I have this thought ruminating about aid and development and culture…I don’t mean to be controversial but I think it is a thought worth sharing from the cultural side of things. Zambian cultures are collectivist, with each individual gladly willing to give what they have to make another better. Families are widely extended, with grandparents raising grandchildren or aunts and uncles raising nieces and nephews as their own children. Communities are very close knit, with greetings and time spent together valued higher than our American sense of efficiency or productivity.
People are also incredibly generous. My host parents often bring me fresh bread or pineapple from their fields, or hot coals from their fire when I’m having trouble getting my brazier started. Relative strangers have brought me a pumpkin, eggs, and fetched water for me. It makes me feel I am always taken care of. These are gifts give under no pretense, under no expectation to be paid or repaid.
It goes in both directions.
While people give freely, they also ask freely. My host family has asked me for tea, sugar, washing powder, medicine, to borrow clothespins…it’s neighborly and I consider it the least I can do, especially considering how well they take care of me. I try to be on the proactive side too, bringing small gifts like sugar or cooking oil to my host parents.
The culture of asking and giving goes beyond the local village though. In general, people ask for things and expect you to give. I have been asked for my bicycle, books, drinking water, seeds, money, food, fish fingerlings, extra help with school, even my hair. Some of these are easy to give. Some are also easy to understand from a misconception of how Peace Corps works or from the perception that as an American, I must have wealth to share.
I think it goes deeper than that, though. One time in Lusaka, a small child came up to a Volunteer and asked (well, stated), “Give me 1 kwacha.” The PCV, in jest, said, “No, you give ME 1 kwacha.” And the child pulled a 1 kwacha coin out of his pocket and gave it to the Volunteer. He gave it back of course but I think that illustrates the culture of giving, as well as asking for what is needed.
I find myself wondering if development is somehow slowed by the asking and granting. If Zambians are comfortable asking for perceived needs to be met by the government, NGOs, and foreign allies, and these needs are met, what impetus is there to be self-sustaining? If people or agencies are giving freely (as PCVs are giving their time and effort, As NGOs give supplies, as the government gives subsidies), what harm is there in asking?
I think there is a certain American quality of shame in asking for help. It’s not necessarily healthy and probably speaks volumes on our stigma about mental healthcare. I can’t help but think the sense of shame in asking for help (and also receiving it, especially without recompense) drives individuals to “pull themselves up by the bootstraps.” These tough ones shoulder on towards success even if it means significant personal sacrifice along the way. Conservative Americans have voiced concern about “handouts” to everyday people struggling to make ends meet; it’s no wonder people feel shame or failure for having to ask. On an international aid scale, we provide these same sorts of “handouts” to entire nations, in various forms.
I’m not casting an opinion on aid, just noting cultural differences in its reception. I was talking with my Department of Fisheries supervisor and he said, “We have given these people the tools to dig ponds, fish to fill them, and the knowledge to maintain them. The rest is up to their motivation.” I think in a parallel situation in the States, people involved in such programs might feel a duty, almost, to work hard, succeed in their farming efforts, and show the providers their work has not gone for naught. There is certainly that drive in some Zambians I have interacted with but there is also contentment, or relative comfort, in asking for more or for blaming shortcomings on the situation. E.g. “We are very poor here.” “Transport is an issue.” “You never know about the timing of these things.” “Mali kosi [No money].”
Motivation is often mentioned as an issue to Peace Corps’ style of development. I feel like this would not be the case at home. Maybe project failures would happen due to lack of communication, failure to fully follow through due to dedication to other goals, or misuse of resources, but not to motivational flaccidity.
On our site visits during training, our Lunda hosts asked us why/how Americans are successful. We didn’t really know how to respond. We said we work hard, are pushed by our parents and peers, and certainly don’t have it all figured out. Zambians surely work hard. Look at any field in Zambia, knowing that it is hand-tilled, weeded, sowed, and tended. Look at any house and see it is made of hand-shaped bricks, hand-fired and hand-stacked, then covered with a hand-thatched roof made from hand-harvested grass. Look at the children who might not have enough to eat at home don their carefully laundered uniforms and march off to school, so determined to learn.
Where does our “American spirit,” touted as irritating by other countries, come from? Maybe it’s that “American dream” on the ever out-of-reach horizon. Maybe it’s being surrounded by reminders of others’ success: reality TV, advertising, general ubiquity of media showing lifestyles of the rich and famous. The wealthy loom high and gaze down from their perches. Another thing we told our Lunda hosts is that we as Americans have just been plain lucky. I think that is just it, somehow.
Written 1 July 2017
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