RE-BRANDING AFRICA: She is not a Charity Case

I moved to Rwanda in March of 2008 and started an aid organization designed to care for women wishing to leave the sex trade.

They had been beaten, raped and oppressed to a point where the only viable method for supporting themselves and their babies was to sell their bodies. Society regularly conditioned them to believe they were worthless menaces to society.

As an aid agency with this sort of mission, It would have been easy for us to tell that story all over the world, knowing it would pull on heart strings and likely compel people to donate or buy our craft products. This methodology would certainly be in line with typical aid agency tactics for support.

One day I was talking with one of the pioneers of this initiative. She was the first girl to enter the program. She was 23 and had two small children. I asked her what she wanted me to tell people in the west about her situation. She thought about it for a while, and then responded.

She said, “I do not want to be known as a prostitute, or even a former prostitute. I want to be seen for who I am; a successful mother and business woman.

I literally broke down in tears, and have many times since as I reflected back that story.

That prompted me to ask all of the women how they wanted to be represented to the world. It’s astonishing how seldom this question is asked of aid recipients. Every woman stepped forward and said something along the lines of “we don’t want to be known for our past, we want to be known for who we are now and who we aspire to be”.

This experience is what led to the birth of our ethical fashion label, KEZA. KEZA leverages the fashion industry to transform the image and expectations of developing nations.

If you constantly treat someone as a charity case, they ten to limit themselves accordingly. If we re-branded Africa as a bastion of beauty and excellence, we might see more of it coming out of her. People may begin to believe in themselves. She’s experienced decades of aid agencies telling her she’s unworthy, inept and incapable of excellence; that she needs their help in order to survive. How would that make you feel?  How would that effect your performance? Your quality of life?

“It is the nature of man to rise to greatness when greatness is expected of him.” John Steinbeck

People ask me all the time what they can do to “help Africa”. I always respond with “expect more”.

We need to flip the switch, start believing in Africa and help fuel a new, beautiful brand for her. It might just become a self-fulfilling proclamation.