Melinda Gates African Ambition

Introduction
Whenever a Gates is preceded by Bill, two obvious reactions naturally call to mind. One is the computer guru who transformed the use and access to hardware and software thus making him an individual with the world at his feet. In a sense a geopolitical figure! The second point is that he is one of the richest persons on earth. It is also on record that he has relinquished his role as CEO of Microsoft to pursue charitable/philanthropic causes full time. Another branch of his geopolitical investment! In this design his wife, Mrs. Melinda Gates (it doesn’t ring as much bell) shares the driver’s seat.

Target Africa

Their geopolitical philanthropic investment includes Africa as geography of concern under the guise of alleviating different problems ranging from health to family planning. Charming! Now a statement credited to Mrs. Melinda Gates on UK Guardian today stated along the lines that African women will later ‘ignore church teaching on birth control’. Read Guardian summary. This comment was made in an interview linked to a London summit attended among others by UK Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron. My take derives from the fact that African women in Africa and in Diaspora are insulted by this statement or prediction.

A number of issues become pertinent when deeper observation is made on the setting scene and presence. Making such comment in London under the charge of UK Prime Minister who is from posh background like Mrs. Gates is instructive. Birds of the same feather flock together! One wonders the sense of proportion in taking such position where a man who has destroyed his country’s economy in the name of austerity, has hurt and is hurting women, children and vulnerable by unprecedented cuts in services and family planning resources while protecting and rewarding beleaguered financial and banking terrorists. Posh, privileged and powerful individuals committed to protecting their kind at all cost, the minority against the majority. It is safe to observe that such a statement in London is non-trivial, the centre of ongoing international banking scandal with LIBOR manipulation topping the chart. How insensitive!  UK women as wives and mothers are already in pain from financial scandals which Mrs. Gates may not have noticed.

Anything but Genuine Care

I wonder if Mrs. Gates had positive intention of African women at heart to make such statement or prediction about them outside of Africa. Too many times Africa turns into a distracted horse ridden by disinterested individuals running from the North with ‘unreconstructed benevolence’. One wonders the number of African women who were listening or read her proverbial prediction among others in London. What happened to Abuja, Addis Ababa, Dakar, Lusaka and other African cities?  It is very rich to assign expectation of a people, ascribe their initiative and then assume position of power devoid of merit. Of course money can buy anything.

It is disrespectful of Mrs. Gates to treat African women with contempt, with ignorance of their history and their acclaimed indefatigability. African women do not need messiahs, male and female, from the North or South or from Africa. African women are not held prisoner by their bodies; their bodies, sexuality and ontology are not controlled by none other than themselves. These proud women who are current holders of exquisite patrimony from ancient civilization do not submit to attempt to deride and usurp their dignity, integrity and honour.  Rich tapestry of African women greatness even in the field of birth control predates ‘the churches’. Birth control is not new in Africa, only the blind will adopt such blinder. African women lives and survival doesn’t depend on external factors or ill-conceived predictions for their ontologies.

No religious organization including indigenous, Christian and Islamic have control over African women, their bodies and their sexual rights. I hope the ‘churches’ are not prematurely celebrating such august recognition of their control of African women by Mrs. Gates. What a farce that African women individually and collectively lack initiative! It is sad that Mrs. Gates has jumped onto the maligned discourse that perceives Africans (women) as weak, incapable and incomplete. The perception is dishonest, fraudulent and abusive. 

Mrs. Gates has no right to position herself on the pedestal of feeling that African women in and beyond Africa depend on her wealth and connections. She must be reminded that Africa women are ageless, timeless, complete and non-reducible. They are giants of tradition, intellect, modernity, knowledge, flexibility and rich tapestry of inter-generational transmission. African women are not items, articles and objects upon which another puffs her mangled and inflated sense of leadership. No one hedges bets on African women. Mama Africa is not weak and feeble. Bad governance, extra urban residence and abusive client leaderships are not indicators of diminution of African women. Actually in the face of turmoil of many decades, African women remain immovable rocks/champions of survival.

If Mrs. Gates were humble and aware she’ll be in tune with her own country’s serious issues especially that birth control did not and has not put US on the glorious pantheon of women paradise. The current economic crisis unleashed by and in the US is hurting women and children the most. The fact that many US women have no access to health care is instructive and an opportunity to ground some charity at home.

Conclusion

Mrs. Gates should reconfigure her knowledge of Africa and African women as a matter of urgency. Having money is one things but acknowledging rich history of peoples over generations is another. It is dangerous to ascribe and impose commodification of sexuality and femininity on African women. While argument of altruistic design of her work in Africa is for another day, there is no doubt that observers are positioned to perceive another US geopolitical design on Africa’s most precious resource, her women, her mothers. In addition to military domination of mineral/natural resources via AFRICOM, every African should wise up to the twin hurricane unleashed by Washington DC and from Washington State.