MC ENGLISH PROFESSOR SAYS AFRICA NEEDS
WORLD'S HELP
Release Date:
August 16, 2000
Television viewers might be intrigued by "Big Brother," but
for Monmouth College professor of English Mary Barnes Bruce, who just returned from Africa,
the program had a very disturbing effect.
"I watched the show the other night for the first time, and
one person was complaining about being talked down to," she said. "People in America just
don’t realize how rich they are and what’s going on in other parts of the world. After I
watched the show, I couldn’t sleep. It haunted me."
What’s going on in other parts of the world? Try corruption,
drought, famine and AIDS for starters.
"If something isn’t done, there’s going to be a global
uprising," cautioned Bruce. "Now I won’t be alive to see it, but conditions in Africa are the
worst I’ve seen. In the United States, we spend $17 billion a year on pet food, which is
enough money to feed the world on a subsistence level. Most Americans just don’t know (about
the world’s problems)."
Bruce was in Kenya for two weeks this summer as part of the
Global Partners Project, an effort to establish connections between colleges and universities
in Africa with the rest of the world.
The project’s subtitle is "New Models in International
Collaboration," and the seminar in Nairobi was called "East Africa in Transition: Communities,
Culture, Change."
Bruce represented the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and
was one of 20 professors chosen to make the trip from a group of 41 colleges, which also
included schools in the Associated Colleges of the South and the Great Lakes Colleges
Association.
"I made a whole lot of connections," she said. "There’s lots
of things than can be done academically, such as an exchange back and forth of faculty and
students. It would behoove us to have more exchanges overseas."
She said the academic highlight of the trip was the
presentation of her paper, which she called her "price of admission" to the conference.
"Only six of us were asked to give papers, and mine was the
only one that was requested by the (East African Standard) newspaper," said Bruce, who wrote
on the differences in mentality between the western mind and the African mind.
"It draws on my experiences," she said. "It gives examples of
how people can understand each other better if they look at things from the stance the other
person is taking."
She wrote, "Many Americans don’t realize the divide between
the world’s haves and have-nots; they assume too many things … (At an orientation session for
people traveling to Africa), a doctor told us to put our clothes in a microwave oven to kill
incipient mango worms, as if microwaves were a common thing."
Thinking of people like the often whiny personalities from
"Big Brother," Bruce wrote, "Since living in Africa, I have less sympathy for those who are
‘unfulfilled,’ and much more for those who are ‘not filled’ with food."
The paper opens with a quote from Doris Lessing: "The longing
for Africa is like a fever in the blood; it never entirely goes away." Bruce shares this
sentiment, which is why she’s been to the continent four times.
"Interesting is an understatement," she said of her African
experiences. "The last time I was in Kenya was in 1989, and it’s gone way downhill since then
because of political corruption and AIDS. It’s an agriculturally-driven society, but because
of drought, the coffee plantations have failed and the tea plantations have failed. People
don’t have enough to eat.
"Africa is such a place of extremes," she continued,
referring in part to "bad" slums in Nairobi sitting right next to neighborhoods for the elite.
But she also meant that Africa features the best and worst of nature, serving as the native
land to all kinds of exotic creatures like giraffes and zebras, yet also including hundreds of
miles of desolate landscape.
"Could I do that here?" Bruce asked, pointing to a picture of
herself standing alone with a rhinoceros. "We live such a comfortable, buffered life here. The
people in Africa aren’t any better or worse than here."
And Bruce met people on both ends of the spectrum, touring
the entire country with her obliging hosts but also being mugged right in her car while
waiting in traffic in downtown Nairobi.
"He got everything," she said. "It was all pretty traumatic."
The story had a happy ending, though, as she recently
received a registered letter that contained her driver’s license.
"Some Evangelical Kenyan Christians had found it and sent it
back," said Bruce. "They wrote, ‘It is the will of God that you get this license.’"
What is the will of God for Africa? Clearly, the continent is
dealing with problems far worse than the petty differences and minor inconveniences we
experience in America. Clearly, says Bruce, an increased understanding of those epic problems
by people who can make a difference will help with the solutions.
NOTE:
Professor
Bruce will discuss her trip in further detail at an International Luncheon at noon on Nov. 8
at Monmouth’s College Highlander Room, which is located on the upper level of the Stockdale
Center.
Released
by the Office of College Communications
Barry McNamara, Associate Director of College Communications
Phone: 309-457-2117
Fax: 309-457-2330
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