Bay Area
Raiders/Warriors/A's
If you were planning to move to Africa one day, what degree would you get here in the US before you left? Would a english degree suffice if I just wanted to teach and work with people?
Good Degree To Take To Africa
- Thread starter Bay Area
- Start date
The Odum of Ala Igbo
Hail Biafra!
Renewable Energy engineering degree. Especially involving photovoltaics
These...
Keep in mind that Africans don't need people "doing" things for them. Most of all, they need people who can help different groups of people work together (Africans and non-Africans both) to get things done.
Go to a community, listen to the people there to find out what their needs are, spend enough time understanding the situation to figure out why the people have been unable to meet those needs themselves, and then work together to start making it happen. And don't start from the top-down - do shyt that local people can control so that they can manage their own situation.
Yeah, Africa needs more agricultural engineers, electrical engineers, etc...but it'd be best if you helped build a pathway to where THEY were training and producing their own African engineers rather than being the foreigner flying in to the rescue.
I'm not saying not to go to Africa to help. EVERYONE who is well-intentioned should go to African to help. But go there to help them work to help themselves. That doesn't even require a degree, though a strong understanding of sociology and culture, a good bit of empathy, and a willingness to listen are most important. Any other skill you need can be something you can teach yourself or take a few courses on, but really the on-the-ground experience will be where it matters.
Go to a community, listen to the people there to find out what their needs are, spend enough time understanding the situation to figure out why the people have been unable to meet those needs themselves, and then work together to start making it happen. And don't start from the top-down - do shyt that local people can control so that they can manage their own situation.
Yeah, Africa needs more agricultural engineers, electrical engineers, etc...but it'd be best if you helped build a pathway to where THEY were training and producing their own African engineers rather than being the foreigner flying in to the rescue.
I'm not saying not to go to Africa to help. EVERYONE who is well-intentioned should go to African to help. But go there to help them work to help themselves. That doesn't even require a degree, though a strong understanding of sociology and culture, a good bit of empathy, and a willingness to listen are most important. Any other skill you need can be something you can teach yourself or take a few courses on, but really the on-the-ground experience will be where it matters.
only banks and politicians can do this.
Concerning VLoLence
Banned
I hope your not talking about human resources degrees. The last thing Africans need to excell in is 'communications' and neglect the hard sciences. I do agree there needs to be a succession in place to keep the ball rolling.
No.
Banks and politicians don't do things, they respond. The only things that banks and politicians ever proactively do are those things which will make them money.
If you actually want positive change to happen, it has to happen from the ground up in the society. Only when people are reaching for things and demanding them will banks and politicians respond. People/communities create the cultural demand which banks/politicians will then act upon. Until then, they'll be happy to abuse the people for their own profit, not help them.
No, I'm not talking about "communications". I'm talking about building soft skills that will help you understand how to work in a different culture than your own, discover the needs of the people, and put their needs in the forefront, rather than coming in with a colonization mindset that basically replicates the "White Man's Burden", only now it's the "American Man's Burden" of whatever shade. You certainly won't get that from a communications degree.
You might get it from a degree in community development, but only if it's a really good program - a lot of those programs have traditionally been crap. You're better off finding out which persons and organizations are doing it right and then apprenticing under them.
And I didn't say "neglect the hard sciences". But we need more AFRICANS with degrees in hard science, not the importation of even more foreigners who think they're going to come in and "do it for them".
Last edited:
I suggest you read more. This is nonsense.
Point to what you've been reading. I'd love to expand my knowledge if you have something helpful.
I've read literally dozens of relevant books on the subject, not to mention countless papers. I'm personal friends with some of the authors of some of those books and papers. But far more importantly, I've devoted my life to doing it myself on the ground and I spend quite a bit of time talking to a lot of other people who have been doing it too, some for decades. And I can see the results on the field and know how well what they're doing is actually working.
Can you explain what your experience is on the subject? How can you tell whether what you're reading is crap versus good advice?
Last edited:
1. Citizens of African countries are probably MORE likely to be engaged in protest and civic duties and demand things that are unlikely to be met.
2. Things like the federal highway system, GI Bill, and The Internet were not created by ground up demand.
I don't have the slightest clue what you think that statement has to do with anything that I've been saying. I think you're misunderstanding the issue and what needs to happen on the ground completely. This isn't about yelling at other people to do things for you - it's about learning to do what you can for yourself, ramping it up, and making your community demand and action strong enough that the banks/politicians are forced to get aboard.
NOT "demand and action" to make the government do something. Demand from the community actually wanting to do something and putting their money where their mouth is with action to begin doing it.
If you think that what Africa really needs is to pass a G.I. Bill or do government research into the creation of an international internet system, then you obviously havent' been talking to many actual Africans.
And even worse, if your model for what needs to happen in Africa is based the America on the 1980s or even the 1950s, then you're showing your own innocence on this subject. The 1940s/50s America that the G.I. Bill and the federal highway system was built on had almost nothing culturally, socially, or politically in common with the vast majority of African countries today, not from the people's side nor from the governments. Not to mention the 1970s/80s America that the Internet was developed in.
IF you've built communities that can take advantage of things like the G.I. Bill and the Internet for positive purposes AND a political system which is forced to respond to the true needs of the people at least some of the time, then yes, you have a good model. But, of course, if you already have those things, then the G.I. Bill and the Internet are going to happen naturally. But how do those systems get built in the first place? It only happens when the communities at a local/personal level are forcing the issue and doing it themselves. Politicians are never better than the people - they're almost always worse. The American government has never been more moral than the American people - at it's very best, it has matched what the people were already believing in and working towards.
Last edited: