Sundaymail Editor
Except in rare and exceptional cases and circumstances, from the time a baby is born, all it knows is its mother’s breast milk, which nourishes and sustains it.
But the benefits of breastfeeding extend far beyond just providing all the nutrients an infant might need during the first six months of life, as it also promotes strong bonding between mother and child, which is reportedly further enhanced by the release of hormones such as oxytocin that engender trust and build an emotional connection. With the inexorable passage of time, the infant later grows into a toddler, at which point it has to be weaned from the only major food it has known and has also become addicted to.
In this part of the world, this “rite of passage” sometimes gets very interesting and messy. Although it is largely a practice that is discouraged by doctors, some mothers use the supposedly time-honoured method of applying a slimy greenish goo made from freshly cut aloe vera on the nipple, which is meant to be a turn-off for the toddler.
They say it often works, but not always, in which case the formula has to be changed in order to make it more forbidding.
Others say smudging peanut butter on the nipple can also work wonders.
But once the mother tries every other method and becomes more than convinced she is dealing with a tough cookie, there is a tried-and-tested nuclear option that always works — chilli or peri peri.
Yes, it is pure witchcraft, if you ask Bishop Lazi, but it always — always — works. Kikikiki.
A dangerous addiction
Over the past six decades, the relationship between the West and newly independent African countries has sadly been similar to that of a mother and child, where the two were seemingly inextricably bonded together through aid. And unfortunately, aid has gradually become to newly independent African countries what breast milk is to an infant, only that it has succeeded in delivering stunted growth to its supposed beneficiaries.
You see, aid became particularly fashionable in the early 60s when United States President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had this grand idea to launch USAID to ostensibly assist developing countries, including African states that were becoming independent, to develop.
Kennedy was mainly inspired by the Marshall Plan, through which the US provided financial support to European nations to aid reconstruction in the aftermath of World War II. In September 1961, he consequently signed into law the Foreign Assistance Act, which birthed USAID, as we know it.
Following the US’ cue, other Western countries followed suit.
Aid gradually grew to the extent that it became an unfathomably huge enterprise.
Those who have crunched the numbers estimate that close to US$2,6 trillion has been pumped into Africa since 1960.
By 2023, the industry around aid had grown so huge that rich countries were spending more than US$256 billion per year, of which US$60 billion was funnelled to Africa.
Despite storied successes in saving lives and humanitarian assistance in times of crises in various countries, there has not been any noticeable development in recipient countries over the past 60 years.
Some of our scholars and seers, not least our sister from across the Zambezi River, Dambisa Moyo, who carries with her the weighty distinction of having worked at the highly reputed Goldman Sachs and consulted for the World Bank, have for long been crusading against aid, arguing that it does more harm than good for Africa.
Moyo even penned the highly insightful work “Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa” to forcefully advance her conviction.
“Between 1970 and 1998, when aid flows to Africa were at their peak, poverty in Africa rose from 11 percent to a staggering 66 percent,” she asserts, quizzically adding: “What if, one by one, African countries each received a phone call, telling them that in exactly five years the aid taps would be shut off — permanently?”
As fate would have it, her well-founded fears have since come to pass.
The death of aid
Ever the maverick he is, Donald Trump, who seems to view every problem as a nail that has to be hammered into place, has gone gung ho on dismantling USAID, which he accuses of wasteful expenditure, particularly at a time when the US debt — at US$33,2 trillion — has become unsustainable.
Under his America First agenda that seemingly eschews universalistic internationalism, Trump could not care less about struggling wananchi in this part of the world, which he described in uncomplimentary scatological terms (relating to human waste) during his first term as president.
His recent decision to cut 90 percent of the world’s largest single donor and ending more than 10 000 projects will undoubtedly be felt throughout the world.
Ominously, many African non-governmental organisations that were implementing PEPFAR (the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) — a programme launched by George W. Bush in 2003 to combat HIV/AIDS — most recently had their contracts cancelled.
The bad news on those that disproportionately depend on aid is that it is not the US only that is cutting aid.
In Europe, the new arms race, prompted by the war in Ukraine, has seen most countries cut their overseas-aid budgets to fund rearmament. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for instance, announced on February 25 that he would be cutting the UK’s aid budget by 49 percent in order to shore up defence spending from 2,3 percent to 2,5 percent.
Three days later, his international defence minister, Anneliese Dodds, resigned in protest.
France, too, will be cutting aid by more than 35 per cent this year.
Germany is mulling the same.
All told, this heralds the beginning of the end of aid.
What to do?
Those of Bishop Lazi’s ilk have received this news with the utmost ambivalence.
Whilst we do not discount or downplay the noble idea and intention behind aid and what is has done, unfortunately the cons far outweigh the pros.
The conduit that delivered aid to Africa and other developing countries was akin to a pipe that delivered both water and sewage.
What does the Bishop mean?
Well, as we have mentioned time without number, organisations such as USAID became havens for undercover spooks who used it as a Trojan Horse to achieve their nefarious ends, not least destabilising governments and creating conditions that do not favour growth.
They actually entrench the cycle of poverty.
Our teapot-shaped Republic and its people, who have been under siege for the best part of 25 years, know this better than most.
And this has fortunately shaped our determination to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, as encapsulated by President ED mantra, “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/Ilizwe lakhiwa ngabanikazi balo”, which simply means a country is built by its own people.
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 aptly counsels: “. . . and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
By using locally generated resources and our skilled human resource, we have accomplished enviable feats, be it in breaking records in agriculture or establishing iconic infrastructure that is likely to be the pride of future generations, winning ourselves the respect of our peers, especially considering the albatross around our neck — sanctions.
Moyo also comfortingly assures us that there is definitely a prosperous future beyond aid.
She surmised that the end of aid would ultimately engender alternative financing mechanisms that include increased trade (particularly among African nations and with emerging markets like China, India and Brazil), foreign direct investment, entrance into international capital markets and increased domestic savings through remittances and microfinance.
There is a proverb (some say it is Chinese while others say it is African) that wisely asserts that “the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago; the second best is now”.
As Zimbabwe, all we have to do is double down on what we have been doing already to promote self-sufficiency.
We are already on that path.
Bishop out!
Tinaye Agere
Online Reporter