The Brown & White

The Association of International Students and the Black Student Union presented Lehigh's first ever Africa Week from March 24 to 29.

Lasting six days, events were held to explore the African continent and culture.

The purpose of the week was to expose students to aspects of Africa they would not normally hear about.

Events included lectures, music performances and food tasting among other cultural and educational programs.



It's not all about money

Kevin Clawson, founder and president of the nonprofit organization Reach the Children, gave a lecture Monday on the power of microfinance as a foundation for self-reliant communities in Africa.

Clawson said it takes more than large monetary donations to solve problems, and that organizations need to teach the people how to help themselves.

"Sometimes donors have a short-term, corporate perspective," Clawson said. "Part of my mission is the long-term benefit. You have to raise a community's ability to raise itself."

Clawson's organization does not only hand individuals money, it teaches residents how to run businesses through a training program. The program includes instruction on tasks, such as balancing check books.

Clawson said people in the U.S. take this knowledge for granted.

"We've seen well-intentioned projects that just don't last," Clawson said. "They often cause more problems."

More problems are exactly what the poorest regions of Africa do not need, Clawson said.

As Clawson's Reach the Children short video stated, 2.7 billion people live on less than $2 a day. Forty million people will starve this year and 8,000 people die of AIDS every single day. In fact, 76 percent of the 2.1 million AIDS-related deaths last year occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.

Clawson said the top-down approach to solving these problems, which involves handing checks over and expecting the aid to eventually reach those in need, is flawed. He said the three main issues with this kind of management are inadequate checks and balances, working over distances and corruption.

Clawson said corruption is so prevalent that his organization often is limited by its refusal to be involved with such practices.

"We don't want to do anything illegal, but we want to do things as effectively as possible," Clawson said.

Beldina Opiyo-Omdo, a member of the audience and former Kenya resident, said she understood Clawson's point of view all too well.

"Sometimes you have the human resources, but it's tapping into those resources and bringing them where they're needed that is the problem," Opiyo-Omdo said.

Jeff Clark, a friend and colleague of Clawson's said he applauds the efforts of Reach the Children.

"Saving the world is not an easy task," Clark said. "Most people don't become interested in something this selfless until much later in their lives, so the fact that you are here says something."

Reach the Children is a nonprofit organization that focuses on AIDS prevention, education, health, micro-enterprise, orphan care, and water and agriculture in an attempt to empower the people of Africa to create a brighter future, according to reachthechildren.org.



Negative media portrayal

John Prendergast, co-chair of the ENOUGH Project and former director of African Affairs at the National Security Council, last visited Lehigh 25 years ago to see his then-girlfriend. The purpose this time was markedly different.

In a lecture "Why Africa Isn't Useless" delivered on Wednesday, March 26, Prendergast discussed the current state of Africa.

He emphasized the need to aid Africa and view its troubles in a large historical context and not by the media's unfair and unrealistic depictions.

Prendergast said although most of Africa has democracy and is at peace, international news coverage primarily focuses on wars and famines - though he did not discount the current problems still being faced in Congo, Somalia and Darfur.

In his speech, Prendergast questioned whether Africa's historical development has been truly different from that of many countries.

However, he contends the continent holds great promise and value.

"Africa is not a continent of despair," he said. "Its capacity for transformation is limitless."

Arguing that there is a sharp contrast between Africa's reality and popular perception, Prendergast noted several recent movies that have exploited this false image.

He said films such as "Lord of War," "Blood Diamond" and "The Last King of Scotland" misrepresented Africa.

In order to help these countries, he said, change must come through international policy and diplomatic relations.

Prendergast said he believes there are a few reasons why there is currently a tremendous window of opportunity to influence change and end genocide in Darfur.

The largest being the amount of people looking to stop genocide.

"Most importantly," he said, "for the first time there is a mass movement of people committed to ending genocide."



The African plight for freedom

Salim Ahmed Salim, African Union special envoy to Darfur and former prime minister of Tanzania, spoke Thursday about the evolution of development in Africa.

Salim's lecture focused on how Africa's past has shaped the continent and what is being done to improve the lives of its people.

He said after Africa faced 300 years of issues such as slavery and apartheid, there was a great need to forge a sense of nationhood among people.

He said in some nations, such as Tanzania, forging a sense of nationhood was fairly easy, but in many instances there were catastrophic results, such as civil wars.

Salim spent 12 years as president of the organization that is now the African Union, and said during this time he witnessed many ups and downs, including visiting Rwanda after genocide.

"I have seen the resilience and determination of the African people for a better tomorrow," Salim said. "The challenge is to the leadership."

Salim said achieving freedom has been vital to Africa's development and that Africa could not develop fully without freedom.

"We faced 300 years of arrested development," Salim said.

Salim said there is a tendency to see Africa as a land of disease, poverty, endless violence and corruption and that this is partly due to prejudice.

He described Africa as a continent that is richly endowed with resources, but inhabited by some of the poorest people.

When asked what the best action the U.S. could take for the situation in Darfur, Salim said there were several important aspects that they must take into account.

These include facilitating the supply of assistance and creating conditions for refugees to return to the country, he said.

He also said it is important to send troops, but troops are not in a position to create peace. This would need to come from negotiation among leaders, he said.

Salim said they need to ensure the employment of African Union force and to make sure that the force is properly equipped.

Salim also talked about the HIV/AIDS crisis being the No. 1 enemy in Africa.

He said access to treatment is increasing and the stigmatization of the disease is lessening.