From the view of an African, Ebola raises a lot of queries

Perception is a major factor in determining how people interpret our experience of other people, and how they relate with them.

In the recent past, I have found myself intrigued about how Africans perceive the people from the West and how those from the West perceive us.

Having spent several years of my life in Europe, I do know first-hand that they do not look at us the way we understand ourselves.

I also know that many of them get irritated with an African who does not conform to the stereotype — in terms of mannerisms, accent, dress code and the like that they have of Africans.

REINFORCE THEIR PERCEPTIONS

There is also a way in which they look at the African continent in relation to civil strife, “undemocratic behaviour”, disease and so on.

How do we perceive ourselves in these matters? Do we sometimes do things in a way that confirms their perception of us?

What triggered my thinking in this direction is the Ebola crisis we are now witnessing.

Two incidents have been reported in the US and another in Spain but the epicentre is in West Africa.

All of us have been put on the alert. Our airports are a beehive of activity now not just from security checks but also from Ebola checks.

I seem to remember that there was another time, quite a number of years ago, when Ebola had been reported some place in the Congo, but the cases were dealt with.

I may be wrong but it seems to me that the period when the current Ebola outbreak came to the fore coincided with the time several African Presidents — including our own — had been invited to Washington DC.

AN AFRICAN AFFAIR

The attention of the international community is now focused on Ebola in Africa.

Pharmaceutical companies are talking about how they will collaborate to get a vaccine.

The UN has called for contributions to an Ebola fund. No doubt, a lot of this money will go to actors in the crisis, and elaborate government programmes and donor-related activities will be put in place.

In the 1980s, when the first Aids cases were reported, in the West it was a gay/drug thing; in Africa, it was mainly an heterosexual matter.

Did anybody ever explain which came first? At any rate, in the end the major burden of HIV became an African affair while the West led the way in research for a vaccine and a cure.

Conspiracy theories may not help much but a curious mind does tend to ask questions. The most important thing is that a solution be found to help Ebola sufferers and hopefully stop the spread thereof.

Father Wamugunda is Dean of Students, University of Nairobi; [email protected]