Aid Workers in Africa

In When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, Peter Godwin describes an elephant expert from the United States named Loki, who comes to Zimbabwe to work help villagers in the Dande tribal area in the Zambezi Valley. Godwin writes:

“As they have only one spring, and walk miles each day for water, Loki says he wanted to help them by sinking a well. They welcome the idea, though doubt he can pull it off. When his borehole-drilling crew finally hits water, the villagers start feuding furiously about the altered walk-to-water hierarchy, and Loki is eventually forced to fill the well back in. Now the tribeswomen once again spend hours each day trudging to fetch water, and calm has returned.

“It’s always instructive to observe the life-cycle of the First World aid-worker. A wary enthusiasm blooms into an almost messianic sense of what might be possible. Then, as they bump up against the local cultural limits of acceptable change, comes the inevitable disappointment, which can harden into cynicism and even racism, until they are no better than the resident whites they have initially disparaged.”