From China with Love

Remember growing up and buying that toy that was made in China or an electronics device with the same origin, then being dissapointed later to find that it did't seem to last as long as your Fisher Price or Sony purchase? I've read that these days China is working hard to develop a more reputable national label for its manufactured goods destined for the West. Meanwhile, that kind of low quality manufacturing is still happening in Africa.

Every once in a while evidences of this shows up in the international news, but living here you see it all the time, and can't often help but feeling that too many pieces of life are uncontrollably at the mercy of cheap imports. I've had two rather disturbing recent experiences that have driven this point home for me.

There's variety of new bus lines that have popped up in Benin in the last year, riding on the advantages of having a large potential client base of people desparately looking for safe, reliable, and efficient alternative modes of overland transport, and secondly the availability of inexpensive Chinese imported buses. Rolled off the dock, the buses are shiny, clean, and airconditioned--all welcome changes to the normal transportation alternatives.

But structurally and mechanically the buses have not proven so appealing. Exhibit 1: Mid march, I'm traveling North and the engine catches fire. Fortunately, all the passengers got out of the cabin before the entire vehicle caught flame, which was in a matter of minutes. (There's a photo of that wreckage in my last blog post). Exhibit 2: Last week I'm making the same trip w/ the same company and in the same bus model and the windshield "suddenly" (without any obviously siginificant cause) shatters into large and small shards, which shower over the first three passenger rows. This was obviously not a shatter resistant window pane. This time there were injuries: three bleeding badly, including the driver himself. Fortunately he didn't panic, and wasn't hit in the face, otherwise the end could have been alot worse for all. (Minutes later, by the way, the back window pane also blew out).

The problem does't just reside in the public transport sector. Late last year you may recall the scandal of one of China's largest dried milk manufacturers essentially lacing their recipe with a main ingredient to pesticides in order to bump up their milk's printed protein count. I remember hearing the story on the news here, that quite a few number of African kids died and thousands more were sick as a result. Earlier there was the antifreeze toothpaste that thousands (or millions?) were using without knowing it. I'm always hearing complaints from neighbors and coworkers about the repairs they're always making on their motorcycles, almost all of them Chinese makes, all purchased w/in the last year ago.

Who's Fault?

I'm not one of those people that labels China a rising evil industrial power, nor do I fear globalization, nor do I get upset necessarilly when I read about China's increasing commercial and financial presence in Africa. I say commerce and competition is always good when the market is honest and fair. In fact, China has improved the quality of life for many poor Africans buy making available cheap goods that do work, and at an aid level by financing many public infrastructure projects across the continent. But I'm all for trying to fix economic inefficiencies when they're there--especially when they have the potential to hurt people-- and there's some to be fixed when it comes to commerce from China to Africa.

The biggest is imperfect information: the African mother doesn't know enough about the milk she's buying to know whether its good for her family. Often the labeling isn't even clear enough for her to know what country it comes from let alone what's in it. Another related problem is that when malfunctions happen there's not really any single and central and accesible mode to complain, nor know about other complaints. I felt the pangs of this problem after my second bus incident--there was somthing significantly and seriously wrong with these bus models, and I wanted "to do something about it," but I felt that I had no satisfactory recourse to voice my complaint.

Of course I complained to the company management my string of "bad luck" with his cars, but will that stop them from buying more? I doubt it, just recently I'm pretty sure I saw at least one new purchase. And new companies are buying from the same place. And so this is another problem...though a product may be risque, African firms continue to buy them because they're cheap, and often neither the government nor the clients will mount enough pressure for change.

So then we can put some on the African governments, who don't regulate their importants nearly as much as they should. When the powdered milk crisis came out last year, a slew of African states banned Chinese imported milk. This reaction was good until the products were proven good once again, but there needs to be more preventative and controlling activities going on too.

How much fault should be accorded to the Chinese producers? Probably lots, but depends on the severity of the deception. With regards to the milk, it was completely the fault of the group of individuals who decided to lace their product with chemical melamine, and furthermore deceive their consumers about it. Perhaps rolling out cheaper buses is a lesser crime, but in my opinion it's still a crime to put on the market buses knowing they have weak windows and malfunctioning engine pieces, and furthermore that they will be put under even further strains in the tropics of Africa.

I should make a couple points to catch some false assumptions that might otherwise be made. One, it's not just Africans that are sufferring from cheap goods--China dumps them on their own people, as well. Chinese infants also died from the poisoned milk incident. (What's more, I've heard reports of entire Chinese communities with whose population suffer physically from the harmful chemical spillovers from careless and accountable-less nearby industrial factories.) And it's not just China dumping it's cheap goods on Africa. There are alot of scary low quality Chinese-made meds sold on the streets of Benin, but alot of them also come from India. And Africa also dumps alot of bad products on itself. And alot of the equipement imported can become dangerous when it's over used and poorly maintained.

I guess what is so unique and potenially frightening about the Chinese cases is the fact that China is probably the biggest supplier of "cheap imported goods" to Africa--and commerce is only going to increase. The other element is that certain of China's manufacturers seem to have the power and intention to put pretty shines on prodcuts that prove inferior once they've been road tested.

Some Recent Images

Here are some various photos to illustrate and recap my last couple months of blogging silence.

My dad visited Benin in February, and actually managed pretty well for three weeks. We spent our time touring some southern and northern sites like Ouidah’s slave coast, Grand Popo’s tourist coast, and the Pendari Nature Park. We also did 10 whole days in Nikki, which was probably the most insightful leg of trip as far as getting the true picture of life in Bénin.

Ever wonder where all those presidential aid to Africa dollars go? At the end of February I and my work partners realized a small project educating local secondary school students on HIV/AIDS, and facilitating testing for those wanting to know their status. This photo is the result of group brainstorming during an event held before, in which united the project partners came together for training and to talk strategy. The project encountered several hiccups along the way, but in the end a couple hundred students were educated and tested.

In March I hosted 16 other volunteers for Nikki’s annual Ganni festival. This two-day event celebrates the Barriba kingdom (whose historical seat is Nikki), and features a lot of formal salutations, pomp and ceremony, decorated horses and riders, and some other sideline events. Crowds, horrible traffic, power outages, and hot afternoons usually figure in too. All in all your staple Beninese cultural festival. Always a good time.

On one fateful return voyage from Cotonou in March, I was sitting in the back of said bus when the back began smoking. I won’t narrate the not so fun subsequent 3 minutes, but fortunately the end of the matter was that everyone made it out all right before the bus completely went up in flames. You would think that after a month the bus line would have taken the incinerated wreckage off the road, but apparently this kind of publicity damage control doesn’t figure into their marketing concerns. For myself, the charcoal monument remains as a reminder to always sit at the front of the bus. Otherwise a roadside exhibit testifying to the chronic poor quality of Chinese imports (the bus was practically new).

My Nikki Shea Project was funded back in January, and we’re now in the middle of realizing the project activities—the grand vision always being to organize and offer trainings to 15 Nikki village producer groups which will render Nikki’s shea sector more commercially competitive and profitable. Already we’ve held several general assemblies, have drafted the Association’s founding documents, and have successfully finished a training event on production/quality control, and also one of the fabrication of a simple Shea-based soap. Also in March I accompanied Nikki’s shea association president, and the president for another in Parakou, to an international shea conference held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, which was very informative for us all. If you find yourself in the strange minority of people interested in this shea work, I’ve put up a simple blog that better tracks the project’s activities.

A Sad Loss in Bénin

If you are reading this you have likely heard the news of the tragic death of Benin Peace Corps Volunteer Kate Puzey on Wed March 11th.

Kate was an English teacher who had been living and working in the NW town of Badjoude since 2007. She was a very sweet girl, and a passionate and hardworking volunteer. Her passing has affected many.

This week I have been in Cotonou with most other PC staff and volunteers to attend a private memorial held for Kate. It was very lovely. This week the Benin PC Director is bringing Kate's body back to her family in Cumming GA, and a stateside funeral is to be held this Saturday.

Here is a link to Kate's Peace Corps Blog.

Her Uploaded Photos Site.

The AP wire on Kate's Death. And other news sources: the news source and Atlanta Journal.

When such a seemingly meaningless tragedy happens, attempts at explaining its significance or reason, at any level, becomes an impossible and even arrogant task. At least for now, in the immediate wake of such a death, what can those who mourn do, other than praise the Creator for his moving in beautiful people and actions, and then cling harder and tighter to the only hope offered to this broken world:

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Amen.

A Primer on West African Music

Unlike the U.S.’s melting-pot culture and our music scene’s incessant search for new sounds and styles, West Africans seem comfortable reserving only a handful of music categories to which they typically listen. (A Virgin Mega store would probably be a very intimidating place for your average Beninese.) On a recent bus ride I decided to try creating a taxonomy of all the sounds I’ve heard. This wasn’t too arduous a mental activity, but I am also no sophisticated connoisseur or technician of music. In any case I came up with 5 main categories of music that is commonly “locally” produced in West Africa:

- Traditional music. Yeah, Duh. West Africa’s traditional music can vary quite a bit depending on what region you’re in—each has its own personality, language, and canon of instruments. In my opinion there are certain regions that put out more beautiful and skillful music than others, but I won’t say which.

- Rumba sort of type stuff. Not a very technical term, but there you have it. I think this originates from the Congo, at least all the major artists seem to be there. Some of it sounds quite Latino.

- Cote d’Ivoirien Beat Music. This thrives all along coastal West Africa and is characteristically identified by a very overt electric drum-beat driving each song. Often there’s some trumpet involved. A lot of West African musicians seem to come from this stock— and it takes a lot for such an artist to sound original.è

- I want to add a sub-category to this one. I say sub-category because to me its just a more mellow version to the just-mentioned. But it probably (and as I am told) actually warrants its own category. It’s called, Zouk: a style actually originating from the Caribbean, and featuring slower beats.

- Reggae. Cote d’Ivoire is again the bastion of this school, but there is more variety and often more depth within. This music’s lyrics thrive get a lot of their inspiration from social issues.

- Hip-hop. Not sure if West-African hip hop has its roots in any particular place in the region, but many successful artists of this genre seem to come Senegal, perhaps because it is most one of the region’s countries most connected to Western culture whence rap comes. In any case, hip-hip is being attempted enough all over the subcontinent to warrant being its own category.

Here are some of my favorite albums. Some of them are produced in Africa so I’m not sure how widely availably they are, but I’ve tried to include links where possible:

- Habib Kioté: Malien singer. Exemplifies the best of acoustic traditional music. Hear samples here.

- Tiken Jah Fakoly – Noveau Albume. Probably my favorite reggae artist. Amazing lyrics and original sounds. He’s from Cote d’Ivoire but lives in France. A music video from this record.

- Magic System. I’m usually not a fan of the common-stock Cote d’Ivoirien stuff, but these guys are pretty good-O, good-O, good-O. Their website.

- Petite Miguelito. I had to throw at least one Beninese artist into the mix. I’ve seen Petite, and he really is small. But his songs are fun. Hard to find him one the internet but heres a picture at least to prove he's a little guy. Scroll up.

- Rokia Traoré. Beautiful, haunting voice. A rare example of the softer, more melancholic music that’s rather rare. Her website.

Challenges Facing Beninese Small Businesses

I've been reading a book called Je Gere Mon Entreprise written by a Cote d'Ivoirien named Kanga Ballou. It's interesting because its a practical guide written for African Small Businessman. As such, it explains alot of western-originated management tools as they could--and might not work--in sub Saharan African contexts.

The book does quite a bit of diagnosing of the issues facing small business owners and managers. I've seen most of these problems operating also in Benin, where it can be very, very hard to establish and develop a profitable business, at any level. Despite the variety of causes, when I try to spur the folks I work with here to analyse their business-related problems and then to brainstorm possible solutions, they have a hard time moving beyond "le moyen," or the financial means, as the preeminent problem facing them. If only there were enough of ______ (equipement, money in the cash box, etc), all problems would be resolve.

Ballou is a bit refreshing because it's an African voice giving a more honest assesment of the situation. He finds that the problem of poor management is one of (if not the) key impediment to African businesses. That is, even when businesspeople here have enough capital resources of any given type: money, materials, etc., they often still end up with unssuccesful businesses for lack of proper managament of these resources. For example, stocks are poorly monitored, little market anaylyse is done, often the most basic accounting books are kept, let alone the financial position of the entreprise periodically analyzed and planned for.

The reason for poor management is both a within and without problem. There is certainly often a problem of initiative and will: alot of people that I have given training and guidance to here simply don't put the tools into practice. On the other hand, this is hard. Let's face it, businesses in the world run on western models and values, and most business people are not adequately trained in even the most basic management tools. Many have not furthermore haven't evolved in a culutral milieau that endorses certain Western notions of efficiency, linear time, market operations, etc. This is espcially an issue for in the case of Benin, which before 1990 was a so-called Communism-style controled economy--little opportunity here to develop intuitions about supply and demand, market analyse, workers incentive, etc.

Of course, there are other problems ailing Beninese businessman. Some of the other significant one's I've seen here in Nikki include very poor infrastructure (chronic power outages and one of the worst roads in Benin connecting a major town to the main highway); lack of access to markets (Benin has valuable commodities, but unfortunately doesnt see much profit on them for for lack of market info and a surplus of middlemen); difficult physical environment (sickness, heat, shortage of water); and dishonest business practices (in Nikki, its very difficult to be both honest and profitable as vender of many imported items--gas and processed foods, for example--because of the price-deflating affects that smuggling has on the local market.

Niamey

After Thanksgiving I took a short excursion to Niamey, the capital of Niger. Niamey doesn't sport so many tourist attractions as it does carry a very interesting ambiance which probably is the product of a collussion of variables: its proximity to the desert, being in the position to showcase some of the most interesting cultures of West Africa (Hausa and Taureg, among others), its status as the capital of one of the most Muslim countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and--sadly--one of the poorest nations in the world.

Among other adventures, during my 4 days in Niger I had dinner on the Niger river; saw wild giraffes; went Taureg leather and silver-goods shopping; and was crammed into a truck bed with 28 other human beings and several chickens.

In theory no proper Niger excurion is complete without going further North into Agadez (which is to Niger what Timbucto was to Mali and its historical desert trade routes), and making a camel trip into the desert. Unfortunately, an ongoing Tuarag rebel movement has pretty much Agadez and northward too dangerous for passage.

Unfortunately my currently slow internet connection is prohibiting me from showcasing photos here; but they are alreay up on my Picassa account if you're interested, along with other photos from the last 4 months. However, I did have to take whatever time was necessary to upload this photo:

A Humble Attempt at Putting Hand to Hoe

Nikki is very much an agricultural community, its economy, culture, family structures, and many of other areas of life deeply rooted in realities of working the land. Towards the beginning of this agricultural season (which runs from about May to October), I was presented with the opportunity to use a ¼ hectare (250 sq. meters) of land to cultivate as I pleased. I didn’t know the least thing about farming, but nevertheless snatched up the opportunity to do some experimental farming, in partnership w/ a friend in Nikki.

I and my friend decided to sow our quarter hectare with soy and peanuts, which in these parts are staple crops. At the same time one might say that here these belong to the minor league of local agricultural products: compared to other crops (like the fertilizer-intensive corn and cotton or time-consuming yams and rice), peanuts and soy demand relatively little capital and time.

The cultivation process took on four basic stages: 1) The weeding and preparation of the soil in 50-meter long rows; 2) the planting of the seeds, 3) Two different weedings, and 4) the harvest, in which the plants were simply pulled out of the ground.

Beyond the cultivation this there was the post harvest processing (which I’m still working on) to include getting the plants back from the fields, drying them, separating the beans/nuts from their plant, pulling them out of their husk, and further preparation depending on the crop. I will probably roast my peanuts, and maybe make peanut butter out of some, which involves its own respective processes. The soy will probably have ground into a powder, which can then be used as a protein-rich ingredient to whatever dish strikes your palette.


For all our work, even if we had tried to sell the goods from our ¼ hectare, we wouldn’t have brought in much: at current prices: our soy probably would have earned about $10 (remember the goats enjoyed the first fruits) and our peanuts maybe $50-60.

I should note for the record that there were most certainly some rookie mistakes committed. For example, we sowed a bit too late into the rainy season, which didn’t afford the peanut plants enough time to develop as fully as they could have. We could have made more efficient use of our land, and I probably paid folks a bit too much when we sought an extra hand in the fields. The most frustrating setback was finding one afternoon that some local goats had eaten a very healthy proportion of our soy plants, which had been left out to dry in the sun. I hate these beasts.

Despite these setbacks—and in part b/c of them—my attempt at putting hand to hoe gave me a valuable glimpse into the culture that all other aspects of life in Nikki revolve around. Your average farming family keeps as much of the crop as they will consume in the next year (which sometimes meets or surpasses what was actually grown), and sells the rest, often immediately, but preferably later in the year when prices go up.

I was surprised to find that the seeds, methods, and equipment, here are incredibly simple. For example, most farmers use only locally grown seeds, cannot afford fertilizer or insecticide, and complete every step of the farming process using nothing but a hoe. Integral to this observation was the realization of how incredibly how time-consuming agricultural activity is here—from preparation of the land to processing of the crops.

Yet agricultural production is not necessarily or easily profitable. This is especially so for those many farmers who have little capital at the beginning of the rainy season (for things like improved seeds, fertilizer, or the hiring of cattle to plow the land), and whose take-home at the end of the season are at the mercy of a number of uncontrollable forces: ruthless world commodity prices, the whims of the weather (this year in rained TOO much in Nikki), and the exploitations of middle-men traders and other market inefficiencies.

Photos: 1) Our 1/4 hectare after about a month, peanut plant in the foreground. 2) The field at harvest time, our friend Mathias helping us w/ the harvesting. Hard to see but the taller plants running paralell to the smaller peanuts are soy. 3) Post harvest processing. The goobers themselves sit in the 3 sacs.