New Directions

Volume 15 | Issue 3 Article 7

7-1-1988 New Approaches To Development Moreen A. Qureshi

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Recommended Citation Qureshi, Moreen A. (1988) "New Approaches To Development," New Directions: Vol. 15: Iss. 3, Article 7. Available at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol15/iss3/7

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By Moeen A. Qureshi impediments to development. Increasingly, maintaining past levels of expenditure on ome developing countries have sub­ these adjustment efforts include measures poverty programs, some want to channel stantially reduced poverty within to protect the efforts of poor people to meet the resources through NGOs to enhance Stheir borders, and virtually all coun­ their basic needs. cost-effectiveness. tries have at least made gains in education The third necessary change is to make Some NGOs in the developing countries and health for poor people. But the 1980s programs which are supposed to help the are strengthening their capacity to analyze have been a terribly difficult decade for the poor become more effective. issues of economic policy and to speak for developing world, and tens of millions of All three of these changes call for fresh the poor in public debate. And the re­ poor people have grown poorer. commitment and creative approaches, in­ surgence of democracy in parts of the Adverse conditions in the global econ­ cluding new forms of partnership between developing world has made some govern­ omy have slowed growth in even the most governmental institutions and the vigorous ments more responsive. dynamic, well-managed economies. Weaker legions of nongovernmental organizations, In our age of interdependence and rapid and less efficient economies went into a NGOs. information exchanges, international NGO tailspin. Economic growth, by itself, is no networks that were forged to channel assist­ guarantee of progress against poverty, but ance to developing nations are beginning to economic decline such as most of Africa and channel information back to the industrial Latin America have seen spells suffering all To eliminate mass poverty, countries. The insights carried on these around, for poor people most of all. we will need supportive people-to-people links bring grassroots ex­ At the same time, lessons have been perience to the public at large and to coming in from past efforts to reduce policies in the industrial decision makers who often need such alter­ poverty. In reviewing the World Bank’s countries. native, open channels. experience with direct efforts to reduce poverty since the mid-1970s, we conclude Supportive Policies that the bank’s basic strategies have been In recent years, NGOs have been multi­ To eliminate mass poverty, we will need sound. Small-scale agriculture is indeed the plying and expanding. In many developing supportive policies in the industrial coun­ front line of the fight against rural poverty. countries, the poor themselves are better tries. These will necessarily include sub­ Investments in human resources — in organized now than they were 15 years ago. stantial programs of official finance. But health, literacy, in managing population In neighborhood associations, women’s people in the industrial countries will not growth — yield high returns. And ap­ groups, religious groups, environmental support such programs if NGOs they trust proaches we advocated are helping many organizations, farmers’ organizations and — church or environmental groups, for countries to cope with urbanization. cooperatives, women and men have joined example — tell them that official develop­ If we are to succeed in overcoming mass hands to shape their own futures. Growing ment efforts are hopelessly ineffective or poverty, three fundamental changes are networks of regional and national NGOs sometimes even harmful to the poor. needed. bring the strength of numbers to these And if NGOs collaborate with official The first — and responsibility here lies grassroots groups. Confederations of the agencies to improve the quality of aid, I primarily with the developed countries—is local groups, national voluntary organiza­ suspect that NGOs will also learn in the to make the global economic climate once tions and think tanks on social issues are process. They may become more candid again right for sustainable development. mobilizing new resolve and imagination. about their limitations, more appreciative Second, the developing countries must As of 1985, NGOs based in the industrial of the importance and difficulty of what pursue economic policies that encourage countries transferred an estimated $4.4 developing-country governments do and economic growth and progress against billion a year to the developing countries. more knowledgeable about international poverty. This decade’s distress has exposed Despite their impressive growth, NGOs trade and finance. serious inefficiencies in the developing still reach only a fraction of the world’s poor There will be points of controversy countries. As they work to recover from people. between intergovernmental and nongov­ crisis, many countries are mounting sys­ But a number of developing-country ernmental organizations, but we should be tematic attacks on price distortions, governments are showing increased inter­ able to speak with less discord on certain bloated public sector spending and other est in NGOs. Where governments are basic issues of international policy.

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continued from page 27 References 1. Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. However, as indicated earlier, at world Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981. market prices, Africa’s most competitive 2. Wilfred L. David. Conflicting Paradigms in export crops are not necessarily those that the Economics of Developing Nations. New bring the most lucrative financial returns. York: Praeger, 1986. Even if African countries were to practice 3. John Mellor and Bruce Johnston. “The more free trade, they will continue to face World Food Equation: Interrelations among Development, Employment, and Food Con­ barriers to trade in the markets of the sumption.” Journal of Economic Literature, developed countries. Further, they would vol. 22, 1984. face an increased vulnerability to fluctua­ 4. J.M. Higgins et. al. Potential Population tions in commodity prices, and the market Supporting Capacities of Lands in the De­ Renewed progress against poverty de­ power of agribusiness and transnational veloping World. Rome: FAO, 1982. pends on sensitive and successful adjust­ corporations. 5. World Bank. Accelerated Development in ment programs in the developing countries. At one level, the debate between the Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, D.C.: NGOs at the grassroots are dealing first­ need to export more crops vis-a-vis domes­ The World Bank, 1981. hand with some of the low-income families tic food self-sufficiency can be considered a who have lost jobs or government services spurious one. The proceeds from exports due to economic malfunction at the global provide the foreign exchange needed to pay and national levels. for imported oil and other commodities that Some NGOs can give policymakers im­ are used in the production process or portant insights about the effect adjust­ provide basic amenities such as electricity. ment policies have on poor people and At the same time, food output must be suggest alternatives. When a government expanded wherever possible, and on a wants NGOs to help implement social massive scale. This requirement is related components of an adjustment program, to the nature of the development challenge such economic policy discussions become itself. First, for the majority of Africans, especially important. food production is a means of income, NGOs which grapple with adjustment employment, and other entitlements. Sec­ issues may come to recognize that many of ond, the relative price of food depends on its the policy reforms that are important for supply, and when output declines, prices economic efficiency also serve the cause of would be higher. Third, a direct role of equity. Price discrimination against agri­ increasing aggregate food output is related culture did not come about by change; it to the fact that, given inefficiencies and serves the interests of relatively well-off uncertainties of the market mechanism, urban groups at the expense of less power­ vulnerable groups, especially in rural areas, ful, poorer rural areas. Wasteful parastatal may find it safer to grow their own food than companies have gone uncurbed, partly depend on income from other sources. because they provide jobs to thousands of Finally, many African governments have politically influential city dwellers. recognized the need for policy reforms. At It is often such relatively well-off people the behest of international agencies, they who protest most vocally against adjust­ have raised producer prices and investment ment measures. As NGOs deepen their incentives for small farmers, reduced sub­ engagement on broad issues of economic sidies, cut public expenditures, devalued policy, they could help to reduce the bias their currencies, and taken steps to encour­ against the poor which has often been built age the private sector through “privatiza­ into pricing policy, tax policy and patterns of tion.” Not only are these measures contro­ public expenditure. versial, but their implementation involves In order to renew progress against pov­ severe social costs and formidable political erty, we need to make public programs that risks. While it is too early to judge whether promise to benefit the poor actually de­ their medium and long-term impact will be liver. □ favorable, the social and political costs have resulted in resistance against further re­ forms of this nature. □ Moeen A. Qureshi is senior vice president, Operations, at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. The above was excerpted from a paper Wilfred L. David is graduate professor of eco­ given at the annual conference of the Society of nomic development and planning, African International Development, Washington Chap­ Studies and Research Program, Howard Uni­ ter, in April. versity. http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol15/iss3/7 NEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1988 2 Qureshi: New Approaches To Development THE ARTS

BOOKS

Reviewed, by Abdulkadir N. Said Twenty-five t a book reception for Francoise Pfaff’s new book on African film­ Black African A makers, one of her subjects walked into the hall at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library in Washington, Filmmakers: D.C. without fanfare. Some of the guests did not recognize Souleymane Cisse, from Mali, but the few who did showered him A Critical Study, with adulation for his masterful contribu­ tion to the cinema of Africa. This scene With Filmography illustrates the place of African films in the United States. They are appreciated by a and Bio- select group of loyal viewers at college campuses and in the community but have Bibliography yet to achieve wide commercial appeal or general distribution. By Francoise Pfaff, Greenwood Press, Cisse’s latest work, “Yeelen” (The Westport, Ct., 332 pp. Light), captivated viewers when it was shown in Washington in April as part of the Second Washington, D.C. International Film Festival—Filmfest/DC. The 105- minute prize-winning film, which many critics have described as a “masterpiece,” is the story of family conflict and super­ natural powers, based on traditional be­ liefs of the Bambara people of West Africa. “Yeelen,” in my assessment, is a film that is artistically enriching, culturally cor­ rect and technically excellent. It is likely to play again in the United States. Go see it when that happens. The timing for the release of Pfaff’s new book, “Twenty-five Black African Film­ makers, coincided, perhaps by thoughtful scheduling, with Filmfest/DC, which brought to the city a number of film­ makers from Africa (and elsewhere) whose works were featured in April and May. Twenty-five is the second book on Af­ rican cinema by Pfaff, who teaches French at Howard University and has written ex­ tensively on the subject. Her first book, The Cinema of Ousmane Sembene, A Cisse Pioneer of African Film, was published Published by Digital Howard @ Howard University, 3 NEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1988 New Directions, Vol. 15 [], Iss. 3, Art. 7

in 1984, also by Greenwood Press. and still are illiterate.” This new volume is a logical extension “Of African descent, Sarah Maldoror of PfafFs research on African cinema and (her real name is Sarah Ducados; she her earlier work on Senegal’s Sembene, chose the name Maldoror after reading one of the continent’s most prominent Les Chants de Maldoror by the nine­ filmmakers. teenth-century French writer Count de “Ousmane Sembene is presently con­ Lautreamont) was born in 1929 in a small sidered by literary and film critics alike as town in southern France of a West Indian one of Africa’s most prolific contemporary father (from Guadeloupe) and a French creators,” Pfaff writes in Twenty-five. mother,” elaborates the author but ne­ Twenty-five Black African Film­ glects to tell us the significance — or rea­ makers, in a way, is a guide, a road map if son—for the name change. you will, to the creative offerings of a se­ Another anomaly in Pfaff’s work is in lect group of filmmakers — 23 male and 2 the main title. That is not to suggest that female from 13 countries whose films the title is bad, but the appendage “black” have earned international exposure. En­ with African, which she uses in the title tries include eight filmmakers from Sene­ and in parts of her narrative, in my opin­ gal — including Sembene, of course — and ion, is superfluous. What else can a true Safi Faye, whom Pfaff describes as “the African be? It is as odd as saying “white” only active” and “African-born” female in­ European. Given the fact that national dependent filmmaker on the continent at identities, ethnic dissimilarities, language the present time; four from Ivory Coast; differences and geographical lines do cut two each from Cameroon and Niger; one across the continent, all individuals with each from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Gabon, indigenous African ancestry need no ap­ Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and pendage, in my opinion. The reverse South Africa. would be true, for example, when identify­ The 13th entry is credited to France/ ing “white” South Africans or others with Guadeloupe, by virtue of the filmmaker non-indigenous African ancestral lineage. being of distant African descent who now The author’s preoccupation with clan works and lives in Africa. She is Sarah affiliation, religious orientation and mar­ Maldoror, the second female featured in ital arrangements (polygamy in this case) the book. is puzzling, even frivolous in my opinion. According to the author, Maldoror, in The practice of polygamy in the tradi­ the late ’50s, became “actively involved in tional African/Islamic setting is as accept­ the struggle for African liberation” at a able as monogamy is in the West. Pfaff’s time when “many African militants were oversimplified characterization of this life­ exiled in Paris. Among them was the An­ style — devoid of analysis, elaboration or golan writer Mario de Andrade, one of explanation based in the African/Islamic the leaders of the Popular Movement for context — could lead to a misreading or the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) whose even ridicule by those unfamiliar with the life Maldoror was to share for a number of culture. Besides, it has no relevance to years. It is with him that she subsequently filmmaking. In her zeal to incorporate went to Guinea-Conakry, where she came every minute detail of her subjects’ to realize that in Africa cinema was the intimate family histories, she gets a bit most appropriate medium that could be overboard. used to raise the political awareness of the Consider these entries for Niger’s masses of people, many of whom were Moustapha Alassane, Ghana’s Kwaw Gerima http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol15/iss3/7 NEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1988 4 Qureshi: New Approaches To Development

32 Ansah and Senegal’s Safi Faye: Pfaff is correct, I believe, in her assess­ ment of African cinema. “From its incep­ □ Born around 1942 in N ’Jougou, a tion,” (in the early ’60s), she writes in the village located in Benin, he is of Yoruba introduction, “Black African cinema has origin and Muslim extraction. The son been largely envisioned as a functional art of a polygamous tradesman, Alassane form. While redefining the portrayal of migrated to Niger in 1953. Africa on film, Black African filmmakers □ Kvoaui Paintsil Ansah was born on vehemently rejected alien stereotypes in 17 July 1941 in Agona Swedru, Ghana. favor of realistic images of Africa from an The son of an educated photogapher mar­ African perspective.” ried to three wives, Ansah has three sis­ The key element here, as I see it, is the ters and two brothers. “African perspective” — meaning films □ Born into the household of a polyg­ that depict true African values; films that amous village chief and businessman, don’t trivialize the African culture or iden­ Faye is the second of her mother’s seven tity; films that teach as well as inform and children and has thirteen half brothers entertain. and sisters as well. Cinema, as seen through the lens of the African filmmaker, is a medium that can be used for positive purposes—such as While Pfaff’s book contains a wealth of enriching the human psyche — or for information relevant to African cinema, negative purposes — such as the glorifica­ the three illustrations above mirror what tion of corrupting values. It is up to the readers also can expect. filmmaker to make the choice. Sembene A chapter is devoted to each of the 25 Witness, if you will, the depiction of Af­ filmmakers, with every entry containing rica (and indeed the Afro-American expe­ biographical and “filmographical” informa­ rience in this country) in films originating tion, as well as a thematic analysis of the from the West. The Tarzan syndrome of filmmaker’s works, a survey of criticism yesteryear, with its jungle culture and the and a bibliography. debasement of African values and the Af­ Beyond a brief but crisply written in­ rican personality, and the Black exploita­ troduction in which Pfaff provides impor­ tion genre of the 70s, which glorified tant historical data on the evolution of the drugs, violence and the pimp lifestyle, are African cinema, this book appears to have graphic negative examples that still re­ been put together from resumes or writ­ main with us. ten questionnaires. The text, which could African cinema, through the works of have used tighter editing, contains useful filmmakers such as Sembene, Cisse and information for film students, scholars and Haile Gerima of Ethiopia, among others, researchers, but at times is short on is charting its own course and moving in a luster. But again, the value of works of this different direction—ostensibly for the genre is in the wealth of information they better. contain. “For years,” notes Pfaff in her book, Overall, the book is an excellent source “superficial and grossly distorted por­ for those interested in the development trayals of Africa on the silver screen had and the future of African cinema, as well mirrored the general paternalistic and as the personalities behind the creative contemptuous colonial ideology that processes and the politics of cinema in regarded Africans as inferior beings Africa. seemingly ‘predestined’ to peace and Faye Published by Digital Howard @ Howard University, 5 NEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1988 New Directions, Vol. 15 [], Iss. 3, Art. 7

progress through European ‘salvation.’ “‘Harvest: 3,000 Years’ was filmed in have been crippled as well. . . ” Many European and American motion two weeks, but it took Gerima more than Pfaff’s book contains such interesting pictures set in Africa had resulted from a year to edit it in the United States. Shot vignettes on the hardships, challenges and such a racially biased outlook — one has in 16mm, the motion picture was blown rewards of the film world in Africa — a only to mention the numerous escapist into 35mm so as to fit the criteria of Ethi­ continent fraught with fears, suspicions, safari-melodramas manufactured on Hol­ opian movie houses. Yet this film, pri­ political uncertainties, unresolved past lywood’s assembly lines since the turn of marily intended for Ethiopian audiences, and present conflicts. the century. In these alluring films, the Because of the visual impact of movies African continent was but a mysterious, and the audience responses they are capa­ wild, exotic backdrop to the valiant deeds ble of generating, cinema, indeed, is a via­ of Western adventurers and explorers. As ble but costly form of art for public expected, the bravery of these protago­ enlightenment in Africa and elsewhere. nists contrasted sharply with the blithe­ African cinema is young In Twenty-five, Francoise Pfaff has some and ‘uncivilized’ simple-mindedness and lean; it has reluctantly compiled certain valuable insights and or cruel savagery of the natives, viewed in presented certain truths through the an unchanging and global perspective of accepted official sponsor­ views of two dozen — plus one—creative lush landscapes and wild animals.” ship to move forward — filmmakers. This is only the beginning. Africa has no Hollywood—famous for More is expected in the years to come. □ big bucks and enormous profits. African only to be held back by cinema can ill afford to become captive to official censorship . . . The reviewer is editor of New Directions what Pfaff aptly describes in her book as magazine. the assembly line mentality. African cinema, as filmmaker Haile Gerima described it a few months ago at a Filmfest/DC symposium at Howard Uni­ versity where he teaches, is “hungry cin­ ema.” “It is not a privileged item; it is a begging cinema.” It must beg for financial has to this day never been shown in that support to meet production costs from country.” state agencies and through grants, for “ ‘Harvest’ was filmed on location in example. 1974 at a period of political instability in Indeed, African cinema, for the most Ethiopia, at a modest cost of $20,000, all part, came into being as the malnourished of which was financed by Gerima’s own offspring of a few adventurous individual funds.” It was an inauspicious time to filmmakers who are adept at mustering shoot a movie that depicted centuries of the resources necessary to bring their exploitation of Ethiopian peasants by movie projects to fruition, no matter the wealthy landlords. Could the filming have length of the journey. been done at another time? African cinema is young and lean; it has “This was the only short period of time reluctantly accepted official sponsorship to in Ethiopia in which the film could be move forward — only to be held back by made,” Gerima is quoted in Pfaff’s book, official censorship when it portrays harsh from an interview which appeared in the historical or contemporary realities. A spring 1978 Framework. “A month earlier, point in Pfaff’s book illustrates this predi­ the bureaucrats of Haile Selassie would cament. In the chapter on Gerima, creator have stopped the film or forbidden the of the highly political film, “Harvest: shooting. A month later, after the military 3,000 Years,” she writes: had consolidated its power, things would

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