I'm Christa Tippett, today the ethics of aid one canyons perspective.

We explore a challenging view of the morality and efficacy of Western approaches to Africa's

problems.

A lot of people arrive in Africa to assume that it's a blank empty space and their good

will and desire and guilt will fix it and that to me is not any different from the

first people who arrived and colonized us.

This power, this power to help is just about as dangerous as hard power because they often

it arrives with a kind of zeal that is assuming I will do it, I will solve it for you, I will

fix it for you and it's right draft short over your own best efforts.

This is Speaking of Faith, stay with us.

This public radio podcast is supported by the Fetzer Institute as part of its campaign

for Love and Forgiveness online at loveandforgive.org.

I'm Christa Tippett, scarcely a week goes by without the launch of yet another new high-profile

initiative to abolish poverty and speed development in Africa.

Yet there is little uncontested overarching evidence that hundreds of billions of dollars

of aid over the past 50 years have made a significant long-term difference to the health

and wealth of people on the African continent.

Face with this fact, philanthropists, governments and celebrities pursue more intensive aid and

new, innovative approaches.

But the primary concern of my guest this hour, Binyevanga-Winayana, and a rising tide of

other young African intellectuals and economists is the debilitating psychological effect prolonged

multi-directional aid has on the very people it is aiming to help.

...