Philanthropy In East Africa

Robert G. Gregory challenges the apparent assumption that non-Western peoples lack a significant indigenous philanthropic culture. Focusing on the large South Asian community in East Africa, he relates how, over a century, they built a philanthropic culture of great magnitude, and how it finally collapsed under the ascendency of increasing state regulation and policies directed against non-African communities.Compelled by poverty to seek better oppurtunities overseas, most Asians arrived in East Africa as peasant farmers. Denied access to productive land and sensing economic opportunity, they turned to business. Despite severe forms of racial discrimination in the colonial society, they suffered few restrictions on their business enterprises and some became very wealthy. Gregory's historical analysis shows philanthropy as an important contribution, one that stemmed from deep roots in Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist culture. The sense of nonracial social responsibility cultivated social, medical, and educational facilities designed for all.This age of philanthropy terminated with the Asian exodus. The socialist and racial policies adopted by East African governments over the past few decades have virtually destroyed the foundation necessary for philanthropy as well as the distinct Asian cultural identity. Gregory's account of the East Asian's role in philanthropy deserves great attention and sober reflection.

"An important contribu-tion to the literature on Asian communities in Africa, interesting and readable." --Richard S. Glotzer, "The Journal of Asian Studies" Asian participation in the development of East Africa is usually assessed in economic terms, but as Gregory's historical analysis shows, philanthropy was an important contribution, one that stemmed from deep roots in Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist culture. Initially, it took the form of providing for the needs of Asians, but soon philanthropy branched out to aid Europeans, Africans, and Arabs in areas that were inadequately served by the state.

Gregory focuses on the large South Asian community in East Africa, he relates how, over a century, they built a philanthropic culture of great magnitude, and how it finally collapsed under the ascendency of increasing state regulation and policies directed against non-African communities

The past decade has seen a flowering of philanthropic activities across many parts of Africa. Unlike before, this flowering has the distinct character of African agency, energy and engagement. Philanthropy is no longer about narratives of passive, poor and miserable Africans receiving help from rich, fortunate and often Western outsiders. The emerging narratives about philanthropy in Africa are about an increasingly confident and knowledgeable assertion of African capacities to give not only to help but also to transform and seek to address the root causes of injustice, want, ignorance and disease. The narratives are also about the increasing questioning of the role and place of Africans in the world’s philanthropic traditions and what constitutes African specificities but also African differences and varieties. This book is about African philanthropic experiences, their varieties, challenges and opportunities. It is about documenting, investigating, describing, questioning and reflecting on philanthropy in Africa. Because Africa is not a monolithic entity with one single history, cultural, political and economic experience, this ground-breaking book rightly tackles the varied modes, forms, vehicles and means in which the philanthropic experiences are expressed in Africa. It is a pioneering and ambitious effort in a field and community of practice that is new both in terms of scholarship and in professional practice. Many of the chapters boldly engage the burden of reflections, questions, ambivalences and ambiguities that one often finds in an emerging field, innovatively positing the outlines, concepts, frameworks and theories of scholarship and practice for a field critical to development on the continent.

This review contributes to a growing body of literature on conceptions and manifestations of African philanthropy. The review illustrates a complex plurality of actions that fall under cultures and practices of giving in Africa. From an analysis of these practices, this paper proposes that African philanthropy can be conceptually structured on the basis of spheres of philanthropic practice, and the underlying bases and motivations for philanthropy.

This is an analysis of the complex links between Black America and Africa in the period of 1880 to 1945. It examines an extended white attempt to pattern politics and education in colonial Africa upon the example of the U.S. South. This export of United States race relations to Africa was resisted by Black intellectuals in the United States and many of the early nationalists in Africa. At another level, the study offers an original account of the parallel and related development of the education systems of the U.S. South and Kenya, revealing in both spheres the essentially political nature of African and Black American education. Through extensive research in Black colleges, philanthropic foundations, and Christian missions, a wealth of new material has been collated also on early pan-African politicians, Black missionaries to Africa, and African students in the United States.

This is an analysis of the complex links between Black America and Africa in the period of 1880 to 1945. It examines an extended white attempt to pattern politics and education in colonial Africa upon the example of the U.S. South. This export of United States race relations to Africa was resisted by Black intellectuals in the United States and many of the early nationalists in Africa. At another level, the study offers an original account of the parallel and related development of the education systems of the U.S. South and Kenya, revealing in both spheres the essentially political nature of African and Black American education. Through extensive research in Black colleges, philanthropic foundations, and Christian missions, a wealth of new material has been collated also on early pan-African politicians, Black missionaries to Africa, and African students in the United States.