Quite recently I happened to see a photo in the African magazine New African (issue 488, October 2009), a magazine which is among the best in its genre. Its perspective is clearly African and it focuses on such diverse subjects as politics, economics, sociology and culture. The photograph showed the American actress Mia Farrow – blond, beautiful and with a very serious look in her face – surrounded by a group of African children in Darfur. It was possible to see the photo as portraying a white angel from the West among all the impenitent black children, a classic scene from the nineteenth century when missionaries were trying to “save” Africa. The same kind of images were used over the years by the Swedish Mission when it was trying to collect money for its work.

 Not only did I feel upset and embarrassed. I also felt ashamed. This picture is so dishonest and wrong that it makes me feel sick. This is how bad the situation is; a few American and European celebrities have taken over the right of interpretation when it comes to African issues.  We do not care about the situation in Darfur unless the blonde and tender Mia Farrow addresses it.

 Well, I have a lot of African friends who tell me that they do not want to be saved by people like Madonna, Mia Farrow or Bob Geldof. (The latter has had the nerve to receive a knighthood for his work in Africa.) This whole approach is a sneer in the face of the African continent. My African friends and I prefer Bono, the singer of U2 because he has a sort of raw attitude and an associated reliability. He does not aspire to be the spokesperson of Africa. He does not travel to Africa to save anyone. Instead he is firm and clear in his demands on Europe and the rest of the Western world, always bearing in mind their historical crimes and atrocities, which still continue today.

 So the colonial attitude has not disappeared. Neither has our view of the African continent as simply a supplier of raw materials changed. Nor do we give the African farm industry a fair chance to compete in the open market with their products. Instead we continue to protect our own farming with about the same amount of money each day that we annually give to Africa in foreign aid. Try to survive on that!

 It is possible to argue that I am being deeply unfair. Mia Farrow’s commitment to the suffering in Darfur is most certainly true and genuine, and her efforts most likely have some significance in getting the world to focus on the very complicated political situation there; one or two people might even stop to listen to the Hollywood Star.

 The question is what do they get to hear? I suspect that they do not get to hear much about the reasons behind the conflict in Darfur. Instead, the focus is solely on humanitarian help with no effort made to investigate the real cause of the suffering. This is just like fixing a tooth without removing what is causing the ache. The caries is still there. The reason for the problem is not exposed so it is impossible do anything about it.

 It is great that suffering people receive aid. Who could have anything against emergency aid? What I’m talking about is something completely different. I am talking about the fact that a major part of the discussion about Africa’s future has been kidnapped by people from the West.

 This is a serious problem and it is not a new one. As long as Swedish foreign aid has existed, starting with Nib in the 1950s, the focus has been on finding solutions to so-called African problems. So we have packed our foreign aid luggage with technology, sociology and money to address the issues we have found there.

 This approach has often failed. Sometimes – often – due to ignorance and naivety. In other cases due to a lack of patience and perseverance. But in my opinion the biggest problem has been something else: we should have packed our luggage with questions instead of answers. We should have brought some basic modesty with us; those who need help know what they need much better than we do. What we can offer is our experience, in an equal discussion.

 The last 30 years I have lived in Africa part-time. Over this period I have observed that Europeans and other Westerners have a tendency not to listen. They talk. Non-stop. At times there has been a dialogue but always with the precondition that the agenda and the right of interpretation are ours.

 Many African intellectuals believe that Europe has been going a some strange metamorphosis since World War II. We have stopped listening to voices other than our own.

 This is important. My suggestion is that organisations like SIDA should focus their efforts on projects that promote the development of domestic African institutions where people are allowed to think their own thoughts – and not be forced to play a more or less subordinate role to photogenic Europeans.

 Samora Machel once said: ‘We liberate ourselves for many reasons. Among them to have the right to dream our own dreams and to make our own voices heard.’

 This is very good. But are we listening?

 Henning Mankell