Chinua Achebe of Nigeria may have been a prophet, speaking through a character in one of his novels, when he said that the chords that held the people of Africa were cut, and hence ‘things fall apart!’ There are numerous aid organizations in Africa, which have been created to fight poverty and its associated social ills, but the continent continues to sink deeper into penury.

Even though the work that these organizations do is very important in the lives of some Africans, the majority of the people they purport to serve do not benefit from the resources that are raised in their names. This puzzles until you learn that for every $1 that comes to Africa as Aid, $3 is raised overseas.

This happens in several ways and the obvious one is that aid gives Western people job opportunities and most, if not all, equipment is brought in from the Western countries, thus providing a market for their products. After the items are used, the workers sell them to themselves or the nationals at a profit. It is a circle, which, in the long run, continues to deplete Africa and enrich the West.

This may seem to be a fairy tale to some, but those who have had some first-hand experience with either African government-aided projects or NGOs may be able to both nod the head in agreement and shake them in dismay. So which way Africa? Aid organizations somehow seem to rejoice in African calamities because, like the person who runs funeral homes, good health among the people means lack of business.

Whenever there is relative peace, those running organizations speak of lack of funding. They have to paint a picture that the financiers must sympathize with for the funds to come in. If there is no fighting, there is HIV/AIDS and famine that never seem to cease. It is as the star actor in the musical film ‘Sarafina’ says, when you are an African you don’t need to look for trouble, because ‘our life is trouble.’ If it is true that African life is trouble, then aid is sorrow in the flesh. Trouble can be overcome, but aid may not be washed away being in the flesh. We seem to have accepted the fact that ‘our life is trouble.’ And this has become our real trouble, since we seem not to be able to get around this picture. But this time around we must say no to aid.

This dragnet perhaps can be overcome if African leaders will rise up and lead the rest of us out of the hatching nest that we have been in for too long. Like the baby birds, if we continue to remain in the nest, then we shall be opening our mouths to the West for anything they want to put in them.

If you looked into an African bird’s nest, the young ones inside will always open their beaks for anything that makes a movement near the mouth of the nest. Unfortunately, sometimes the visitor is a cool and dangerous snake. The good news is that the birds eventually come out their nests into the world, and the mother stops feeding them. They start feeding themselves. Africa has to begin to fly and fend for herself. Time has now come for Africa to look to the rest of the world as partners, and not donors.

Even those who seek for blood donations are now very careful these days lest they get infected samples. In the same way, some of the aid that Africa receives may be infected, so to speak. It is human to give what one doesn’t need. We must demand to be given that which is needful even in the West. Africa must of necessity be in control of the aid given, and make sure it goes to where it is intended. Africans must stop listening to anything that makes them feel that they will always need help from the West. This does not mean that there must not be a sharing of resources, since everything that is in the world is to be enjoyed by all, irrespective of race and creed.

While there is a rightful place for assistance, this should not be called aid because this term has taken on a bad connotation of helplessness and inability to survive. This very word has given Africa a bad reputation. The only hope for Africa is to stand and work hard to achieve development.

If you are working outside Africa, do something that will bring the desired development to get the continent out of this funk. Take your money home in the form of development. Think of something that will bring employment to fellow Africans in your country, especially in villages, since that is where things are happening. If the village poverty is dealt with, then city slums will be minimized. People run away from the villages to the city in search of a better life only to realize they have jumped from the frying pan to the red-hot coals. Their misery only gives the West some justification to speak of aid.

 If you have special skills that can be used in Africa, then do not concede to work overseas and get a good salary, but rather make a sacrifice for Africa. Every African person who works away from home, helps someone else develop while his or her own country continues to lag behind.

This is one of the hardest things to say and to do because the situation back there is not very conducive. Yet if we are to make an impact, we must be there. Some of our predecessors made a decision to go back to Africa. They fought and came out victorious with independent countries. Among them were Kwame Nkurumah of Ghana, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. Who knows, one of us could be the much-awaited liberator of Africa from Western aid.

Paul Mumo Kisau wrote this article while a PhD candidate at Aberdeen University in 2003.