Robertson’s silly comments on Aids: Why do people say such things?

A screen grab shot of Pat Robertson. PHOTO | COURTESY 

In Summary

• I think part of this is the result of warped nationalism. We all like to think that our countries and societies are better than others and we conjure up references and rituals to affirm that and, sometimes, place our race, culture, or ethnic group as superior to others.
• If you got 1,000 Western business people who trade in Africa, put them in a room, and ask which one had actually ever run into a “machete-wielding mob” along an African highway, probably none of them would put their hand up.

By CHARLES ONYANGO-OBBO
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So we read in the Daily Nation that the American TV CBN network that carries conservative 80-year-old preacher Pat Robertson’s daily programme apologised on Monday for his false claim that visitors to Kenya could contract Aids from towels.

CBN also removed the statement from its online archive.

Robertson’s remark came in response to an emailed question from a viewer who expressed concern about the risks of visiting Kenya during the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

Robertson, correctly, told the questioner that there have been no cases of Ebola in Kenya, which, he said, is far from the epicentre of the outbreak in West Africa.

However, he mentioned the danger of contracting other diseases in Kenya in addition to Aids from hotel towels.

KENYANS VENT

Angry Kenyans took to the Internet to vent.

The common view is that these statements are a result of Western (and even Asian) ignorance and bigotry.

Are they? Well, many years ago I was asked by a big Western government agency to do a media consultancy in an African country I had visited many times before.

I was met at the airport by an embassy car and handed a long list of the things I could not do in that country’s capital because they were dangerous. It included ALL the things I had done there over many years and got out alive without ever sensing for a second that I was at risk.

When I was dropped off at the hotel, the mission carried a carton of bottled water to my room that I was supposed to use even to brush my teeth, otherwise I would get a disease.

PARANOIA

One can understand such paranoia, but what struck me was that they were totally oblivious of how I felt. I was living in Kampala then, which was not much better than the African city that I was now being warned about.

As an African, I felt that they were judging the conditions in which I live back home, but clearly they did not get it.

I think part of this is the result of warped nationalism. We all like to think that our countries and societies are better than others and we conjure up references and rituals to affirm that and, sometimes, place our race, culture, or ethnic group as superior to others.

I remember not too long ago, in the same week, reading stories about new buildings coming up in Kampala, Dar es Salaam, and Nairobi. The Ugandan newspaper said the Kampala building would be the tallest in East Africa.

The Tanzanian paper said the Dar es Salaam one would be the tallest in East Africa. The report in the Kenyan media said the Nairobi building would be the tallest in East Africa. Surely, they could not all be right.

NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE

Take an article last week from the otherwise highly regarded New York Times entitled "Nairobi’s Latest Novelty: High-End Mac and Cheese, Served by Whites". It was, on the face of it, a well-meant piece portraying Nairobi as progressively becoming a world-class city.

However, I personally found the idea that Nairobians would be greatly flattered because they were being served in a restaurant by white waiters to be cringe-worthy.

Then the shoe dropped: “What had been holding back international franchises [in Africa], entrepreneurs said, were supply chain issues. It is often difficult to meet Western consistency standards in a place where the power goes out regularly and machete-wielding mobs occasionally barricade highways, interrupting the supply of fresh beef.” So, there, “machete wielding mobs”.

If you got 1,000 Western business people who trade in Africa, put them in a room, and ask which one had actually ever run into a “machete-wielding mob” along an African highway, probably none of them would put their hand up.

RICHER AND FREER

Which brings us to Ebola. Without doubt, even with all its many problems, diseases, and excruciating inequalities, Africa is becoming richer and freer.

We live in a competitive world and old political and economic powers will fight not to lose their dominance. One way this is being done is through what I call the “Africa discount”. “Africa is doing well, BUT”… there is Ebola, a new war, a stolen election, or a malevolent dictator threatening its progress.

The only small complication here is that, often, there is truth in it. But I do not get disheartened, because some good still comes out of it — hopefully it helps us not to become complacent.

The writer is editor of Mail & Guardian Africa (mgafrica.com). Twitter:@cobbo3