A Denver Post series last month on Africa portrayed three issues of great significance to that nation: Water, kids orphaned by AIDS and the need for peace and reconciliation.
Americans take clean, potable water for granted, but in much of Africa, waterborne diseases kill thousands. The energy expended drawing it from dams, ponds and streams could be better utilized; carrying it, often done by children before they go to school, is backbreaking work.
Post reporter Bruce Finley and photographer Helen H. Richardson highlighted work done by Americans as private citizens or groups working on small projects across Africa. The funding of many small enterprises is new and revolutionary. For years, billions of dolllars were poured down the sinkhole of corruption.
For 20 years, death stalked Africa: AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria killed millions as we looked away. Some ascribed the world’s indifference to racism. “If 20 million whites died, the world would have responded,” they said. I thought it was from lack of focus: The deaths were too far away and had no repercussions on America.
On Nov. 2, the Rocky Mountain News had a story of seven Colorado high school kids who traveled to Yetebon, Ethiopia. It’s home to Project Mercy, established in 1977 by husband and wife team Marta Gabre-Tsadick and Demeke Tekle-Wold, both Ethiopians. Where before there was hunger, misery and hopelessness, there now is a hospital, a school and several hundred healthy and hopeful Ethiopian kids.
The Colorado kids went hoping to educate Ethiopians; they returned better informed, humbled and wiser, understanding the need for the world to work together. Surely there’s hope for humanity with kids like these in our midst.
Like many others, and without government dollars, media attention and klieg lights, Denver restaurateur Noel Cunningham began to offer his help. He responded to something deep in him: his conscience, and the belief that he was in fact his brother’s keeper. He traveled to Ethiopia to lend a hand to strangers, who have become his new friends.
Elsewhere, National Geographic’s September issue was dedicated to Africa and is a beautiful resource about the continent. National Public Radio frequently reports on the many crises in Africa.
Hollywood, too, has responded. “The Constant Gardener” is a movie about the world’s largest drugmakers performing experiments on hapless Africans. It so well portrays the intersection between honesty and ethics in big business, how the mixture of corruption, profits and racism creates a murderous concoction. “Hotel Rwanda” is another Hollywood treatment of Africa. HBO’s “Yesterday” is a movie about a South African woman who confronts HIV with courage, compassion and dignity. These and more movies show that Africa is no longer unknown; it’s a place that gives many Americans pause, to ask themselves: What can I do to help?
Since Africa remains the same, sad, poor place that’s unable to help itself, the increased attention must arise from the West’s growing sense of responsibility to the world “out there.” We are seeing the changing of the guard; younger writers and activists are replacing retiring baby boomers. The new generation has a wider vision; a new, aggressive sensitivity to the world. It is a generation more interested in the poor and less in its own materialism.
The media might highlight what needs doing in Africa, but individuals must decide what to do. It would be ideal if different groups with an interest in Africa knew and functioned synergistically with one another. (Boulder’s africacentre.org has compiled a directory of such groups; it’s a valuable resource.)
Now that our two newspapers have shined new light on Africa, it’s incumbent on us to send them our own, wonderful stories about Africa. Many of them are about tragedy, but many are about beauty, mercy and intact families. Africa is many things and our newspapers have yet to begin scratching the surface. We have made a great start; for that we are grateful.
Pius Kamau of Aurora is a thoracic and general surgeon. He was born and raised in Kenya and immigrated to the U.S. in 1971. His column appears on alternate Thursdays.
