Pia Hansen: Lesotho journalist brings skeptical eye to G-8

Deutsche Welle’s Berlin office has had a new intern the last two months. Her name is Mathapeli Ramanotsi, and she’s a journalist at The Public Eye newspaper in Maseru, Lesotho. Mathapeli was my host in September last year, when I spent a month volunteering at The Public Eye. She landed in Berlin in May, via a professional exchange program.

Since I left her standing in her gravel driveway on a gray afternoon – the moment is so vivid I still remember she was wearing a jeans skirt and an orange T-shirt – we’ve stayed in touch via e-mail.

“I am now in Germany for two months and I am to report about the G-8 summit soon to be held here,” she writes in an early-morning e-mail back in May.

I can only imagine her culture shock. Berlin is one of the great cities in the world – a far, far cry from Maseru, which is a dusty and run-down capital in a developing nation.

Mathapeli has never before been outside of Africa.

“Germany is one kind of a place that I do not understand,” she writes when I ask her about Europe. “People here are reserved and prefer their private life. They are like people who live in a vacuum and are never used to foreigners.”

It’s easy for me to imagine how Mathapeli stands out on the sidewalk in Berlin – she’s the kind of person whose presence one can’t ignore.

As the G-8 summit gets started earlier this month, the language barrier between us makes it difficult to gauge how she responds to the political theater surrounding her. Mathapeli is a smart, smart woman, but she’s now submerged in German, a language she doesn’t understand.

“The people here are protesting against the main issues that are going to be discussed by the G-8, like climate change,” she explains via e-mail.

Is that the right focus, I ask? Does the G-8 summit really understand Africa?

“People are dying in Africa,” she replies, simply. And there’s the rub: Regardless of whether there is a connection between the two, it’s difficult to get worked up about something abstract like climate change if your immediate need is keeping your children alive.

As the summit crests in Heiligendamm, I ask if she sympathizes with the black-clad, anarchist protesters.

“I do not know. I think some of them are insane,” Mathapeli writes. Clearly, the anarchist message that eight people from eight powerful countries should not rule the world is lost on my friend.

As the $60 billion Africa aid package is announced at the end of the summit, I ask Mathapeli how she thinks all that money is going to benefit Lesotho. Her answer surprises me – something truly must be lost in translation here:

“To be honest, this year’s summit did not have much on Africa, I do not (think) we are going to benefit at all,” she writes. Huh? $60 billion is nice chunk of dough even if it has to be distributed on an entire devastated continent.

I try again in my next e-mail, asking if she believes the money will be spent well in Africa.

“If used according to plan many Africans are going to benefit,” Mathapeli then writes. “There could be a new beginning and many children would not be orphaned due to the death of parents who did not have access to (medical) treatment.”

OK, that’s more like it – or is it just me imposing my Western mind-set, desperately wanting to feel good about the billions heading to a continent I fell hopelessly in love with? Most of the money is to go to prevention and treatment of the three diseases – AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis – that kill millions in Africa every year.

I ask Mathapeli about the stories she’s working on for her own newspaper and what she’s trying to convey to her readers back in Lesotho.

“I explained to them what was happening, especially the demands of the protesters and (how) they wanted the G-8 to help Africa,” she writes.

But many bigger issues are being missed, Mathapeli writes: “We were hoping that much would be said on the Zimbabwe issue, Darfur, Somalia and the instability within governments.”

And she worries that there will be no accountability for the aid dollars.

“That,” she writes, “is the major downfall of donations to Africa.”

She knows. She grew up in the slash-and-burn zone left behind by the three diseases, and she’s marked by hopelessness fed by aid programs that don’t stay around long enough to make real impact.

“I think AIDS escalates much in Africa due to unemployment and poverty,” she writes. “You cannot (get rid of) sores with an ointment; you first must use a vaccine to stop the spread of more sores. (The) issues of poverty, conflicts, power greed and the three diseases are the major concerns in Africa.” And here I sit, on the other side of the planet, and I miss her so much.