“Africans Have Cell Phones? Who Do They Call?”

6 Comments

1. Molly Kinder wrote:

   Bill, great post. June’s recap of the “Africans have cellphones???” anecdote is priceless, albeit super disturbing. It caused me (and my colleagues) to cringe several times. I hope June has the opportunity to speak to a broader audience of US philanthropists — an important message and a compelling messenger alike.

   Posted March 11, 2009 at 10:55 am | Permalink
2. hyrcan wrote:

   She may be shocked, but sadly I’m not. There’s a lot of people in the U.S. who are seemingly disconnected from the reality of the rest of the world.

   I think she touches on something else that’s also pretty important, which is the person she’s talking to has this misconception of what a country that needs aid looks like. Which is skewed by the guilt tripping commercials we get here on TV. “Just 25 cents a day…” you can support this random dirty kid that never smiles. I think they are insulting to the people who live in poverty and anyone else they represent by turning them into characters instead of people.

   Large aid organizations would do well to follow the footsteps of projects like the Uncultured Project. Put real faces on the people they are trying to help. Show how their donors money gets used to help real people.

   Making someone real makes a connection stronger than any guilt trip. And it cuts back on the misconceptions like the ones she talks about has.

   Posted March 11, 2009 at 11:03 am | Permalink
3. Remi wrote:

   I hope June has the opportunity to speak to a broader audience of US philanthropists — an important message and a compelling messenger alike.

   Posted March 14, 2009 at 3:52 am | Permalink
4. Jeff Barnes wrote:

   One of the reasons that some Americans are surprised that Africans have cellphones is that the UN, the non profits and the rest of the compassion industry propagate images of poor helpless Africans. It would be difficult to raise money if more taxpayers and donors in the US and Europe knew how that the situation is much more complex. Kenya, like many other heavily aided countries boasts a comfortable middle and upper class that in many respects has a better quality of life than the western taxpayers who are contributing their aid. The richest fifth of the population in Kenya earns 51% of national income. Not only do they have cellphones, but they have nice clothes, nice cars and servants, too.

   Posted March 14, 2009 at 9:51 pm | Permalink
5. Angela W. wrote:

   The previous comments are exactly right; in my experience, most of the people that my organization helps are all painfully aware of how the West sees them, and they’d like an opportunity to define themselves to American donors as something other than a mouth to feed. Are there dirty children in rags? Yes. But again, there is an enormous gap between the middle and upper class and those who are in real need of aid: in fact, some historians would recognize the social construction of modern day Kampala as eerily reminiscent of 19th Century London, right in the middle of an industrial revolution. In many ways, it’s Dickensian.

   Many aid groups rely heavily on technologies that they don’t often talk about. After all, it’s not easy to collect donations for people with cell phones but no malaria nets; western donors have an idea that cell phones are a luxury. In Africa, they’re not. They’re the most effective way to communicate, and NGO’s (my own included) are beginning to take advantage of it.

   http://legacyworldmissions.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/reaching-africa-via-text-message/

   Posted March 16, 2009 at 7:27 pm | Permalink
6. Janet the cell phone geek wrote:

   I enjoyed the video, though I dont think most westerners would agree that they are as biased as the video would have you believe.

   Posted May 25, 2009 at 2:50 pm | Permalink