Yes, you told Pat Robertson we have aids.......

Last week #KOT and Facebook exploded over claims by American tele-evangelist   Pat Robertson that one could contract Aids through the use of towels and especially here in Kenya. The popular presenter Pat Robertson even warned that water in Africa was the most unhygienic and therefore the most unsafe to drink.

Although Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) retracted the utterance from the octogenarian right wing preacher, I must admit that his view represents the views of many people in the North largely because of the influence of the western Media and the way we in Africa project ourselves.

Ask any political leader or development advocate who went to the west for a mission. If they can be honest with you, they would tell you that they went to market Africa as the ultimate place of suffering. It’s a place where all children have protruding bellies because of suffering the ravages of a combination of kwashiorkor, marasmus and beri beri. They will carry with them photographs of children whose mucus is flowing unabated and if it is not it has dried on the lapels of their soily sweaters.

For example, I have heard that one of the reasons why some people are not interested in addressing the plight of Kibera slums in Nairobi is because it is a goldmine to many a gold diggers and the moment that mine dries up, that would be the end of the free flowing gold.

Fundamentally therefore, whenever our people go to the North, whether political, religious or development they carry with them begging bowls which they want filled in terms of ideas and resources which they can always spend to personally benefit themselves and their cronies. The story is always the same: “We in Africa are suffering and urgently need your help.”

I am not certain that Robertson just got the idea out of the blues. One thing that I am certain about is that there must have been people who have gone before him or to his television network and told him how Kenya suffers the ravages of HIV/Aids. They must have informed him that the country is on the verge of being finished because of the high number of people who carry with them the disease.

Robertson’s views no doubt represent the hegemonic and narrow view of the west held about Africa and its citizens. However, I also submit that in as much that is the view, our people, our very own opinion makers who should be positively contributing to the image about Africa are responsible for pushing those negative views.

Take for example the issue of democracy, a section of our leaders are always in the forefront seeking for workable solutions from the west. Instead of pursuing home grown solutions to our problems and charting own paths that are understood by the people they are usually busy telling us what is wrong compared to the western world.

Yet Japan, Korea and Malaysia did not develop by pouring cold water on their homegrown initiatives, they believed in them and pursued those paths to the fullest. And that is the way it should be. If you ever hear Robertson saying negative things about Kenya, just ask yourself which Kenyan had he interacted with before so as to reach that kind of a conclusion.

Ends……