Andrew Mwenda and the Limits of American Aid

I recently ran across a youtube talk at Yale by Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda on the dangers of western aid to Africa, among other subjects.  Mwenda has a really sharp wit and punctures a lot of sacred balloons.  Few are spared.

But his primary concern is that western aid so often goes "where it is most needed," which--is to say to where it is most likely to be siphoned off or otherwise wasted.  The West should reward success rather than failure by providing assistance to those African nations and leaders who have a track record of doing a lot with a little, for improving the lives of their citizens by responsibly using the resources at their disposal.

Mwenda's counsel is difficult for those of us in the West to accept, I think, not only because it seems counter-intuitive (shouldn't we start with the most desperate situations?) but because it conveys a truth we don't want to hear: outsiders cannot "save" Africa.  The best we can do is to assist those Africans who are already doing the heavy lifting--and to explore and speak out on the often subtle ways that our aid and foreign policies does harm to those we profess to care so much about.  We are not the stars in this movie.