Friday 20 July 2007- Day Forty Nine and beyond

I am still not sure I know what to say in my final blog entry for the trip. Africa (the continent as a whole) is somewhere I was not sure I would get to see. I wanted to but somehow other countries seemed to jump to the top of the list. When the IFP was offered in Joburg I knew that the time had come.

It has been weeks since I have been back in the states and I have talked to dozens of people about my trip and each time I feel as though I have not explained the experience fully. The first thing people ask is how the trip was. Usually I pause for three minutes trying to decide what to say. I cannot realistically say, “It was super fun!” Even thought it was ‘super fun’ that somehow cheapens the entire experience and reduces the seven weeks to a tourist’s perspective. I do not want to say it was difficult because even though it was difficult this feeds into the consumer concern for Africa (I will discuss this later). I cannot even say I learned a lot; I did but now I have even more questions than I did before. Usually, I say that the trip was challenging.

The entire IFP experience was a big challenge for me personally, academically, and professionally. Before I left for Joburg, I was not sure if I was capable of conducting fieldwork as I am usually very shy and unobtrusive. I was even more unsure of my ability to make friends while I was away from home. I have found that I work well in the field and I do not have to be socially awkward. Academically and professionally, I am planning to write a couple of articles with my research partner and try to have them published.

One of the things that greeted me upon my return from Africa was a large stack of mail, on of which is the Vanity Fair special Africa issue edited by Bono. I have been avoiding this issue since my return. Last night as I was trying to summarize my feelings and experiences this summer, I picked up the issue and began to flip through it. Not to discount the work of Bono (I believe that it is admirable) and the need of increased support to the African continent, but I think that there is an emerging international aid ‘market’.

Increasingly there are campaigns and concerts to benefit causes and Africa seems to be the darling of these events. I believe the Africa issue of Vanity Fair calls it consumer-action strategy. The continent and its problems are thus exploited (ultimately) for their own benefit but through this consumer transaction does not capture the richness of the African reality. Those that buy these products have a vague notion of the issue and where the profit will be donated but the donation is not a result of a magnanimous action rather it is a result of a desire to own.

To maximize consumption two things are done: 1) the product is pushed instead of the cause and 2) when the cause is highlighted the marketing only focuses on the extreme negative aspects instead of any positive situations. There is a quote from Iman Abdulmajid in Vanity Fair that summarizes how I feel, “My Africa is rich in human resources and dignity. I get insulted when I see only images of our dying, our wars, our Darfur, our AIDS victims … not our doctors, our nurses, our teachers.”

What I will take from this experience is the strength of community and perseverance of humanity that exists in the townships.

Only twelve other people will really know what the African Experience was like and even they will not have the same reality.

(pictures available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marybec/)