Getting rowdy with Andrew Mwenda
Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda is man of strong opinions. His opinions in 2005 about Museveni’s government were strong enough to put him in jail briefly. He tells us that this is an auspicious time for this meeting, since it parallels the meetings in Germany for the G8 which are discussing “a Marshall plan for aid for Africa”. To call Mwenda skeptical about this idea is to do him an injustice – he’s a firm believer that international aid is a dangerous and largely harmful direction for Africa.
“The media tells nothing but the truth [about Africa] but not the whole truth”. The stories covered – despair, civil war, famine – are not the only reality. Actually, they’re the smallest reality. These stories create a misframing of Africa, and lead us to the long solutions. By giving food to the hungry and medicine for the sikc, Africa is stripped of self reliance and of hope.
Why can’t African nations enable entrepreneurs to trade internationally and sell goods to international markets? Why hasn’t hundreds of billions of dollars of aid transformed the continent? It’s because governments listen too much to aid providers and too little to their own citizens. Because the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund give so much money to governments, they find themselves in the odd position of telling national leaders what their people need… from the outside.
This government aid, Mwenda feels, does little more than allow governments to spend beyond their means. He picks apart the Ugandan national budget, pointing out that the government spends 105% of the revenue it collects. It can only do this because donor moneys allow the government to support development, which wouldn’t otherwise be covered by the government budget.
Where does the government money go? He argues that it goes disproportionately – roughly 25% of the Ugandan national budget – to “public administration”, in other words, “mostly patronage”. He points to 70 government ministers and 114 presidential aides, “who never see the president except on television… and then the President advises him, not the other way around.” There’s 333 members of parliament – “you need Wembley Stadium to hold our parliament.” Mwenda believes that cutting international aid would force governments to cut their own spending and address these core questions like corruption.
His speech ends abruptly – he tells us he was told that a TED talk should be like a miniskirt – “long enough to cover the important parts and short enough to maintain interest” – which, combined with a rowdy speech gets the first standing ovation of the conference. It’s clear he’s thrown down the gauntlet to some people in the room, especially Bono, who has dedicated much of his life to international aid. At one point in Mwenda’s talk, he asks the audience to name a country where aid has led to develoopment – someone puts up a hand (Bono, I suspect) and tells us that government aid helped Ireland through the potato famine. Mwenda won’t concede the point, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bono take him on in a later session.
Aked point blank whether he opposes all aid by Chris Anderson, Mwenda makes an important distinction – he thinks it shouldn’t be given to governments and should be given directly to indigenous groups and entrepeneurs.
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June 4th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
[...] Ethan Zukerman (My Heart’s in Accra) has some extensive and interesting postings on TED as well. Excerpt from one of his, titled Getting Rowdy with Andrew Mwenda: [...]
June 5th, 2007 at 6:39 am
[...] Nimefika jana jioni, baada ya kuchelewa kutokana na matatizo ya usafiri, hapa katika mkutano wa TEDGlobal 2007, Arusha, Tanzania. Nilichelewa mambo yote yaliyotokea jana. Nilichokiona ni onyesho la Rokia Traore. Achana na Rokia. Ningejisikia vibaya sana ningekosa onyesha lake kwani nimekuwa nikimsikiliza kwa muda sasa. Jana kulikuwa na mtu aliyekuja mkutanoni na kushangaza watu maana haikuwa inajulikana kuwa atakuja. Huyo ni Bono, mwanaharakati wa masuala ya madeni, mikopo, misaada na maendeleo Afrika. Alikuja toka kwenye mkutano wa wezi wakuu, G8 Summit, kule Ujerumani. Na akatuletea ujumbe toka kwa Kansela wa Ujerumani. Bono alifanya mkutano kuwa na changamoto ya aina yake kutokana na kutokubaliana hata kidogo na hoja za John Mwenda. Soma aliyosema Mwenda hapa kisha hapa hoja za Bono. [...]
June 10th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
[...] While Andrew Mwenda framed the debate, arguing that aid distorts Uganda’s budget and enables corruption, I found that Herman Chinnery-Hesse had the most persuasive attack on the aid business, using examples from his work in Ghana and the ways in which aid ends up being a subsidy for foreign firms to work in Africa at the expense of local firms. Herman’s argument was particularly interesting to me because I’ve run an NGO in Ghana, one that supported his business, providing an experienced programmer to work with his staff and provide training so that he could compete more effectively in the local market. I wouldn’t argue that our collaboration with Herman was particularly successful – and we deserve absolutely none of the credit for his remarkable success – but I am passionately interested in the question of whether the ways we tried to help Herman could constitute “good” aid, or whether there’s such a thing in the eyes of Mwenda, Shikwati or the other thinkers making a strong trade, not aid case. [...]
June 12th, 2007 at 11:14 am
[...] And so ends TEDGlobal and Ethan Zuckerman offers up his take on the enthusiasm, hope and excitement that percolated throughout. So now the question remains, where do we go from here? The ideas proffered, while inspiring, are often easier to articulate than implement. What was most eye opening to many attendees was the contention over aid to Africa. Ethan offers his synopsis of many of the talks and the TED Blog tracks the blogosphere’s ongoing discussion. [...]
June 18th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
[...] Bono had a bit of a rough ride at TED Global in Arusha. In the first session of the conference, he found himself heckling Ugandan author Andrew Mwenda. When he took the stage in the next session, to defend the idea that increased aid would benefit Africa, he talked about the benefits of development aid to post-war Germany, an analogy that has some major flaws, as Germany was one of the wealthiest and best educated nations in the world prior to WWII. Most commenters, myself included, saw many of the TED speakers consciously challenging Bono’s idea that increased attention to Africa could lead to increased aid from the G8, and from there to political change. (According to commentator Brendan O’Neill, Bono has now become The People’s Republic of Bono, the ninth member of the G8 – we’ll expect to see his direct aid contributions increasing in the near future. Tip of the hat to Sokari for the link, found in her excellent dissection of Bono’s Africa efforts.) [...]
June 20th, 2007 at 9:14 am
[...] Bono continues beating the development drum as he guest edits the latest issue of Vanity Fair, hot on the heels of his appearances at TEDGlobal and the G8. Not everyone’s a fan however. Andrew Mwenda at TED decried international aid to Africa as “dangerous and largely harmful” much to the chagrin of Bono who vocally heckled the Ugandan journalist. At the G8 the “People’s Republic of Bono” was at turns petulant and demanding, a self appointed voice for Africa who Brendan O’Neill dismisses as a “tousle-haired, leather trouser-wearing equivalent of those rich ladies-who-lunch“. The Financial Times is a bit more charitable and runs an editorial that forwards the idea that Bono should listen more and heckle less – Africa needs trade not aid. africa, bono, development, G8, TEDGlobal, Vanity Fair These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
June 22nd, 2007 at 11:50 am
[...] If you’re new here and like what you read, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or my email alerts. Thanks for visiting!The past few weeks have seen an increase in the trade (or business) vs. aid in Africa discussion. Framed by Andrew Mwenda’s presentation at the TEDGlobal conference in Tanzania, and Bono’s subsequent rebuttal, the issue of what path should lead African development is certainly a hot topic. Here are a few articles which add to the ongoing discussion: [...]
June 26th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
[...] At TED, Harinjaka witnessed the ongoing debate about improving the efficiency of aid for Africa and he wished that more francophone Africans were present. [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 1:02 am
With all due respect to Bono, his grasp of African issues pales in comparison to Mwenda’s
Bono is too detached from the continent and would usually rely on journalists like Mwenda to paint a picture of what the situation on the ground actually is.
It is not unlike Mwenda lecturing Bono on how to run a succsful rock tour
September 4th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
[...] TED.com is posting talks from the conference on their website: the most recent talk posted is a provocative speech by Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda. The talk so incensed Bono, who was sitting in the audience, that he spent a good part of his time [...]
September 5th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Hey, Adrew!
thanks alot for such good view.
I promiss to support yuo in prayer.
God bless you.
December 18th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Accra conference discussed big. I am convinced that nations can sprought to economic supremacy if they are left to construct independent solutions to their economic woes. Your brothers wealth can rarely lift u from proverty! Aid cannot throw a profound solution to Africas problems but has rather engineered transactional leadership (patronage). Aid erased Africas agenda, otherthan governments, even entreprenuers and NGOs that Mwenda prefers, design their agenda on financial projections and guidelines of donors! this therefore means, aid should be dismissed. The examples of Germany and Poland that Bono and his compatriot Sachs like to parade for their ‘case’cannot qualify or fit in to be benchmarked for Africa. In Africa we need to scale up our own efforts and develop strategic plans that we can follow religiously till we attain progress. We should have one meal a day, but consumed in peace.
Thanks for this space,
Rwakakamba Morrison
Manager;Research, Policy and Advocacy: Uganda National Farmers Federation; rwakakamba@yahoo.co.uk
February 28th, 2008 at 12:23 am
[...] youngest billionaire on the planet; Carl Bernstein – the legendary journalist; Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda – who’s been charged with sedition for his critique of the Ugandan government; Professor Dan [...]
April 26th, 2008 at 11:51 am
BBC News is reporting today that editor/journalist Andrew Mwenda and two other journalists from Uganda’s Independent Magazine have just been arrested by government security forces in Kampala. The trumped up charges have something to do with sedition and treason against the state (as usual). Perhaps you or an SSA staffer at GVO can pick up this lead and stay on top of this important story. We can’t afford to lose an important voice like Mwenda’s to yet another repressive regime in Africa. Non?
Here’s the link to the BBC News article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7368954.stm
April 26th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Thanks, BRE – putting someone from Global Voices on it right now…
June 30th, 2008 at 7:01 am
[...] Andrew Mwenda passionately echoed this thought on stage in Jun 2007 at TED. He famously got into something of an argument with U.S. singer turned philanthropist, Bono who is well known for his efforts to champion aid [...]
July 1st, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Andrew Mwenda speaks the truth about the institutions and forces that keeps Africa from flourishing.
Get up! Stand up! Stand up for your right! Don’t give up the fight!
“Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.â€
Robert F. Kennedy
January 29th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
[...] nti Andrew Mwenda yayogera nnyo ku TED mu juuni 2007. Mu kumanyika okw’amaanyi yenyigira mu kuwakana n’omuyimbi w’Amerika ayitibwa Bono olw’engeri gyeyali akulembeza okuwa Afirika [...]
April 10th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
[...] argument either. Andrew Mwenda, a Ugandan journalist, has been railing against aid for years now, picking a fight on the TED Africa stage with Bono and dismissing international aid efforts in a memorable interview [...]
July 17th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Hello Ethan, hoping that all is well with you and congratulations to both you and your wife on the pregnancy.
While doing some follow-up research on the global reactions to Obama’s speech before the Ghanaian Parliament I came across an article at Foreign Policy Magazine by Andrew M. Mwenda (yes, I am also an avid reader of FP and the blogs authored by many of their excellent contributors).
Andrew has authored a very critical piece on President Obama’s speech in an article that FP has headlined as follows:
‘Obama’s Trash Talk: Stop telling Africa what to do. Lectures are part of the problem.’
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/07/15/obamas_trash_talk
I though that you would like to read it in case you may have missed it. It will certainly be included in my follow-up post on the Obama visit to Ghana. Note also that America.gov has linked to GVO’s coverage of the Ghana visit and African blogger reactions at the ‘By The People’ blog.
That’s it for me. Be sure to read Andrew’s latest piece. I guess this means that he will not be invited to the White House anytime soon? Non?
October 12th, 2009 at 8:19 am
I tend to agree with Mwenda on the economic woes of Africa especially regarding aid. The biggest problem for Africa however is leadership. African Presidents are interested in keeping themselves in power. Most of them don’t care what happens to rest of the country as long as their grip on power is intact. There is alot of economic potential and yes potential because it will remain so until the Leadership issue is addressed. Sorry I have to go.