A bit of background

19.11.2008

Margot comes over in the morning and continues her Africa initiation course, so much of what is below is her observation from years of living in Rural Africa, with my thoughts attached. What comes through is her great love of Africa, and that goes for the whole Irish team. She tells of the wisdom of the people of Africa, hidden knowledge of people with the most ancient roots, a rich culture that is not respected or even seen in the west. This is our collective shadow side and the reason it is called the Dark Continent, which the world regards as underprivileged inferiors, because of a spoonful of extra melanin. Maybe that is what AIDS is really about.

It reminds me of what Camilla said last week. AIDS in Africa is like a person with gangrene of the leg, who thinks that it doesn’t matter because their top half is OK.

I am a Mgeni, meaning a visitor, stranger and guest. In other words the stranger is a guest, not to be feared but welcomed- Karibu. You hear it 100 times a day; Karibu- welcome.

The Tanzanians call us white people Wazumgu, literally people of God, a remnant of the flashy trinkets and mirrors that were first used to tempt the Africans, but also meaning those who go round in circles, though they say it endearingly. It reminds me of the Native American term Koyaanisqatsi, meaning life out of balance. There is a lot of similarity between the two cultures.

Margot tells me of a village in the mountains where a severe famine had struck, and the people were said to be to dying of hunger. Helpers were gathering food on trucks and together they traveled up to the village. She was expecting to find total hunger and devastation, but when she arrived she couldn't believe her eyes- there were goats and cows and chicken wandering all over the place. But to the truck driver it was obvious. You have to preserve some animals for the future, and maybe you have to let some old or sick people die, because the wisdom is to leave something for tomorrow, to save the community as opposed to saving the individual, to let the collective survive. Africans are the survival experts of the planet. On the other hand, I wonder if this collective living 'as if one person' is not conducive to the many epidemics which plague Africa.

Africans have deep respect for the elderly, their ancestors and their roots. In Africa people are proud of growing old instead of dreading it. There is a great admiration for the elders, as opposed to the western infatuation with eternal youth. At age 60 they show off, looking down on the young pups of 20 and feeling smug for having made it so far. Why would anyone want to live long if they can't enjoy old age?

To the African, a poor person is not someone without food, but a person who has no one to share it with. They live the sense of wholeness of being one person, for them it is a reality of life.

It should be noted that these cultural points are much more apparent in the villages, and are mostly lost in the big cities.

Another aspect is the power of women. Africa may look patriarchal but it is a woman based society. Margot say that the women in Africa are the ones to trust in any deal. They work in a steady reliable fashion with dedicated gentle strength. It is very different from the femininity of the west, because this power is not about 'looks' but about the deeper power of womanhood- they are hard working, compassionate soothers, and somewhat paradoxically too strong to complain about the many raw deals they get..

It makes me wonder why Africa has got the worst deal. Maybe because the world is upside down in its psoric craziness. But the victim idea comes up again. For me all this background is important to understand for many reasons; because it is fascinating, because I am here, because I was born here as were my parents, because my grandparents lived in Rhodesia and South Africa since the late 19th century, and because I feel it is essential knowledge for cracking the AIDS epidemic.
I am on a search for themes, what lies beneath the ground.

As to AIDS there is always shame and guilt attached to the disease, a condescending moralistic superiority against supposed promiscuity. But it seems that Africans, on the whole, are not naturally promiscuous. African society is naturally spiritual, religious and traditional. It is the poverty that leads to the breaking apart of the family, to men trucking thousands of miles to work, and the inevitable life saving, soul destroying prostitution.
Here's another story. In the 1950's, due to poor management of resources, the fish population in the giant Lake Victoria was running low. Nile perches were introduced into the lake. Nile perch are predator fish, and the aim was to create industry and jobs. Initially, the new fish constituted only a minute percentage of the lake's biomass, while cichlids, the local fish, were the vast majority, but over the next 20 years the local fish were just about gone, and the Nile perch took over. While some biologists consider this the as "the greatest vertebrate mass extinction in recorded history" and a major ecological disaster, the introduction of the Nile perch is viewed as an economic booster by businessmen and government officials.
Men from all over Africa flocked to the lake to find sustenance, followed by an army of prostitutes. When the Nile perch destroyed the local fish, they also destroyed a traditional way of life, and AIDS flourished. This was a well intentioned western idea designed to help the economy, but the result was devastation. Many times African promiscuity is the result of socio economic powers, the draining of natural resources.
This is not the whole story of the the destruction of Lake Victoria. No wonder the African's call it ' the lake of tears'. You can read more about it on the net.
This reminds me of a story Sigsbert told me. Japanese ships would come and go from the main harbor, loading great quantities of sand to export to Japan. One day a ship sank just outside the harbor. Shortly afterwards whole teams of divers and helicopters turn up to salvage the wreck. Why? Because it appears that the sand was full of gold. Tanzania is one of the poorest countries on earth, but has the third largest gold reserve on the planet!

There is a theme growing here, and I call it being robbed of natural resources. We have not yet reached the slavery issue, but we will. However, I am reminded of one of the most successful cases of AIDS that I saw. As my patient got better, he said "What has changed in me is my use of resources. I use my energy, money, food and emotions more carefully. I am managing my resources better, and as they grow, I grow healthier"

I have just heard that I have 6 new AIDS patients waiting to be seen this afternoon. Time to get practical.

Bye for now
Jeremy