Today I attended a lecture by Dr. Nancy Kinney, an associate professor of political science and public policy administration at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, entitled "Aiding the 'Other' Sudan: Complexities of NGO Involvement." Nancy was one of the eight missioners to Lui on the December 2008 trip; she was working on professional research about the effectiveness of nongovernmental organizations in developing countries, specifically in Southern Sudan. She gave an excellent talk.
It's tempting to write a summary of the entire talk, because Nancy raised many issues that we need to keep in mind. But I'm sure she'll publish her research and we can read it in her own words, which will be a much better thing than me trying to summarize. There was one point, though, that I want to put in writing here and now:
In looking at the benefits and drawbacks of long-term relationships between an NGO (or in our case the church) and some portion of the developing world -- and she had laid the groundwork of contrasting our sense of being in relationship with Lui, of being there for the long haul, with other types of relief and development in which the organization does an identified R/D task and gets out -- Nancy articulated what for me is the problem in what we're doing, which until that moment had just been a vaguely troubling back-of-the-mind sense that something was not quite right: She pointed out that focusing on the relationship overlooks the power differential between the two parties. And that is just it. We can insist that the relationship is what matters to us, and I think we do that in complete sincerity, but in the end, we have the money.
We can't make that untrue. We try to negate the power differential by observing -- quite rightly -- that we 'catch faith' from our Moru friends, that in spiritual terms, they bring as much to the table as we do. In fact, missioners to Lui often observe that they are receiving much more than they give. (Nancy used the term 'reverse mission' for that effect.) In a perfect world, that would do it, and the money wouldn't matter. But since we live in this world, I have to ask if the spiritual equality in the relationship really offsets the power differential inherent in the financial disparity. How can we (Americans and Sudanese alike) let go of our awareness of secular, this-worldly power and truly live into our equality as God's beloved?
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Thank you for this, Debbie. I was sorry I couldn't make it to the lecture, but I think you raise an important and soul-searching question. It's a question we must address very directly and very soon. I hope you bring it to the table tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteDebbie,
ReplyDeleteI think that is what we were struggling with in our last days in Lui. When people were "cutting one out of the herd," to ask for one thing or another, they were aware of the differential. Like you say, we can't make that untrue, and so it seems like something we have to prepare future missioners for. We found it annoying, but without awareness, I think the differential could be really corrosive. If our Lui friends think they have little or nothing to contribute to the relationship, they end up feeling disenfranchised. I suppose that's why they get good at "working the system." Might as well, if you con't contribute. Somehow, we have to convey to them the real change they effect in us.
Dan