The two sides of the African coin

The two sides of the African coin

As a child growing up in Africa, my parents urged me to finish all the food given to me; for the sake of the less fortunate children who had no food. I was ordered not to waste food because the act disrespected those who had nothing to eat. We were not particularly wealthy; we were slightly above average... comfortable as a result of my parents' sweat. Then, Zimbabwe was more like a 6-sided die that fate would have us roll, dealing us plenty (6) or lack (1) and everything in-between. However, economic and political shifts in the country squashed the dice into a coin of sorts... with only the option to have plenty or to lack (6 or 1 respectively)... those who have more dinners than appetites and those with more appetites than dinners. A child's life became a Bernoulli trial; with the outcome determining the quality of life they would have, the food available to them, the resources at their disposal and their future all together. Let's call the side of plenty heads and the side of lack tails.

There are 2 kinds of coins, fair coins and biased coins. Fair coins give equal likelihood of either head or tail to come up when tossed. If such a model were adopted in Africa, it would mean that approximately half the children would have a realistic chance of success. However, in my eyes, half is not enough. There are 2 types of biased coins; one that is biased to heads and the other to tails. When a biased coin is tossed, the outcome is likely to favour one, and such is the plight of the African child under certain conditions. In a stable economy, with a government supporting education, subsidising it for the needy, the coin is heads biased and, although some will toss and get tails, the majority will be in a position conducive to prosperity. In an unstable nation with war, etc, the coin favours lack, poverty and destruction. We have the ability to consciously choose the coin we give Africa's children to toss; and therefore the life they will lead.

I have many relatives in Africa. Some have done well for themselves while others are struggling to make ends meet. Let me put it into perspective; I have some cousins who have amassed great wealth and are living the dream, flash cars, fine dining, mansions, private education for their children and all the trimmings. I also have cousins who have the daily tango with starvation; their children often sent away from school for not paying fees, had built a house but it was destroyed, walk to work. Now, I'd like to think that my rich cousins' children may not be as intelligent as my poorer cousins, yet they have access to resources such as the internet, private tutors and the likes... they are well travelled and have grasped the way the world works in a way my other cousins will sadly never understand. One may ask, “Why will your rich cousins not give to your poor cousins?” As a child I used to dream of such a thing but as I grew older I realised that everyone looks after number one first; my rich cousin will not allow my poor cousin to starve to death, yet he does not have the ability to lift him out of poverty permanently or completely, it is too late. However, if he did sacrifice more and invested his excess into his nephews and nieces education, perhaps they will have enough of a boost to shun poverty and have better lives.

I would like to expand on an expression, “if you give a man a fish, you would have fed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish, you'd have fed him for a lifetime.” I have discovered that if instead you teach his children to fish, you would not only have fed him for a lifetime, but fed his family for generations to come.AFR has a vision not to just give fish, or teach men to fish, but to invest in their children; they will feed themselves as well as their parents, grandparents and children. This is why we are not pouring money at poor people but investing in their children's education. Perhaps in time we will have a coin so biased that it will not let a child be predestined to starvation and poverty. So we will design, develop, manufacture and retail high quality apparel with the intention to educate Africa, one shirt at a time.

Kingstone Matsekeza has just graduated with honours in Actuarial Science at the University of Kent, Canterbury.