Save Yourself

If you haven’t read it yet, you should really pick up Uzodinma Iweala’s critically acclaimed novel, “Beasts of No Nation.”

But before you do, you can whet you appetite with his opinion piece in this past weekend’s Washington Post, entitled “Stop Trying to ‘Save’ Africa.”

Iweala’s point here is not new. William Easterly’s piece, “The West Can’t Save Africa” appeared in the Washington Post eighteen months ago, right before his book about the same subject matter came out: “White Man’s Burden.”

The sad thing is that no matter how many times people are told they just don’t seem to get it: Africa doesn’t need to be saved anymore than any other continent in the world. Why don’t you think Al Gore’s environmental campaign slogan is "Save Antarctica?" Or perhaps the Democrats should run their 2008 campaign on, “Save North America.”

When it comes to the US, we don’t ever think we need be saved. We are, of course, hard-working and self-sufficient Americans. Therefore we should know how to save ourselves. So why don’t we feel that way about Africa? And who are we to try and save other people when we can’t even save ourselves?

I share Iweala’s frustrations. But what are our solutions going to be?

Maybe every time a US college student tries to give us a “Save Darfur” pamphlet, we should give them back a pamphlet that says, “Save our nation’s misguided college students.” I’m not quite sure how effective this tactic will be, but then again, how effective are they in getting people to really care about Darfur? Signing a petition and convincing themselves that they’ve done their part to “save” the poor Africans seems like more of an instigator of bad politics than it is a help.

It’s natural to want to help people. Saving people, however, seems egotistical & condescending. Personally, I think that I have a lot to offer to Africa and the rest of the world, probably more than most people do. However, there is a clear distinction for me between being a savior and being an important part of the struggle.

Critics of Iweala may ask: does it really matter? After all, if money and advocacy is going to charitable organizations to help, shouldn’t the ends justify the means?

The answer to me is unequivocally no. Because even if campaigns like “Save Darfur” succeed in raising money and awareness, it is also prolonging the two and a half century old American problem of manifest destiny - Americans and wealthy western nations are not any better than anybody in the developing world. Rather, we are only more developed because we stole the resources, exploited the people and destroyed the communities of the areas of which we are now trying to “save.” Africa would not be in the condition that it is in today if it wasn’t for colonization and slavery.

While the words “manifest destiny” are no longer used in our daily vernacular, they are still ingrained in daily American belief. While Americans are not destined to be the world’s premier superpower, we still believe us to be. We think it’s our responsibility to “save” the rest of the world by promoting our cultural and ideological influence. Rather, it is these same practices that seem to be plaguing the people we want to “save.”

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about working with my colleagues in Africa, it’s exactly what Nelson Mandela argues: ask not what you can do for us, but what you can do with us. Development should be about partnerships and not about misguided notions of manifest destiny. And so before people try to “save” others perhaps they should be trying to save themselves from thinking this way. In the meantime, the next time I go back to Africa, I’m going to see if I can get African college students to start wearing shirts that say, “Save America’s Youth.”