A Song that We are Still Writing

The following post was written by Summer Brown, Team Leader for PDEV II, a project that SFCG is currently involved with in the Sahel Region of Africa. To learn more about this project, see our recent blog post on it here. Summer is based in Niamey, Niger. Thank you, Summer, for sharing your beautiful reflections.

There are two sayings that I often return to in my life.  The first is the ever popular quote by Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”  The second is a verse from the Tao Te Ching, “Do you want to improve the world? I don’t think it can be done.  The world is sacred. It can’t be improved.  If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it.” I always come back to both of these because I find them beautiful and complex.  They are similar to many of my journeys which are often full of contradictions.  They leave me wondering if change is possible and if so, what is my role in that change?

In the comfort of my “developed” world bubble, it is easy for me, if I so choose, to overlook the contradictions that exist throughout the world.  I can cover these contradictions with a happy life of nice parks, gardens, restaurants, yoga, and relative peace.  In Niger, where I am currently working for SFCG, it is more difficult not to notice the contradictions in life – even in the weather the extremes that are manifested highlight the struggles of the land.

A flower outside Summer's house in Niamey, Niger.

The mornings are clear, crisp, and quite pleasant. However, by midmorning and into the night, at least in February and March, the winds from the west give in to the winds from the north and the dust roles in, in a fog of thickness – almost as if Mother Nature is battling with Father Time as to which way things should go. North, South, East or West: Future or Past – things move forward, dust blows in, clarity obscured.  This season is called, Harmattan..  .[1]

Niger is, by most statistical development measures, one of the poorest places on earth. However, let us take a moment to look and listen to what is around us.  Yes, there is great poverty.  Yes, they are struggling and many are starving.  In a recent estimate, over 15% of people in some areas are facing severe malnutrition and starvation.  They could die because of the drought, and some already have.  As the food crisis pounds on the doors of many communities in the Sahel, there are a number of organizations and governments focused on trying to prevent its very real potential devastation.

So there is extreme poverty, which results in the media coverage of Africa that sticks in our heads – the poor starving child with flies around his/her mouth – you know the picture.  It makes you feel pity. And then you can move on in your “developed” world bubble.  But do you know that the word pity is rooted in the Latin word duty?  Personally, I believe it is connected to the quote that I started with, about being the change that you wish to see.  For me it means to be kinder to ourselves, to those around us, to our environment, to do no harm and perhaps even to make our small corner of our interconnected world better..

I will tell you what I see from my present corner.  I see three camels draped in orange material on three corners of a busy intersection. They come with two accompanying roller skaters also dressed in orange.  The roller skaters are weaving in and out of traffic to distribute promotional material for the phone company Orange.  Next to me is a donkey which looks to be asleep pulling a cart which is empty except for the man in it.  And along the dusty edges of each of the four streets are many obviously very poor people asking for money.

An example of Niger's contradictions: a camel advertising 3G internet, which Niger actually had access to before the US due to patent restrictions.

I wonder about the contradiction between these images – I try to sort it out in my head.  Niamey, the capital city, is a very poor city where I see many “homes” constructed out of plastic bags – a community in fact where neighbors are sitting on the ground sharing a meal while children dig in the sand. At very first I feel sad, but then I see them laughing, laughing at I don’t know what, but there they are laughing as I want to cry.  All these contradictions make my stomach hurt, my brain hurt, and my spirit confused about whether to be hopeful or depressed.   My mind rushes to put this in context and I juxtapose this with the scenes from the US that also pull at my heart as I watch people rushing around to get to work, to get home, to get places, but I don’t know where anyone is going.  I have the same feelings of confusion – what are they rushing for, why aren’t they laughing in a community?

In Niamey, I witness the stories of people’s lives and the things they wish to share.  I hear a Muslim man tell me that he is nothing without his wife; the family structure is his strength.  I hear another person tell me about a successful theatre group that is called “Open Front Porch” (which is a rough translation from Hausa to English). “Open Front Porch” is a place where anyone can come to gather to discuss ideas, problems, solutions and inspirations.  I hear stories passed down from ages that if one palm itches, you will receive money if the other itches, you will give money – there seems to be confusion over which is which.  If your feet itch, a journey is calling you.  The average number of children that a woman has in Niger is seven, but then I hear some parents say that they decided on three or four because one must think of education.  Lastly, there are stories of people who live in Niamey for work but miss the desert so much that on the weekend they return to where the sands, the heat, and the solitude call them back.

The view out Summer's office window in Niamey.

Niger is as complicated and beautiful as the next place because the stories are just as rich and complex because they are the stories of the strength of the human spirit.  This is the part that makes it possible for me to live in different places because, for me, it is about the discoveries of our hopes, dreams, inspiration, and struggles that bring me to listening and learning.  This I could do anywhere and I have been fortune to do it in many places – it is the change that I wish to be – to learn from others about their passions and be brought back to myself to continue to find my peace and my space.   And on the best of days, I can find my path in others and in myself to support the passions that build communities and understanding that are both local and global.

I recently heard someone say that the continent of Africa is a magical place and I do believe this.  I believe this, in fact, about the world in general.  I believe that all of our stories of struggle, inspiration, success, failure, laughter, tears, and joy feed into a world that dances to a song that we are still writing with its contradictions and complexities – a song made up of more notes than we can imagine, even in our wildest of dreams.