The Mysteries of African Agriculture Nancy Drew Style

I always feel wierd when I borrow an entire post from someone esle. There is a rotating list of people whom I respect. I re-issue their blog posts as a domonstation that I agree, and that I have either already internalized or am internalizing their sentiments. I'm saying this because I am doing it again today. This post is from Scarlett Lion again, and it is tantimountly about the descrepancy between western philanthropists indescriminately giving what they can get their hands on rather than providing items or knowledge that compliments the daily realities of many African's lives. I have been fighting against the former, in whatever academic and personal circles I find myself in, for the last year. It's why I don't particularly appreciate Sach's analysis of poverty releif. It's why I have structured the my course of study at the University of Chicago the way I have: I want to understand Sub Saharan Africa as best I can so my efforts, my BA thesis included, can compliment pre-existing positivist realities. I want to compliment Africa. See my post on my BA thesis proposal below, and the the Tripoli Post editorial about finding an African solution to African agricultural development.
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From the Scarlett Lion:

One of my favorite books when I was young was Harriet the Spy. I guess that shouldn't be surprising - it's about a dorky girl who writes down everything she sees in a notebook. Hmm. I liked it because I could identify with the character. I was, and still am, a dorky girl who writes down everything in a notebook.

This weekend I visited a youth center in Monrovia with a group of teen age girls. It had a small library filled with books donated by Americans about Americans. A few of the girls flipped through the offerings: Jacob Have I Loved, Nancy Drew, the Babysitters Club. They didn't seem too interested.

It made me sad. I wished they were reading books about Africans, books about girls like them. There's no paucity of books about Africa. And maybe if donors bought text books locally instead of donating books their children discarded, then the publishing industry in Africa would grow and authors would have more incentive to write.

Alanna at Blood and Milk explains this phenomenon better than I ever could:

Bad development work is based on the idea that poor people have nothing. Something is better than nothing, right? So anything you give these poor people will be better than what they had before. Even if it’s your old clothes, technology they can’t use, or a school building with no teacher.

But poor people don’t have nothing. They have families, friends – social ties. They have responsibilities. They have possessions, however meager. They have lives, no matter what those lives look like to Westerners... the focus should be on getting more of what they need - not some of whatever we can find.