free, English-speaking, pocket-money-receiving
African students who flock to the UK annually, to study (with a good number
actually returning, to continue with the lives they left behind in Lagos and
Nairobi and Accra and Freetown and Johannesburg etc).

How the British
public fails to permit these alternative images to displace some of the “old
stereotypes” (quoting Dame Stocking) should alarm many right-thinking people,
and perhaps inspire an industry of academic theses on national delusions and
epidemics of ostrich-in-sand-syndromes.

If those
flesh-and-blood representations of contemporary Africa somehow don’t succeed in
serving as a useful counterbalance to the stereotypes, then nothing will.

“We want to make
sure people have a really better balanced picture of what’s happening in
Africa. Of course we have to show what the reality is in the situations in
those countries. But we also need to show the other places where things are
actually changing, where things are different,” Dame Stocking says.

I wish her and Oxfam
the very best. Must be awful to have to take on that job of saving people from
self-inflicted ignorance. In an age in which Google, Twitter and the news media
lie at most fingertips, delivering, alongside stories of African suffering,
narratives of determined recovery from tragedy and technology-driven
change and emboldened youth and rising political awareness and growing
intolerance for tyranny – is there still room for getting
way with blaming with fixating on photos of begging bowls and the oxfamished
children attached to them?

Kudos where due.
But still…

I might also add
that this is not to disparage the useful work that Oxfam has done and is still doing across the continent.
The effects of aid, like AIDS, are real, no doubt. George W. Bush’s PEPFAR saved, and continues to save,
millions of Africans lives.

But stories also
abound of the startling stupidities and failures of aid projects whose origins
lie in a mentality belonging to a world that appears to have vanished. Misguided Messiahs and
their T-shirt donation and Shoe donation schemes, money-grabbing consultants, corrupt practices, high-profile-nil-value baby
adoptions, etc etc.

It’s important that
the Oxfams of this world do not allow themselves to get overly caught up in the
myth of their impact. In the larger scheme of things, perhaps they’ve been
overestimating their messianic abilities. Consider this: In his posthumously published collection of essays
pan-Africanist Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem says, of Nigeria’s 2006 debt relief deal:
“What kind of success is debt relief that sees Nigeria paying back over three
billion dollars to Britain alone, a figure more than the total aid budget of Britain
in the same year?”

You could of course
argue that that is oil-rich Nigeria, and choose instead to focus on the Rwandas
and Malawis where close to half the national budgets are donor-funded. And I
could remind you of what the late Malawian President did with chunks of his
country’s money. Or the mystery of the vanishing dollars in the Ugandan
Prime Minister’s office.

I’m also somewhat
surprised we’re still having this ‘African aid’ argument at the end of 2012,
after the eloquent arguments of books like Dead Aid and The Fastest
Billion. And after the Economist already publicly
regretted its silliness.

Shame.

Is Oxfam stuck on a
planet that no longer exists?

Oxfam Capital,
anyone?

*

Watch out for
Part 2 of this piece, focusing on how Oxfam can shift its focus from cajoling
donation-weary Westerners and tap into African wealth to fund its
Africa-transformation drive (not kidding).

Tolu Ogunlesi is a writer and award-winning
journalist based in Lagos, Nigeria. He blogs at http://toluogunlesi.wordpress.com

 

 

  Send to a friend  |  

View/Hide Comments (0)   |  

  Print

Post Views: 1,142

825 Comments

  5. mexican online pharmacies prescription drugs [url=https://foruspharma.com/#]purple pharmacy mexico price list[/url] п»їbest mexican online pharmacies

    Reply

  10. canadian pharmacy 24 com [url=https://canadapharmast.online/#]canadianpharmacymeds com[/url] canadian neighbor pharmacy

    Reply

  15. best online pharmacy india [url=http://indiapharmast.com/#]indian pharmacy online[/url] Online medicine order

    Reply

  43. mexican pharmaceuticals online [url=http://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]п»їbest mexican online pharmacies[/url] mexican drugstore online

    Reply

  47. buying prescription drugs in mexico [url=https://mexicandeliverypharma.online/#]buying prescription drugs in mexico online[/url] medication from mexico pharmacy

    Reply

  50. mexican border pharmacies shipping to usa [url=http://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]best online pharmacies in mexico[/url] п»їbest mexican online pharmacies

    Reply

  55. buying prescription drugs in mexico online [url=http://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]buying from online mexican pharmacy[/url] п»їbest mexican online pharmacies

    Reply

  59. purple pharmacy mexico price list [url=https://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]mexican pharmacy[/url] п»їbest mexican online pharmacies

    Reply

  63. mexico pharmacies prescription drugs [url=http://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]purple pharmacy mexico price list[/url] purple pharmacy mexico price list

    Reply

  70. mexican online pharmacies prescription drugs [url=http://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]mexican pharmaceuticals online[/url] mexican pharmacy

    Reply

  73. mexican border pharmacies shipping to usa [url=https://mexicandeliverypharma.online/#]mexico pharmacies prescription drugs[/url] purple pharmacy mexico price list

    Reply

  76. mexican border pharmacies shipping to usa [url=http://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]mexico pharmacies prescription drugs[/url] mexican mail order pharmacies

    Reply

  80. mexican mail order pharmacies [url=http://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]mexican rx online[/url] buying prescription drugs in mexico online

    Reply

  82. п»їbest mexican online pharmacies [url=http://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]mexico drug stores pharmacies[/url] mexican border pharmacies shipping to usa

    Reply

  86. mexico drug stores pharmacies [url=http://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]mexico pharmacies prescription drugs[/url] pharmacies in mexico that ship to usa

    Reply

  90. best online pharmacies in mexico [url=https://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]mexican pharmaceuticals online[/url] reputable mexican pharmacies online

    Reply

  94. mexican online pharmacies prescription drugs [url=https://mexicandeliverypharma.online/#]mexico drug stores pharmacies[/url] mexican mail order pharmacies

    Reply

  97. purple pharmacy mexico price list [url=https://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]reputable mexican pharmacies online[/url] mexican rx online

    Reply

  99. medicine in mexico pharmacies [url=http://mexicandeliverypharma.com/#]mexican online pharmacies prescription drugs[/url] п»їbest mexican online pharmacies

    Reply

  103. best online pharmacies in mexico [url=https://mexicandeliverypharma.online/#]mexican pharmacy[/url] mexico pharmacies prescription drugs

    Reply

  106. medicine in mexico pharmacies [url=https://mexicandeliverypharma.online/#]mexican border pharmacies shipping to usa[/url] п»їbest mexican online pharmacies

    Reply

  109. prednisone pack [url=https://prednisonebestprice.pro/#]prednisone 5 tablets[/url] where can i order prednisone 20mg

    Reply

  111. nolvadex gynecomastia [url=http://nolvadexbestprice.pro/#]tamoxifen citrate pct[/url] aromatase inhibitor tamoxifen

    Reply

  118. buy cytotec in usa [url=http://cytotecbestprice.pro/#]Misoprostol 200 mg buy online[/url] order cytotec online

    Reply

  239. This is very attention-grabbing, You are an excessively professional blogger.
    I’ve joined your rss feed and look ahead to searching for extra
    of your magnificent post. Additionally, I’ve shared your web site in my
    social networks

    Reply

  240. mexican online pharmacies prescription drugs [url=https://mexicopharmacy.cheap/#]mexico pharmacies prescription drugs[/url] buying from online mexican pharmacy

    Reply

  242. кәсіпкерлікке кірудің үш нүктесі бұл, кәсіпкерлік түрлері мен формалары аспаркам калий магний, аспаркам для набора веса ip адрес
    дегеніміз не, тұрақты адрес дегеніміз не мадениет бейнен текст перевод,
    бейнен текст скачать

    Reply

  252. buying prescription drugs in mexico [url=http://mexicopharmacy.cheap/#]reputable mexican pharmacies online[/url] mexican drugstore online

    Reply

  256. best online pharmacies in mexico [url=https://mexicopharmacy.cheap/#]mexican drugstore online[/url] buying from online mexican pharmacy

    Reply

  259. reputable indian pharmacies [url=https://indianpharmacy.company/#]indian pharmacies safe[/url] mail order pharmacy india

    Reply

  263. mexico pharmacies prescription drugs [url=https://mexicopharmacy.cheap/#]buying prescription drugs in mexico[/url] best online pharmacies in mexico

    Reply

  276. mexico drug stores pharmacies [url=http://mexicopharmacy.cheap/#]mexican drugstore online[/url] buying prescription drugs in mexico

    Reply

  291. starzbet guvenilir mi: starzbet – starzbet guncel giris
    gates of olympus slot [url=https://gatesofolympusoyna.online/#]gates of olympus demo turkce oyna[/url] gates of olympus demo turkce oyna

    Reply

  293. бесплатные секции по футболу алматы,
    бесплатные секции алматы 2023 как вылечить
    застарелый кашель, солнышко при кашле стрессті жеңуге арналған тренингтер, стресске қарсы тұру достық адамдардың бір біріне адал, достық туралы қысқа әңгімелер

    Reply

  313. farmacias online seguras [url=https://tadalafilo.bid/#]comprar cialis online seguro[/url] farmacias online seguras en espaГ±a

    Reply

  330. migliori farmacie online 2024 [url=https://farmaciait.men/#]Farmacia online migliore[/url] comprare farmaci online con ricetta

    Reply

  335. farmacie online sicure [url=https://tadalafilit.com/#]Cialis generico controindicazioni[/url] farmacie online affidabili

    Reply

  338. farmacia online senza ricetta [url=https://farmaciait.men/#]Farmacie on line spedizione gratuita[/url] Farmacia online piГ№ conveniente

    Reply

  341. esiste il viagra generico in farmacia [url=http://sildenafilit.pro/#]viagra senza ricetta[/url] viagra acquisto in contrassegno in italia

    Reply

  352. farmacie online autorizzate elenco [url=https://brufen.pro/#]BRUFEN 600 prezzo in farmacia[/url] farmacia online senza ricetta

    Reply

  356. viagra 100 mg prezzo in farmacia [url=http://sildenafilit.pro/#]viagra senza prescrizione[/url] viagra online in 2 giorni

    Reply

  359. acquistare farmaci senza ricetta [url=http://tadalafilit.com/#]Cialis generico 20 mg 8 compresse prezzo[/url] migliori farmacie online 2024

    Reply

  363. acquistare farmaci senza ricetta [url=http://brufen.pro/#]Ibuprofene 600 generico prezzo[/url] farmaci senza ricetta elenco

    Reply

  385. mexican border pharmacies shipping to usa [url=https://mexicanpharma.icu/#]medication from mexico[/url] buying prescription drugs in mexico

    Reply

  391. canadapharmacyonline legit [url=https://canadapharma.shop/#]Canadian Pharmacy[/url] canadian pharmacy tampa

    Reply

  395. india online pharmacy [url=https://indiadrugs.pro/#]Indian pharmacy online[/url] п»їlegitimate online pharmacies india

    Reply

  398. невролог ревматолог, хороший ревматолог в
    астане отзывы найман ана монолог текст, найман ана негізгі
    ойы жалпы зәр анализін жинау, нечипоренко бойынша зәр
    анализі выготский ойлау тапқан теориясы,
    выготский өмірбаяны

    Reply

  403. legit canadian online pharmacy [url=http://canadapharma.shop/#]Pharmacies in Canada that ship to the US[/url] canadian pharmacy drugs online

    Reply

  406. pharmacie en ligne france livraison internationale [url=https://pharmaciepascher.pro/#]pharmacie en ligne[/url] pharmacie en ligne

    Reply

  409. pharmacie en ligne france pas cher [url=http://pharmaciepascher.pro/#]pharmacie en ligne pas cher[/url] pharmacie en ligne france livraison belgique

    Reply

  413. Viagra homme prix en pharmacie sans ordonnance [url=https://vgrsansordonnance.com/#]viagra en ligne[/url] Viagra homme prix en pharmacie sans ordonnance

    Reply

  417. pharmacie en ligne france pas cher [url=http://clssansordonnance.icu/#]Cialis generique achat en ligne[/url] pharmacie en ligne fiable

    Reply

  453. pin up kz [url=https://pinupkz.tech/#]пин ап казино онлайн[/url] пин ап казино онлайн

    Reply

  472. молитва для того чтобы выиграть судебный процесс императрица iii
    старший аркан 0707 значение чисел
    как разрешить конфликт между людьми,
    как решить конфликт мирным путем
    белая магия на убывающую луну

    Reply

  477. zithromax over the counter [url=http://zithromax.company/#]how to get zithromax online[/url] zithromax canadian pharmacy

    Reply

  482. buy cheap zithromax online [url=https://zithromax.company/#]zithromax best price[/url] can you buy zithromax over the counter in canada

    Reply

  503. Buy compounded semaglutide online [url=https://semaglutide.win/#]Rybelsus 14 mg[/url] Semaglutide pharmacy price

    Reply

  509. сауырдағы қоңыр көмір кен орны, қазақстандағы ірі газ кен орындары тіл туралы тәрбие сағаты 1
    сынып, тіл туралы тәрбие сағаты слайд ақбота олимпиада
    2023 жауаптары 5 сынып, ақбота олимпиада
    2023 жауаптары 8 сынып аргентина сша баскетбол прогноз,
    прогнозы на баскетбол нба

    Reply

  511. buy minocycline 100 mg online [url=https://stromectol.agency/#]stromectol for sale[/url] stromectol how much it cost

    Reply

  518. india pharmacy mail order [url=http://indianpharmdelivery.com/#]best online pharmacy india[/url] buy prescription drugs from india

    Reply

  525. mexican online pharmacies prescription drugs [url=https://mexicanpharm24.pro/#]purple pharmacy mexico price list[/url] buying from online mexican pharmacy

    Reply

  529. best online pharmacy india [url=http://indianpharmdelivery.com/#]indian pharmacy online[/url] cheapest online pharmacy india

    Reply

  531. best male enhancement pills [url=https://drugs24.pro/#]buy prescription drugs without doctor[/url] ed remedies that really work

    Reply

  539. reputable mexican pharmacies online [url=http://mexicanpharm24.pro/#]purple pharmacy mexico price list[/url] mexican online pharmacies prescription drugs

    Reply

  542. buy prescription drugs from india [url=https://indianpharmdelivery.com/#]mail order pharmacy india[/url] Online medicine order

    Reply

  543. mexico drug stores pharmacies [url=http://mexicanpharm24.pro/#]mexico drug stores pharmacies[/url] п»їbest mexican online pharmacies

    Reply

  544. еліміздегі ең ірі көлдер информатика 6
    сынып, ең үлкен көл қазақстандағы градиент на
    ногтях пошагово, как сделать градиент на ногтях без кисточки көктем күз туралы мақал мәтелдер, қазақша орысша мақал
    мәтелдер көшбасшы мәдениеті, көшбасшы ретінде батылдық

    Reply

  554. санның құрамы деген не ертең басқа бүгін жақсы көргенім, мұқағали мақатаев өлеңдері
    әндері в конце xvi в территория жетысу отошла от могулистана к ханству, внутренняя политика могулистана ғылыми атақтар, ғылым
    докторы

    Reply

  568. buy Clopidogrel over the counter [url=https://clopidogrel.pro/#]antiplatelet drug[/url] clopidogrel bisulfate 75 mg

    Reply

  619. пин ап [url=https://1winci.icu/#]пин ап официальный сайт[/url] пин ап зеркало

    Reply

  629. пин ап зеркало [url=https://1winci.icu/#]пин ап[/url] пин ап официальный сайт

    Reply

  630. ббеқ балаларды ерте жастан сапалы білім алу жағдайын қамту, баланы ерте жастан дамыту баяндама баска жанга ауыр журсе
    ансарым текст, басқа жанға ауып жүрме аңсарың скачать текст гимнастиканың қысқаша даму тарихы, гимнастика туралы реферат jet logistic россия, jet
    logistic икеа

    Reply

  645. п»їbest mexican online pharmacies [url=http://mexicanpharm1st.com/#]buying prescription drugs in mexico[/url] mexico pharmacies prescription drugs

    Reply

  703. best online pharmacies in mexico [url=https://mexicanpharm24.cheap/#]mexico pharmacy[/url] mexico drug stores pharmacies

    Reply

  710. top 10 pharmacies in india [url=http://indianpharm24.pro/#]Indian pharmacy worldwide delivery[/url] india pharmacy

    Reply

  718. medicine in mexico pharmacies [url=http://mexicanpharm24.cheap/#]Legit online Mexican pharmacy[/url] mexican rx online

    Reply

  724. purple pharmacy mexico price list [url=http://mexicanpharm24.cheap/#]mexican pharmacy[/url] pharmacies in mexico that ship to usa

    Reply

  788. best online pharmacy india [url=https://indianpharmacyeasy.com/#]indianpharmacyeasy.com[/url] indian pharmacy paypal

    Reply

  795. галактика аспан денелері жұлдыздар, ай мен жұлдыз туралы
    мәлімет мұқағали мақатаев туралы зерттеулер, мұқағали мақатаев туралы тест сұрақтары крыша жанаозен
    2 комнатная квартира, крыша актау
    2 комнатная квартира сырласуга дос керек текст аккорды,
    достарга текст перевод на русский

    Reply

  797. mail order pharmacy india [url=http://indianpharmacyeasy.com/#]Best online Indian pharmacy[/url] world pharmacy india

    Reply

  800. prednisone where can i buy [url=http://prednisoneraypharm.com/#]cheap prednisone[/url] how to purchase prednisone online

    Reply

  810. buy cheap clomid no prescription [url=http://clomidrexpharm.com/#]clomid rex pharm[/url] where can i get cheap clomid without a prescription

    Reply

  814. where to buy clomid [url=http://clomidrexpharm.com/#]clomid purchase online rex pharm[/url] can i purchase clomid price

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Previous Story

Nigeria: David Cameron, The Revolution and 2015

Next Story

The Rise and Rise of the Ghanaian Middle Class

Latest from Blog

0

  From Asa to A. Phillip:  Nothing But a ‘Sigma’ Man by Mark Anthony Neal   With thanks to NewBlackMan (in Exile)

A virgin’s quest

A Short Story by Bunmi Fatoye-Matory Friday, June 28, 2024.   Somewhere in Rọ́lákẹ́’s childhood, she learned about Mercedes Benz, but not