To help or not help To attract attention or not to attract attention Below, an article in one of the biggest newspapers in sub-Saharan Africa, The Nation, of the powerful The Nation Group of newspapers of Kenya.
To me the most telling is the statement concerning reaction in Malawi to the adoption that "If one had called for similar action to protest corruption, its doubtful so many of them would have signed up". The same would apply in the rest of the world to protests against global worming, legislative reform, care for the aged/ poor etc. But put a child and a star into the mix, and you have a public+media-made Hollywood event on your hands Rui ______________________________________________________________ Give Madonna all Africa's orphans (comment) Nation (Kenya), by Charles Onyango-Obbo October 19, 2006 It is surprising just how big a controversy pop superstar Madonnas adoption of a 13-month-old Malawian boy has kicked up in the international media. At home, an attempt by group of 67 Malawian non-governmental organisations to stop the adoption of David Banda was overruled by the High Court. If one had called for similar action to protest corruption, its doubtful so many of them would have signed up. There is outrage outside Africa too. Mr Mick Hume, a columnist in The Times of London, wrote that: "If Madonna wants to show how much she cares for African orphans, why cant she just wear a plastic wristband like every other moral poseur, instead of being photographed wearing a Malawian baby on her back in a native sling? An African baby seems to be the latest celebrity accessory." Celebrities (Bob Geldof, Bono, actress Angelina Jolie and the rest of the do-good crowd ), he wrote, are "treating the whole of Africa as a helpless baby to be adopted by Western parents. Madonnas child charity is called 'Raising Malawi', as if the country were a toddler to carry on her back." Ms Marie Staunton, of the charity Plan UK, writing in The Guardian, argued that it was not enough for pop stars to adopt the millions of orphans on the continent. "It is grandmothers often in their late thirties or forties who throughout Africa are providing the love and care that Aids orphans need. "They survive on meagre wages and yet they care for their grandchildren (as) they cope with their own chronic illnesses, arthritis, and hypertension. It is these women, with more and more mouths to feed, who need our help. By providing them with chickens and goats to make a living and support the children in their care, or even a small child benefit, we could give just not one child the chance for a better life, but every child in Malawi a future. Understandably Banda's father, Yohame Banda, a farmer who put his son in an orphanage after his mother died giving birth, isnt thinking of all Malawi s children, but his own. He accused the NGOs of being "jealous of my son". "What's their interest? I want Banda to have a bright future, not to live in this poverty," he told The Associated Press. I doubt the NGOs are being jealous, but one suspects theyre being hypocritical. The majority of NGOs in Africa are funded by money from international charities and Western donors like Madonna. And, as they campaign that Banda should remain in Malawi, the children of the fat cats who head these NGOs are probably going to the best private schools in Malawi and abroad. And possibly none of these people has adopted an orphan. The question of orphans in Africa, though, is bigger than the Madonna flap indicates. Africa, the worlds poorest continent, has an estimated 43 million orphans, mostly because of Aids and conflict. Ethiopia alone has about five million orphans, who are now costing the government more than is spent each year on health or education. Faced with this crisis, the head of Ethiopias child adoption unit illustrates how difficult the choices people confronted with the problem have to make. He told The Times that the number of foreign adoption agencies in the capital, Addis Ababa, had grown from four to more than a dozen in less than two years. "It is a difficult choice," he said. "Who are we to deny them [the orphans] the chance of an education and better life? Who are we to send them [adoption agencies] away?" The reality is that babies, as The Times notes, have become Africas fastest growing export. They havent been attended by the kind of protests we have seen over the adoption of Banda because, well, Madonna was not adopting them. The value of the current noise is it gives critics some good easy publicity, but they cannot claim that they have only just discovered that Westerners are snapping up African children. This therefore isnt about "baby" Banda per se. Theres also a lot of liberal Western guilt over the adoption of African children, partly because of history. Had Banda been a poor Romanian child, the adoption would have raised less dust. However the most objectionable is that a white woman adopting black African children conjures images of a "native" being bought as if it was during the slave trade except this time, the "slave trader" is wearing designer clothes, and has left something behind to placate the people: Madonna's charity is setting up an orphanage for up to 4,000 children, and the singer has said she wants to raise at least $3 million (Sh216m) for programmes to support Aids orphans. Another source of controversy derives from the media and NGOs distrust of rich and powerful people. Were Madonna a humble Baptist minister from Leicester, she would have carted David away without even a single letter in the press. Many people who consider themselves progressive sit uncomfortably in this world, because it gives those with education, good jobs, and influence a lot of power over the poor and weak. It gives Madonna the influence to fast-track the adoption of Banda, and it gives NGO careerists and journalists the clout to influence public opinion and action. By criticising people like Madonna, they will perpetuate the fiction that they are different. They arent. This also leads them to project suffering and poverty as something noble, hence Ms Stauntons suggestion that the poor women caring for Aids orphans in African villages are necessarily better mothers than Madonna. However, the reason they and everyone else work long hours, and spend so much money buying a good education for their children, are so that they can be successful and avoid Banda's fate. They know that it makes all the difference if you are rich and successful. There are no easy solutions to the orphan crisis in Africa, but as happens to so many such children, if Banda hadnt been adopted, he would probably have been murdered on the streets of Lilongwe by a mob or a policeman before his 18th birthday. Or he could have become one of the thousands of African illegal immigrants who die in the Mediterranean trying to cross to Europe hoping for a better life. Little Banda is the goose that flew over the cuckoo's nest. ________________________________________________ Rui Correia Advocacy, Human Rights, Media and Language Consultant 2 Cutten St, Horison, Roodepoort, Johannesburg, South Africa Tel/ Fax (+27-11) 766-4336 Cell (+27) (0) 83-368-1214 "Quando a verdade é substituída pelo silêncio, o silêncio é uma mentira" - Yevgeny Yevtushenko "When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie" - Yevgeny Yevtushenko
