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Killing With Kindness ?
Development Aid And The Church In Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
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Vatican Council II and the post-colonial period in Africa dovetailed chronologically very neatly and the resultant euphoria witnessed the growth of funding agencies (hereafter F.A.) established by various national hierarchies dedicated to playing a role in alleviating poverty and ignorance in the less developed countries. The F.A.’s range from the small but effective Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund and the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development of the hierarchies of England and Wales, to the large and wealthy “Misereor” of the German Bishops and the even wealthier Catholic Relief Services of the United States. Apart from these there are other funds of a more private, voluntary and ecumenical nature. It is mainly through missionaries that the first group channel their funds, but the latter group also to a large extent, make use of missionaries. As a result, the traditional image of the poor missionary bringing the Gospel and ministering to’ the world’s poorest is rapidly being challenged. In this article we would like to examine the effects that this is having on missionary activity, and some of the implications.
The operating procedure of the F.A.s is relatively simple, through advertising and appeals they collect funds from those Christians in the more developed countries interested in helping alleviate misery and encourage development in the Third World. This is mainly done through advertising and making appeals through the parish, school or other Christian groups in the hope that they will also be able to solicit not just a one-off donation, but a continuous commitment from interested parties. It should be stressed that the aim is not limited simply to collecting money but also to educate the Christian public of their responsibility to help the Third World more than just financially, and that their donations do not absolve them from cutting down on waste and attacking rampant consumerism in their own lives. Advertising is also used to assure the donors that their contributions are being correctly and wisely used.
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- Copyright © 1979 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 Writing this article as I am in the middle of the African backwoods I am basing myself on memory, but if pressed I could no doubt retrieve the exact reference.
2 For a fuller discussion on the question of the unsuitability of western health care in an African context cf. David Morely Paediatric Priorities in the Developing World Butterworth, 1973.
3 For a more complete treatment of the problems of participation in development projects established by the Church cf. The Church and Rural Development in Africa: Patterns of Participation and Response A. M. Visocchi, soon to be published as an occasional paper by the Institute for International Studies. College of Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing.
4 I have given a fuller description of the economic and political problems in Ghana in “A Tale of Two Countries: Church and State in Ghana and Uganda” Tony Visocchi The Month, June/July 1978. Recent reports indicate that similar conditions exist in other African countries besides Ghana and Uganda. Zambia for example, “Catch 22 for World's Copper Industry” by J P Smith The Weekly Guardian, 7 May 1978, Nigeria, oil‐rich though it may be is in an equally difficult situation, “Nigeria's Unrest Goes Unreported” by Walter Schwarz The Weekly Guardian, 21 May 1978. And of course Zaire has had its dirty linen washed in the intercontinental press.
5 Weber, Max The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Allen & Unwin, 1930.Google Scholar
6 CIA Diary, Phillip Agee, Penguin Books 1975Google Scholar. In Search of Enemies: a CIA Story Stockwell, John, W W Norton & Co Inc. 1978Google Scholar. The reviews to which I am referring appeared in Newsweek 22 May 1978 and Time 22 May 1978.
7 “Food Donations after disaster and in relation to Agricultural Development” Frederick C Cuny (interviewed) 28 February 1977 who shows how disaster relief hits economies adversely in Biafia, India, Bangladesh, Israel, Lebanon, Burundi, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Peru.”PL Food Assistance in Guatemala. Jo Froman, Bob Gersony, Tony Jackson 3 June 1977. “The relationship between PL 480 food distribution and agricultural development in Guatemala “. Roland Bunch and William Ruddel 21 August 1977. These studies were funded by the Ford Foundation. The following newspaper articles were based on them: “Two Theories of Relief put into practice in Guatemala” by Jonathan Randel, New York Times. IS 15 May 1976, US food aid seen hurting Guatemala, Alan Riding, New York Times, 6 Nov 1977. “US must take a new look at disaster relief overseas”, editorial. The Miami Herald, 8 Nov 1977.
8 “A comparison of the nutritional status of two Konkomba villages varying in degree of accessibility to Western influence with a special emphasis upon the nutritional status of vulnerable groups within the villages”, Thesis presented for M.Sc. degree at the Faculty of Science, University of Ghana by Ms Denice Williams, 1978. Ms Williams' approach to her work is ideally suited to conditions in Western Africa, more so than most other rural development projects established by the Church and deserves to be better known.
9 “Food and Nutrition in Self‐Reliant National Development: the Impact on Child Nutrition of Jamaican Government Policy”, Thomas J Mardione, Medical Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Winter 1977.
10 Cf. CTS edition nn 14 and 15.
11 Romans 15:25‐28.
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