African Insights - Out of Africa Ezine Newsletter

November 2003
Thanksgiving 2003 – Gathering at the Table…

All over America, the Thanksgiving Feast is on peoples mind.  Groceries are being bought in record numbers, invitations are sent out, People are taking to the road from coast to coast to be with family and friends, to renew friendships, to reconcile, to forgive, to eat together and to share in the blessings of this past year.  Even I have my little Turkey Breast ready to go for my Thanksgiving dinner for one with all the trimmings such as I can eat.

It is a time for family, for sharing, for creating memories and talking about the times past.  We gather around tables of all sizes and shapes, made from all kinds of wood and other material, covered with table cloths and decorated with our finest dinnerware, flowers, treats, napkins, wine and drinks…ah the feast of thanksgiving in America, what a delight.

In Africa, Thanksgiving is not celebrated as we know it, and even if it was, there be a lot of people absent from the table.  East Africa has a lot of poor and a few wealthy people, there is a small middle-class group here and there, but you have to do a lot of digging to find them. There is an economic Thanksgiving Table set in Africa; the problem is that only a few share in it.  Most simply never get to enjoy the fruit of their labor, their labor never ends and only a few benefit and they do not allow the common person to share in the bounty that is there.

Kenya, is a good example; after independence, the cry of Uhuru – Freedom rang in the land, the downtrodden masses, the poor began to dream and hope for a brighter future.  They dreamed of jobs with real pay, of food in abundance, of land that had been taken from them to be restored, of free schooling, of opportunities at the table of freedom, but only a few were invited to the feast, there was no thanksgiving with all the trimmings, the invitation to join in the feast were only sent to a select few and the rest went back to their little shambas, moved to cities like Nairobi and Kampala still hoping and dreaming but at the end of they day they were never included.  Corruption, bribes, theft from the government coffers became commonplace in Uganda and Kenya and other parts of Africa. It came down to whom you knew inside where the party was taking place, and that of course was reserved for a select few who were from the right tribe, clan or family, but not for the average person.

On any Sunday afternoon after  you can go to one of the shopping centers in Nairobi and see families who are walking through the African malls, looking into the shop windows, still dreaming, still hoping for a brighter future, for a better day for their children who are amazed at the all the goods that they see on display.  You can go the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala and see families who have scraped up a few shillings just to have a soda on the garden terrace outside of Rhino Pub where insides you can get the finest food, watch an African version of MTV on the, but a soda on the terrace gives them a feeling of what it would be like if one was invited to the table that has been set, but only a few are allowed to gather around it.

African fathers and mothers dream of the day when education will truly be free (no school fees of any kind such as building funds, dues etc, Kenya and Uganda technically offer free education, but there are all other kinds of costs), when medicine is available and their children do not have to die due to some simple thing like diarrhea, or the lack of clean water, they dream of sending their children to the University, of becoming doctors, lawyers and craftsmen who can provide for their families, where their children will have the opportunity to  gather around the table of thanksgiving based not on who you know, or who you can bribe, but based on your abilities and talents that have been given by God and may the day come where the dreams of African fathers and mothers be fulfilled in their children where they can come and be themselves and have the opportunity to shape the Africa of today and tomorrow.

Africa is a wealthy continent, has an abundance of people, has resources that are unsurpassed, and most of all it is a place where people want change, want to be change agents who make a contribution to a better Africa, go and sit in one of the pubs covered with some tenting material and listen, listen to the dreams as they are shared, listen to the dreams….and I am sure that if you are like me, you would love to empower the speaker of those dreams to fulfill them, to have the opportunity to become.  But it seems like there is a giant fence around opportunities and the gate-keepers who are in control want to preserve their style of life and not share it with all.

In Kampala I met a man who had graduated from Makerere University with a degree in Environmental Science, but he was cleaning tables in a casino eking out meager living with feelings of deep resentment festering within.  He had paid the dues, studying hard, wanting to preserve Africa, making a difference by applying his skills in the field of ecology, but no one gave him the opportunity, he was from the wrong tribe to get into an government agency and he did not have connections to join an non-governmental agency who brought their own scientists from the West, now he was clearing tables, removing the crumbs off of tables, while he and his family went without….sad, but reality for thousands like him…Africa dreams, hopes, looks in through the windows to where the party is, where the gathering is taking place, but there is no spirit of thanksgiving only feelings of rejection, of being tossed aside, while those with the right connections, the right family (often unqualified but rightly connected) and tribal tree get the chance.

The good news is that there are changes taking place.  There are agencies and people at work in Africa whose sole task is to provide the empowerment needed for those who are on the outside looking in.  People like Robinah Lubwama who has devoted her life and resources to the task of taking those who have been tossed onto the African garbage dump in life and giving young orphans that no one wanted a new day, a new opportunity, seeing hundreds if not thousand through their formative years, all the way through University and then being an advocate for them in order to find them a job where they can become all that they were meant to be. 

People like Joetta Smith, who left her home in Georgia and now takes her small Social Security investing it in the lives of orphans and women in the town of Nakuru, Kenya…both are givers of life, individuals who fan the fire of dormant dreams in the hearts of minds of those who are standing outside of the window, outside of the gate while on the inside there is a party, a thanksgiving meal for a select few…Africa needs people who are willing to give themselves for a season, in some cases like Robinah for a lifetime, not to seeking their own personal wealth, but in releasing the wealth of talents that are dormant throughout Africa.  Take a look at the web pages I have created for both Robinah and Joetta and maybe you too will catch the spark that will light a fire and make you a change agent, maybe not in Africa, but In the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Australia, the UK and Ireland, etc.