The African Record

Keeping Africans ‘barefoot and pregnant’

Former World Bank President James Wolfensohn was on NPR’s Talk of the Nation today, promoting his memoir, A Global Life: My Journey among Rich and Poor, from Wall Street to the World Bank.

Sounds like a really tough life, doesn’t it?

But I’m not going to put the book on my reading list because Wolfensohn insulted my intelligence by saying that the World Bank hasn’t been so effective in Africa because of corruption.

Wolfensohn stated correctly that only 20 percent of the money sent to Africa goes to where it is intended. The rest, he said, goes to cover the overhead and into the pockets Africa’s corrupt leaders. What he didn’t mention is that the World Bank and similar organizations are run by people who know or care very little about Africa. These people take a great chunk of the money in form of hefty salaries and allowances. How could anyone expect them to want to solve the problems?

Corruption is the easiest scapegoat for the failure of such organizations. Never mind that those corrupt African goons send the money right back to the West, where laws of privacy protect them. That money is then laundered back into the “donor countries” and loaned back to Africans. A college professor of mine calls it “keeping Africans barefoot and pregnant.” Loan them money, get it right back, and you’ll have Africans working for you for eternity.

And they say slavery was abolished?

Anyone who genuinely wants Africa to prosper would let Africans take charge in matters of their own continent. There are so many highly educated Africans in the United States and elsewhere, who know what needs to be done. But they are having a really tough time raising money because politicians and the media keep singing that Africans are corrupt. They ignore the simple fact that most Africans hate corruption — that they have been victims of the vice.

The new soundbite in the media goes something like, “Africans should be the one to decide blah, blah, blah.” Yet I know scores of intelligent Africans — professors, doctors, lawyers, engineers — who have started charities but cant find funding for their ideas because every grant maker wants a “proven track record.” (They remind me of my graduate school years when I couldn’t get an internship because I did not have daily newspaper experience). Everyone wants experience, but no one is willing to be the first to offer the rookie chance to get it.

They pride themselves in being able to let Africans abroad teach their children in schools and universities, run their businesses — and even treat their loved ones in hospitals. But they don’t trust the same Africans to know what’s good for their loved ones back in the motherland.

You go figure!

One of the wow! moments for me in Wolfensohn’s radio appearance came when he told Neal Conan, the host, how he got the job. According to Wolfensohn, Robert McNamara, who was the World Bank president from 1986 to 1981, went to him one day and told him he’d like him to take on the job some day. But Wolfensohn was Australian, which made him ineligible because “traditionally the job has been held by an American.” (I think that’s because — as the current economic crisis has shown — Americans are better than anyone at managing money).

McNamara sent Wolfensohn to the immigration and naturalization department, where he was asked one question: Who was the first president of the United States? He answered it correctly and was handed U.S. citizenship. (The rest of us have to study 100 questions and take a test of 10, six of which we must get right to pass the test.”

Sounds like corruption to me, but what do I know?

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