Why on Earth Do People Still Have Polio in 2007?

Today Mengo Youth Development Link co-sponsored an event with a Korean organization called Little Jesus International Gibbun Woori World and a Ugandan organization called Able the Disabled. It was an advocacy event to bring awareness to the community about the plight of the disabled. In Uganda, there are quite a number of people with disabilities. Many of them are homeless and live on the streets, trying to sustain their livelihoods through begging.
The saddest part of their illness is that much of it could have been prevented. Most westerners are not familiar with polio because we have been getting immunized for it for decades. Unfortunately, many families are too poor to immunize their children and many of them end up suffering from polio, severely handicapping them.
These three organizations decided to come together to donate wheelchairs to people with disabilities who have been struggling to transport themselves around town. Virtually none of the country is sensitive to the needs of people with disabilities and no accommodations are made for them. The recipients were ecstatic and blessed to receive the wheelchairs because life would be much easier for them. Since many of them were unable to walk on their legs because they were too weak or they had none, they walked on their hands. Many were unable to afford even crutches. It was very sad to see so many people in such a condition walk into the event, but it was very fulfilling to see them so happy for their gift once they left.
Of course not even was happy about the event. The recipients of the wheelchair were required to register for the event before they came to ensure that they had enough wheelchairs. However, when the word spread that wheelchairs were being given out for free, many people who were not pre-registered for the event came to try and get one. It was very difficult having to turn people away, but the organizers had a protocol to follow. Another challenged faced with the event was in the wheelchairs themselves. They were made too small for some people and they couldn’t fit into them. However, because of their financial situation, they were not willing to give them back to the organizers. They would rather keep them and try to sell them for profit or exchange them for ones that fit. It would have been nice if everyone who came was able to be served and to their satisfaction, but these are the challenges faced in many development projects, especially ones that are catering to communities where equipment needs to be custom made to fit them.

Day One at MYDEL

Today was my first day at Mengo Youth Development Link (MYDEL). I met with the director of the organization and his staff. Everyone was extremely welcoming and immediately made me feel happy to be there. We had a brief orientation and overview of their projects. I was surprised to see the size of the office and center considering how much they did for the community. However, they had created such a comfortable and positive environment that even though they were short in resources, the sense of community developed as a result of their efforts was overwhelming.
I instructed class in the center for about an hour in order to get better acquainted with the youth. The classroom where the students conduct most of their activities is not at all standard, even for a developing society. All of the students who come to MYDEL are orphaned or vulnerable and their families are unable to pay for them to go to school. Education is free in Uganda, but families still have to pay for supplies and their uniforms and those living in poverty are unable to afford it. Therefore, MYDEL provides instruction to the children in this community so that they are able to stay on track with their age group. However, due to a lack of resources, all of the students learn in one classroom. Even though they are divided by age group, they usually learn similar material simultaneously because there organization has a limited number of staff. While leading the reading and comprehension lesson, I faced a major challenge that I feel will impede my development efforts in many ways. Though most of the school-aged children speak English, it was difficult for them to understand me because of my accent.
I have also found challenges in day to day life because though English is the national language of Uganda, Luganda is more widely spoken. It is used in everyday life including general conversation, in stores, in offices, and the news is even read on tv in Luganda. I have learned a few words here and there, but I would be better able to communicate with and understand people if I knew more.
The older youth have been very helpful in translating for me, but many of the younger children are unable to fully express themselves in English and feel more comfortable speaking Luganda.
After orienting with the children and youth, I took an impromptu tour of downtown Kampala. I was on the search for mangos and peanuts, so my coworkers took me to the market.
Traveling through Kampala is quite an adventure. For one, there are no traffic lights, so traffic is fairly chaotic. Cars, trucks, motorbikes, and pedestrians weave in and out of traffic quite carelessly. Autos do not give pedestrians the right of way and they are left to fend for themselves. Crossing the street requires a great deal of effort, tact, and wit and it is quite frightening. I am very afraid of someone take off my foot as cars don’t brake for you if you’re crossing the streets (they just beep continuously as they increase their speed) and the motorbikes get extremely close to the sidewalks so even if you are walking with the flow of traffic on the sidewalk, you still risk being hit or clipped by the bike.
After visiting a few markets we went back to the office where the youth, were playing football and volleyball. They staff plays with the youth until dark and then takes them into the center, where they practice drama and dancing until well into the night. I left before the activities were completed and that was at close to 10pm. They staff stays up with the youth as late as possible so that they are kept occupied and do not become idle.
It is idleness which causes most of the ills in this community. People turn to drug use, promiscuity, and theft in order to fill their time since they are not in school or working. MYDEL staff works for over 16 hours a day to occupy the children and youth in the community so that they do not find time to participate in destructive behavior.
By the end of the day, I was surely tired, so I believe their plan is working.

Back to Basics

Today, I did the first thing that is usually on my mind when I visit the continent. I got my hair braided. I always take advantage of the fact that I can get my hair done exactly the way I like for an extremely small fraction of that which I would pay in the States to get it done very subpar. Of course, I sent my friend over ahead of me to bargain for the price because once the braiders heard my accent, I’d have a great deal of difficulty getting the local rate.
I was successful getting it done and I love it!
I also did the usual tasks like exchanging money, and got a cell phone.
I also met some of my friend’s family. He has a million and one brothers and they are all very nice. Their family store is the local hang out spot and when I got there, there were about 20 of his friends and family to meet. I apologized ahead of time because I knew that I would not be able to remember all of their names.
During this time I actually realized how horrible my memory has been getting. There were people that I met last year and who even met me at the airport the day before and I could not remember their faces, much less their names for the life of me!
The rest of the day was spent hanging out with friends. We watched music videos and had some drinks the earlier part of the evening. This was actually more enlightening for me because when I am home I rarely have time to watch television and definitely not videos. Here there is a music channel that plays videos all day long and a good majority of them are from the US, so I was able to put a face to the voices that I often hear on the radio and in the club.
The second part of the night we went to a bar in town and that was also a good time. The music was great. It reminded me why I like being here so much. They play the best songs, new or old and I love that.
Overall, it was a great way to start the trip.

Woo Hoo! I'm Finally an African!

Today’s arrival in Entebbe airport was very different from last year’s. Last year, I traveled with a group of about 20 American young people. Once we arrived at the airport, we went through the immigration check, got our luggage and were on our way. I always wondered, how Entebbe verified that arrivals were allowed to enter the country because there was no security gate or officers between the baggage claim and immigration check. Basically, you could pretend that had gone through immigration and just walk straight over to baggage claim with no issue and then out of the airport clean and clear. This year, however, because I was a black girl traveling alone, I received the authentic African treatment in the airport.
I first realized that something was different because when I was in line for the immigration check there was an African woman in front of me who was unable to get through. She presented the officer with her license and the officer immediately looked apprehensive. She asked the woman where else she had traveled that year and once the lady was unable to tell her, she told her that she would be unable to allow her into the country with that passport. She informed her that she would have to go to the immigration office before she was able to officially enter the country.
The whole time I was observing this, I wondered what wouldn’t stop the woman from retrieving her bags and simply walk out of the airport like I had done the previous year after my immigration check. Well I was soon to find out.
Once I passed through immigration, got my passport stamped, and claimed my bags, I was randomly stopped throughout the airport two more times. The officers asked to see my passport and they each verified that it had been stamped and I was indeed allowed to enter the country. I must say however, that once they saw it was a US passport, they didn’t look too intently for the stamp, but what caused their initial approach of me, was my Blackness.
Though this excited me because I was finally being treated like a local, it annoyed me that the year before I was able to walk through this same airport without interference because of my white travel mates. I wish that there will come a time when Africans do not treat White people as omniscient beings. Everyone no matter what race they associate with should receive the same treatment, especially in the eye of the law. White visitors should not be abstained from the verification of a visa and allowed to enter the country freely, while Africans are being scrutinized.
But in the same boat, I was happy to be finally viewed as an African because though this caused a bit of annoyance in the airport, I knew that for the next month it would benefit me because prices of goods would not be as inflated on the account of my Americanness.

Renascent Africa

Many times I am asked how I came up with the concept of Reinventing Africa. Many people assume that my quest is to literally change the geographical make of the continent. However, when I use this term, I am communicating a desire to transform the misconceptions that foreigners have held about the continent, its people, and its capabilities. This term also refers to my desire to develop Africa. But no matter how much I try to explain the vision that I hold in the use of this term, I can not.
While reading Renascent Africa by Nnamdi Azikiwe, in his preface I came across a series of passages, that exemplified my vision and I think he is able to explain it better than I am. However, it is sad that though his book was published in 1968 at the brink of independence for most countries, almost 40 years later, the same vision is still applicable...

Today the continent of Africa is the focal point of European territorial ambitions.
France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain have colonial possessions in Africa. They are among the “have” nations.
There are other States which have no colonial possessions in Africa. They are among the “have not” nations.
A clash between the two groups is inevitable.
Amidst these conflicting ambitions of Europe for territorial expansion in Africa is the human factor- the fate of indigenous black Africans who dwell on this continent.
They constitute an extraneous element, so far as European imperialism is concerned. Their raw material mean more to Europe than their existence to enjoy the fullest of life, as do the Europeans, on their own continent, respectively. Their man-power seems only valuable for the machinery of European imperialism and militarism.
That the indigenous black Africans are not destined to accept the old idea of imperialism as revealed law handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai; that the twentieth-century African is bound to be renascent; and that this Renascent African must be reckoned with as a concrescent factor in the peace of the world, is the theme of this book.
In view of the revolutionary concept of Africa and Africans, some terminologies employed in this book deserve clarification:
Old Africa refers to the Africa of yesterday
Renascent Africa refers to the Africa of today
New Africa refers to the Africa of tomorrow
African refers to any indigenous black person
The Renascent African exists in a transitional stage between the Old and the New Africans. He refuses to view his future passively. He is articulate. He is destined to usher forth the New Africa.
To avoid ambiguity, it is necessary to explain what is meant by the New Africa.
Naturally, the continent of Africa cannot be reshaped. Geophysical phenomena were responsible for its fixity, etc. It is, therefore, beyond human power to change the physical map of Africa.
The term is used in a psycho-social sense. It is the renascence of Africans and the reformation of African society.
In Africa, outside of the immoral contributions made by the ancestors of the African, in antiquity- when Ethiopia was at the height of its majesty- and their forebears, during medieval times- when Songhay was in its splendour- African society has remained stagnant.
The slave trade and some of the evils of imperialism have helped to perpetuate the static condition of Africans. These offer a challenge- that the New Africa must come to pass.
The philosophy of the New Africa hinges itself on five bases. These are indispensable to its realization.
1. Spiritual Balance must be cultivated by Renascent African. This means respect for the views of others. Difference of opinion should not destroy friendship. In the Old Africa, difference of opinions intensified the wide gap between the various sections of the communities. Voltaire said that although he might disagree with his opponents, yet their right to state their opinion must be conceded, even if it cost his death in so doing. It means that the feelings of others must be taken into consideration, and that no ulterior motives should influence one’s criticism of others.
2. Social Regeneration must be experienced in African society. African conventions cannot be said to be consistent with what is ethical, just, and equitable. African society must be democratic. The ills of the present social order hinge on the continuation of the forces of man’s inhumanity to man. Let the Renascent African take upon himself the burden of looking at his fellow African as a man, nothing more, nothing less. Tribal appellations cause tribal idiosyncrasies; these lead ultimately to vanity and superciliousness and disharmony.
A regenerated social order must come. Fanti or Gar, Temne or Mende, Yoruba or Ibo, Bantu or Touareg, Bubi or Hausa, Jolloff or Kru- all are Africans- all are human beings.
3. Economic Determinism must be the basis of African economic thought. The quest for food, shelter, and clothing has been the primal motive in the establishment of society. It was responsible for the formulation of the social and political institutions of society. It is still the determinant factor in African contemporary history.
The Renascent African cannot create a new social order without an economic foundation. No longer must wealth be concentrated in the hands of the few. No longer must the profit motive guide and control the aims in life of the African. No longer must the wage-earners be told of dignity that does not seem to exist in labour.
Let the Renascent African make tomorrow secure for posterity, and a milestone is reached toward African economic interdependence with the rest of the world.
4. Mental Emancipation is necessary in order to crystallize the New Africa. This includes education of the sort which should teach African youth to have faith in his ability: to believe that he is the equal of the people of other races of mankind- mentally and physically; to look at no man as his superior simply because that man comes from the Antartic or Artic regions. It means that the Renascent African must be rid of the inferiority complex and all the trappings of hat-in-hand Uncle Tomism.
Educate the Renascent African to be a man. Tell him that he has made definite contributions to history. Educate him to appreciate the fact that iron was discovered by Africans; that the conception of one God was initiated by Africans; that Africans ruled the world from 763 to 713 BC; that while Europe slumbered during “the dark ages” a great civilization flourished on the banks of the Niger, extending from the salt mines of Terghazza in Morocco, to Lake Chad, right to the Atlantic. Narrate to him the lore of Ethiopia, of Ghana, Melle, Mellestine, Songhay.
Let him relish with the rest of the world that while Oxford and Cambridge were in their inchoate stages, the University of Sankore in Timbuctoo welcomed “Scholars and learned men from all over the Moslem world”, as Sir Percy puts it
The Renascent African will be better off with men and women who are trained to appreciate these facts of African history, than with those who spend a lifetime in Europe or America, for purposes of mis-education and devaluation of African culture and civilization
5. National Risorgimento is inevitable. When the Renascent African has cultivated spiritual balance, regenerated his society, planned his society economically, and has experienced mental emancipation, his political status cannot be in doubt. It is from within that the element of national greatness springs.
Let Renascent Africans usher in a New Africa, and Africans of tomorrow need not continue to be in political servitude. The forces of nationalism are automatic, especially when factors leading to them are intelligently directed. The right of self-determination is a phenomenon which defies human ingenuity.
Forces which were responsible for the birth, growth, and decay of Ethiopia, Egypt, Babylo-Assyria, Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome will determine the fate of the West, the East, and Africa.

Abti-American University of Nigeria: Where Does Africa’s Vision for Higher Education Get Lost?

Here is and excerpt from a paper that I wrote about Abti-American University of Nigeria (AAUN). Of course in my paper I described the condition of higher education in Africa and certain actors felt the need for a university such as AAUN and I also provided recommendations that I felt would make AAUN an institution that was more inclusive or more beneficial to the development of human capital. But for the purposes of sharing my thoughts and critiques of the establishment itself, this is what I've chosen to share in my blog. For more information on AAUN, go to their site at www.abti-american.edu.ng

Considering the original mission of African universities to become the cultivators of African development devoid of foreign influence, AAUN’s underlying structure defies these principles. It operates under the guise of preventing the brain drain, wherein thousands of students travel abroad in search of a higher education that will help them succeed. AAUN asserts that in their institution, African students are finally able to achieve a world class education without leaving West Africa. However, AAUN’s sole focus on American-style education is simply encouraging its students to seek out American (or overseas) jobs upon graduation. This is because AAUN constantly reinforces to its students that the opportunities they have made possible for them cannot be found anywhere else in Africa. AAUN asserts that American education is the highest caliber of education in the world and that in five years will be looked upon as the Harvard of Africa. How then, can students be expected to revert back to a traditional African lifestyle, when they have become accustomed to the “superior” American one? Thus human resources are being developed, but are useless to the country because they are being exported out and trends from the past, such as the brain drain, are not broken.
AAUN is not even creating opportunities of employment for its students or the community considering that 90% of its faculty and staff are American. Candidates for positions were recruited from all over the world and interviewed at American University in Washington, DC with AU management and professors , rather than in Nigeria with prominent leaders and professionals in that community. One faculty job announcement sought an Economist to teach at AAUN, where “experience in Africa or other parts of the developing world [was] a plus” , but obviously not compulsory or even expected. By constantly importing staff to serve in roles, where there are qualified African professionals available, this does not spur employment in the region and is thus ignoring a vital responsibility that African universities are expected to fulfill. African professors want to work in Africa and this tenacity has been shown though their years of dedication and service on menial and sometimes even no salaries.
AAUN also brag about their ability to restrict class sizes to eighteen students due to the ratio of faculty members to students and the vastness of their campus. However, at inception most African universities were able to do the same. Most were affiliated with universities of former colonial countries, such as is in this case, where faculty members were supplied, as well as complementary funding. However, as they attracted more students, classroom sizes inherently got larger. Unless American University is in the position to continually supplement the budget of AAUN, student fees will have to increase in order to maintain the level of standards that have been set these past two years.
The payment of student fees is also itself an issue. Even though AAUN in based in Nigeria, the fees that students pay are initially calculated in USD and then transferred to Nairas, leaving them susceptible to changes in exchange rates. One semester a student may be able to afford fees, but instability in the Nigerian economy can immediately and drastically change this making it impossible for them to continue their studies even if they have seemingly saved the necessary funds in relation to the cost of schooling the previous semester. Inherently, the inability to pay school fees, an issue that has plagued pupils throughout Africa for years, is compounded and made worse due to an unpredictable reliance on the world economy.
Nevertheless, the beauty of the campus, availability of resources, cutting edge technology, and dedication to prepare its students for the global world can not be discredited from the university. The world economic system is very competitive and largely characterized by rapid knowledge generation and technological innovation. It is vital for students to have a grasp of these talents in order to fair well against their counterparts from the West. However, these positive developments at AAUN are not being incorporated into Nigerian tradition and the Nigerian identity of students is not cultivated. They are rather being morphed into global citizens. Developments in science and technology should instead respond to the needs of the region through technological development of agricultural practices, crafts and industries, etc. so that jobs and productivity are multiplied. Consequently, AAUN pursues quality in higher education, but the type of creativity employed does not work towards solving the issues deterring Africa’s development, but America’s. Relevance of coursework can not even be seen or measured in programs that focus on the use of technology in every field (business, communication, literature, finance, and other American based curriculum) except those that are most relevant to Africa’s rural and developing communities i.e. agriculture, education, health, forestry, urban planning, etc (which are all absent at AAUN).
Overall, a serious issue with the promotion of AAUN as a premier university in Nigeria is the presumption that quality education has not and does not already exist in Nigeria. It is true that major universities, such as the University of Ibadan, are not maintaining the standards that they reached in the past, however instead of focusing on investing into an indigenous university in order to improve its academic and physical structure, a foreign structure is instead being transplanted to remedy issues in society that its administrators have not experienced. This goes against the principle that education in Africa needs to be home-grown in order to adequately address the needs of students and the community it serves. The marketing of AAUN also greatly delegitimizes historical institutions and those that have maintained indigenous patterns of knowledge. If an American styled education becomes the pride and joy of Africa, where does that leave African education? This “first-world” education subordinates African, or in this context, “third-world” education.
Ultimately, while AAUN excels in its quest for quality and creativity of higher education in Nigeria, it fails miserably in its neglect to address the important element of relevance. Students cannot be encouraged to complement their educational research with social development, when their academic leaders do not have a vested interest in the plight plaguing their community. “The truly African university must be one that draws its inspiration from its environment, not a transplanted tree, but one growing from a seed that is planted and nurtured in the African soil.”

It's Been A Long Time Coming

I know I've been away for quite a long time...almost a year, but a lot of things have incited my muse.
In two weeks I'll be returning to Uganda and this time for a month. I'll be going by myself this time, though I've got a great deal planned.
I'll be working on my master's thesis, so that I can finally graduate! (HOORAY!!!) I'll be volunteering at a youth development organization and orphanage. And I'll be spending time with all of the friends that I met during my first trip and having been longing to see for over a year.
I'm extremely excited to go back. I hope that everything is as good as I remember it being the first time. I am a bit apprehensive that because I stayed on Makerere's campus and we had a cook, driver, and guide, things may have been sugarcoated for me. Though I did make an effort to branch out on my own and try to experience native life, I am still sure that I was sheltered from or wasn't there long enough to experience everything. I just hope that whatever is to come in the month that I'm there will still leave me loving Kampala because I definitely still have an interest in moving there in the next year.
The director of the youth organization that I will be volunteering with seems very excited to have me visit and I also hope that is a great experience. I know that it will be challenging because thought I am very passionate about working with young people, I empathize with them quite a bit and am usually deeply and personally affected by their experiences. I appreciate having a vested interest in their livelihood, but this experience will definitely show me if I am able to have a hands on approach to their plight and still be effective on a larger, administrative scale.
I have decided to focus my research on corruption in the education system and more specifically the effects that the Public Expenditure Tracking System (PETS) has had on curbing corruption and ultimately increasing school resources and student access to education. Uganda has been heralded as becoming more transparent due to the PETS, but I wonder if this assertion is due to a series of reports generated by the government or if teachers and administrators of the PETS have felt that it was indeed effective and helpful.
This week I am also taking a one week course on Youth & Conflict. The instructor of the course, Randolph Carter, came in to speak to a class that I took last fall and he was amazing! Even though this course is being offered so close to the time that I leave for my trip, I just had to take it! I hope that I enjoy the course as much as I did his guest visit to my class. And hopefully it will incite some thoughts and generate ideas for me to share with everyone. It has surely been too long since I've done so!
However, though I have been MIA, I have been writing this spring, so I will post some excerpts from papers I've written and thoughts that I have been having in general in 2007.

The Boys of Baraka

Most people know about my affinity for Netflix. I rarely watch television. I just queue DVDs and watch movies (cuz Im not found of going to theatres), catch up on shows (cuz like I said, I rarely watch tv), and watch documentaries (netflix has got a great selection). So last night I watched The Boys of Baraka. This is a must see film for all black males, anyone concerned with the plight of black children, or anyone who doesnt understand the conditions facing poor children in America.
As the blurb reads: "In an experimental program to reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency, the city of Baltimore sent a group of 12-year-olds deemed "at risk" to a boarding school in Kenya, affording the boys the rare opportunity to turn their troubled lives around. Focusing on four of the youths, this compelling documentary follows the students as they struggle to overcome the obstacles of their past in their hopeful bid for a shot at a brighter future."

With as much exposure as I've had to inner city youth and scholarly research I've done on their plight, this documentary still revealed a great deal to me. I am still unable to fathom the fact that in order to face a brighter future, these young men are taken out of the streets of Baltimore and taken to Kenya. The educational system in most of sub-saharan Africa though rigorous is severely lacking in resources. However, these boys ended up learning in one year in Kenya more than they did throughout years of schooling in Baltimore city schools. I was also impressed by the level of determination the children showed. They were aware that their environments were conducive to failure and were willing to move to a completely foreign environment in order to better themselves. I found many of the children to be smarter than their parents, who were not working nearly as hard as their sons to improve their quality of life.

However inspiring this film was for me, it was still troubling in many ways. I was disappointed that though the Baltimore recruiter for the Baraka school was a black woman, all but one of the teachers, counselors, and administrators of the program were white. These boys were in need of more than educational and psychological counseling. They needed to see Black men as role models encouraging them to make it because they had as well. This was lacking in the program and is lacking overall in most communities. Most of the boys did not have their father's or even other males in their households and this most definitely has an effect on their outlook of their future.

Overall, this is a great documentary and everyone needs to see it.

Viva Chavez!!!!

If you don't stay up on world news, you must see this video. Bush is a devil.

I think Chavez summed things up perfectly and I admire his courage.

Where Do the Children Go?

In one of my classes, we examined the theory of reciprocity in societies; the absence of capitalism in societies because the communities function largely through family and kinship relations. People do things for each other in order to help and community members do not assign market value to their labor or services.
In all of this the issue of orphans in Africa emerged. There is a growing number of orphans due to the effect HIV/AIDS related deaths. When their parents die, some children have family members that will take them in and they are able to continue living supported lives. However, with the high rate of HIV infects (surpassing 30% in many African nations), many children have no where to go. The western approach to this dilemna would be orphanages, but you see, many African countries never had to build orphanages because the concept of children without parents or even family was completely foreign. So today we have an unsupported number of children living on the streets and providing for themselves because enough state systems have not been created to provide them with basic needs.

In an earlier post, I told of my visit to Sanyu Babies Home. These abandoned babies were fortunate enough to be rescued by this organization and able to be brought up in a loving environment. However, after the age of two, they were no longer able to live in this orphanage. When we asked the workers where the children went once they turned 2, they replied by saying that they hoped they could be adopted. But what if they weren't...the children could only hope to be placed in another orphanage.

And so the next question asked is adoption? Why isnt that an option. Well it is, but rarely used. Most families have so many of their own children to care for, that the thought of adopting a child that is not related to them is not even considered. Also, many countries do not encourage international adoption and make it virtually impossible for someone not related to the child to do so.

So once again I ask, "Where do the children go?"