Where is Africa?

In my early teenage years, I and a small group of my age-mates were protective of our village.

Although we would have our own squabbles, any outside aggressor was resisted. In fact outsider aggression united us.

We considered ourselves the shield of the Abagetutu, often praising ourselves as descendants of the great "elephant stomach", the embodiment of the spirit of the Abagetutu.

Across River Charachani were the Bagirango. Although the Bagirango were another clan, we were related, since our mothers came from there and our sisters married there.

MEET BY THE RIVER

Our elder brothers used us as couriers for their mail to their girlfriends across the river.

One day, our comrade Kibagendi (Kibs for short) was sent to deliver a message. The messages were usually in code names, so digit 1 could mean “Let's meet by the river in the evening”, while digit 2 could mean “I won't make it tonight”.

Our elder brothers did this to hide the message from us, the couriers. Kibs came back with Code 4 and was sent back again with Code 6.

The brother to Nyanchera, who was the intended recipient, had been watching this exchange. He waylaid Kibs on the way and demanded the paper he had received from his sister.

ACT OF AGGRESSION

Kibs, without hesitation, gave the note to Mathayo, Nyachera's big brother. Mathayo could not decipher the message and angrily demanded to know what '6' meant.

Kibs told him that he did not know what it was his sister had written. "You see I am just a messenger," he said. Mathayo got so angry that he slapped Kibs on the face.

This was an act of aggression against the Abagetutu and we wanted to deal with it. The trouble was, Mathayo was a huge, strong man. This did not deter us. In fact it increased our resolve to deal with the aggressor.

We laid down a strategy to deal with him on a Saturday morning while on his way to Sabbath prayers. We were up very early that morning.

LOUD AND SCARY

By the river, there was a forest. A big oak tree there attracted many different types of birds, including cranes, doves and the hadada ibis, whose local name is ebarara.

In our plan we’d hoped that at least two to four hadada ibis would be there. Unlike the cranes that are gentle, more confident, and can ignore a young person, hadada ibis are fairly stupid birds that panic at the slightest provocation. They make a loud, scary noise as they flap their wings.

As Mathayo crossed the river, we shouted, "Enya’ngau!" (Hyena!) while, simultaneously, Kibs disturbed the birds.

There were at least ten hadada ibis, more than we had anticipated. Their take-off, their rapacious flapping of wings and their cry scared us even more than we expected.

A POSSIBLE DROWNING

Mathayo panicked and tried to run back, but unfortunately the rickety bridge was just a round pole across the river. He tripped and fell into the water.

He was not a particularly good swimmer, and by now we had realized it was not just the scare we wanted, but a more serious matter. Faced with a possible drowning, we ran downstream.

Luckily we found a log, which we threw into the river. We “saved” Mathayo.

As people gathered to find out what the commotion was all about, Mathayo became the chief narrator of the story on how a hyena attacked and “if it were not for the bravery of these three kids, it would have destroyed me”.

“Imagine it is only this week that I had an altercation with Kibs and he saves my life,” Mathayo said, and repeatedly apologized for what he’d done.

A STORY OF AFRICA

To date Mathayo has great respect for all of us. For our part, we had gallantly protected our territory. We were driven by the old cliché that the best defence is offence.

This story is not just about Mathayo. It is a story of Africa, the great continent that is now under aggression from Ebola.

Our defence to this dreaded disease is to run away from it or insulate ourselves. None of these strategies will ever work. Our best defence is to mount a serious attack on the disease.

We cannot continue to watch as Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone fight with the help of foreigners. In my travels last week to the US, most people were sympathetic to me and Africa.

WHITHER THE AU?

I did not start to correct them that Kenya is on the east coast. We are all Africans living in Africa, and it is pointless to isolate the countries that are not suffering.

The African Union, for all intents and purposes, should have convened a special Summit to deal with this crisis that could potentially engulf the entire continent.

Where is the fighting spirit of Africa? Why are we missing the point? What is the role of the AU if we cannot defend our continent?

From what I have read in many Western newspapers, there is no economic activity in these countries. Rumours about the disease abound.

DEVASTATED ECONOMIES

The New York Times in its October 10, 2014 edition carried a heart-wrenching story of a woman who gave birth and due to her post-partum bleeding, was mistaken for an Ebola patient and later died.

Because hospitals could not accept the newborn due to lack of protocols of dealing with “Ebola infants", she too died.

Imagine the amount of business we would lose in the event Wakulima Market shut down and Gikomba were not operational for a month. The impact of Ebola on the economies of these three countries is devastating, and the least we can do is to help where we can.

The World Bank estimates that the Ebola impact on the West African economies will top $32 billion.

KENYANS IN LIBERIA

Surely, Africans must do something. There is no better way of preparing to deal with a crisis like Ebola than going to ground zero and beginning to learn how we can respond.

If you are doubting my appeal, read our own Dr. Wanjiru Waithera’s experience working with the French founded humanitarian organization, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at ground zero in Liberia.

Dr Elizabeth Mugambi and Dr David Oluoch too have been to ground zero, and have tales on the crisis. They are among the only ones in East Africa today who can knowledgeably explain what it takes to deal with the crisis.

MSF International and the American forces are gathering enormous knowledge around Ebola while we watch. If, God forbid, Ebola were to spread to more African countries, we would be seeking expert knowledge from the French and Americans. Tell me who will respect Africans then.

MISSING A LEARNING OPPORTUNITY 

Already MSF is complaining that they have taken the greatest brunt in this crisis, managing 700 of the 1,000 Ebola facilities. They need more volunteers to help beef up their capacity.

This is where African leaders must step in and send at least 100 medics (especially from the armed forces) from each country, and perhaps 100 more for logistics.

We are missing a great learning opportunity. The chairman of the Kenya Medical Association, Dr Eli Nyaim Opot, states in a Standard article that we are not ready to handle a crisis like Ebola. In the same article, some doctors and nurses have stated that they would take off if they were to encounter an Ebola victim.

Yet others don’t think so and perhaps that’s why they would want to volunteer to go to Liberia like Dr Wanjiru, and learn first-hand.

KOFI ANNAN FRUSTRATED

Several other countries are sending teams to crisis zones not just to help but learn about this dreaded disease.

China is sending teams of scientists with experimental medicines to crisis zones. Why is Africa a bystander in a crisis that threatens its people?

Africa’s low-key response (see press statement) to the Ebola crisis is perhaps the reason why former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan took to castigating the international community’s poor response to the crisis.

He saw the leadership vacuum, but focused his frustration on the wrong audience. Africa must begin to take responsibility for her collective leadership.

WRONG FOCUS

​Had there been an AU summit pledging to send doctors from each country  while at the same time appealing to the rest of the world to work together in this crisis, the international community would have responded swiftly.

Most countries have wrongly focused on their own internal capabilities without knowing that handling of the crisis amounts to much more than merely stating your readiness.

What will happen if doctors fighting Ebola walk off the job as they have threatened to do? An attempt by AU to mobilise doctors to the crisis zones saw doctors and nurses abandon their trade and take off.

This actually serves as a pointer to what will happen should we fail to adequately prepare for the crisis.

IF EBOLA TURNED AIRBORNE

Sometime in the early 1990s I read an article in some US journal detailing how Africa is breeding new types of viruses. This has come to pass; indeed Ebola and its variants are fairly new viruses.

Continued neglect of our public health systems could even lead to worse viruses emerging. Ebola could turn into an airborne disease, just like SARS, which would probably decimate the entire African population in less than a year.

The hospitals are in a deplorable state, lacking repair, maintenance and general cleaning. Worse, the staff are demoralised, dejected and lack the will to serve. A visitor to Kiambu Hospital has  chronicled his frustration with a non-functional system.

It should not be this desperate. We have seen better days of our healthcare system. We must decide conclusively whether health should be devolved or not. As a strategy to mitigate future outbreaks, we must begin to discuss hygiene in Africa at AU summit level.

Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." If our medics are struck with the fear of Ebola, our fears would be magnified a million times.

Bitange Ndemo is a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi's School of Business, Lower Kabete campus. He is a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication. Twitter: @bantigito