Summary:
Former Nigerian Finance Minister Nogozi Okonjo-Iweala speaks at the 2007 TED conference in California about the future of Africa. After doing opinion research and looking at other studies, she calls employment the top issue for African youth. To provide jobs Okonjo-Iweala advocates a partnership between government aid, private sector donations, and “ordinary African people.” She tells a personal story to explain that the source of aid can often be irrelevant to the person receiving it. Okonjo-Iweala’s priority solution is to build infrastructure using funds from international donors, but with consent and consideration from local peoples. Finally, she advocates job creation and empowerment for women.
Commentary:
Who IS Nogozi Okonjo-Iweala?
A native Nigerian who went to Harvard and has a Ph.D in regional economics and development from MIT. After being the first female Finance Minister for Nigeria, she is now a director at the World Bank. I think Okonjo-Iweala uses strategic essentialism in her talk in two ways – first to take on the role of an “ordinary African” in order to convince her audience that she is somehow authentic and understanding of that population. Second, to adopt the identity of a successful westerner, who uses the language of finance and economics to explain the relative gains of helping the poor. I have to wonder – how would my perception have differed if the speaker was a caucasian male? Okonjo-Iweala’s oriental dress and femininity made me more likely to sympathize and try to understand her. I was inspired by Okonjo-Iweala but still critical of many of her ideas about development.
What WAS she talking about?
Okonjo-Iweala uses an economic rationale to explain how humanitarian aid can save lives, which makes the economy more productive. She says the act of the EU giving aid to Spain and Ireland for infrastructure should be repeated in African countries. Well, I know that the EU is the largest aid donor in the world and has given billions to Africa. Okonjo-Iweala would say that the money wasn’t used in the right places. I think she neglected to mention the amount of government and private sector corruption that adducts that aid money. Plus, with new aid, I thought she should have mentioned the importance of environmental sustainability. Finally, although the talk’s title was ‘aid versus trade’, Okonjo-Iweala only addressed the former. After reading the public commentary posted under the video, I found many other viewers equally frustrated by the topics she chose to focus on and incomplete explanations.
Where is the voice?
It is questionable whether Okonjo-Iweala (or anyone) can properly represent individuals in Africa. I think she does give a voice to the ‘subaltern’ by doing opinion research and speaking against injustice publicly. She empowers the colonized and marginalized by saying that the developed world could not have been built without the ‘aid’ from today’s developing countries. She does recommend conferences and consultation processes, and praises China, a more powerful developing nation, for hearing the interests of local people. I don’t want to forget that even through Okonjo-Iweala, voices can still be “caught in translation.” Is Okonjo-Iweala subaltern? That is still up for debate.