My
fascination with the continent of Africa began at an early age. This made no sense for a relatively sheltered
blonde Finnish kid from a region where the population was 99+% white and few people
left their home county, much less dreamed of going to another continent. But when I was in second grade, I declared to
my mother that I was going to join the Peace Corps, go to Africa, and find a
cure for cancer. I didn’t join the Peace
Corps; I did cancer research for awhile, but didn’t find a cure. But I have had the good fortunate to travel
to Africa three times. My brother is really
the lucky one. He lived in Ghana for a full year, toured much of Western Africa,
and even got married in Timbuktu.
I don’t
know what triggered my early interest in Africa, but I think it might have been
cheetahs. And I can still hum the music of Born
Free. But the allure for me has become the stories of the continent and the
people. Oh to have the experiences of Elspeth
Huxley as told in The Flame Trees of Thika, which is quite
a different portrayal of life on the continent than that of Karen von
Blixen-Finecke in Out of Africa. Many
girls my age daydreamed about following in the footsteps of Dian Fossey or Jane
Goodall. But I am equally captivated by
the tragic stories. Oh how I cried
watching Hotel Rwanda, Out of Africa, and Blood Diamond. Or while reading Desmond Tutu’s No Future Without Forgiveness – about the
truth and reconciliation trials – and Lisa Shannon’s A Thousand Sisters – about the atrocities women suffer in the Congo. I have seen the quarry at Robben Island, and
stood at the door of cell #4, prison B, peered down the Rift Valley, and
explored the Great Pyramids. Those are
experiences that connect you to all of humanity in ways that are difficult to put
into words. Perhaps that is why I feel
such loss, even though I did not know today’s victims.
I
have friends from Kenya: Ray Ray who is
studying at the School of Forestry at Yale, Samwel, a Maasai I met through the
U.N. climate meetings, and dear Christine – one of my students when I was a new
faculty member. I still remember her
arriving in northeastern PA with no prior experience with cold and snow. We have remained close for two decades. Today, I weep with them, for them, for their
homeland.
In
one of my classes, I have students read Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence.
The author, Christian Parenti, argues that we are witnessing the
first of the climate wars. He overlays
the impacts of climate change in regions that have a long history of conflict
and the result is banditry, violence, and state failure. The book begins with the question of “Who
killed Ekaru Loruman?” Ekaru was a
pastoralist from northwestern Kenya brutally murdered as he tried to defend his
few head of cattle. Samwel has told me
that cattle are not only a measure of wealth, but also of how much of a man one
is.
Does any of this explain the violence of the day? Can there be any explanation?When you think of all the conflicts we have - whether those conflicts are local, whether they are regional or global - these conflicts are often over the management, the distribution of resources. If these resources are very valuable, if these resources are scarce, if these resources are degraded, there is going to be competition. Wangari Maathai
I
dislike the overuse of the term “hero”, but one woman from Kenya is a hero and
inspiration to me – Wangari Maathai. If
you don’t know the story of this Nobel Peace Prize winner, you should. I had the good fortune to get to know her a
little in 2009; but cancer took her too soon after. So many of her words seem relevant at this
moment:
I don't really know why I care so much. I just have something inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to do something about it. I think that is what I would call the God in me.
All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet.
This is a lovely comment and essay; there are no answers.
ReplyDeleteThank you Annette. Sadly, when the topic slips so quickly from the headlines (at least here in the U.S.), then we don't even ask the questions or have the discussions that are so desperately needed.
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