the rabbi’s well

7/29/2019 The Rabbis Well

1/18

The Rabbis Well: A Case Study in the Micropolitics of Foreign

Aid in Muslim West Africa

William F. S. Miles

African Studies Review, Volume 51, Number 1, April 2008, pp.

41-57 (Article)

Published by African Studies Association

DOI: 10.1353/arw.0.0015

For additional information about this article

Access Provided by Universita' di Genova at 04/06/11 4:54PM GMT

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/arw/summary/v051/51.1.miles.html
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/arw/summary/v051/51.1.miles.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/arw/summary/v051/51.1.miles.html


2/18


3/18

42 African Studies Review

the Aricanist in promoting change. Whether the goal is raising living stan-dards throughout an entire society or eeding a Kalahari clan at Christmas-timeor just increasing knowledge about any one aspect o the Aricanpast or presentthe academics interaction with Arica inevitably changes

something about the continent. The problem is: what is the nature o thischange; how much o it is desired; and can we control it?

A cornerstone principle o conventional social science is that the re-searcher should minimize his or her impact on the population under study.Few undaments o positivism have retained as much consensus among socialscientists. Yet or social scientists conducting eldwork in rural communi-ties o Arica, this principle represents a major challenge. By virtue o theenormous economic disparity between scholar and subject, the goal o appre-hending a community without changing it is as dicult as it is problematic.

A related and relevant distinction that permeates both the scholarlyliterature and the oreign aid community is that between relie aid anddevelopmental assistance. The ormer encompasses monies allocated oremergency help in circumstances o natural or human-induced disaster.Relie aid can be also thought o as a kind o charitable giving. Develop-mental assistance, by contrast, is supposed to lead to change. Whereas deny-ing relie aid in the name o academic nonintervention would be callous, inot unethical, the decision to acilitate developmental aid or a communityunder study is much more discretionary, as is the decision notto acilitate

developmental aid.At the grassroots level, the line between relie aid and developmental

assistance blurs easily. There is not only a question o recipients inability todistinguish, in circumstances o acute resource scarcity, between short-termassistance and long-term aid; the motivations o actual donors may not beall that clear, either. As the current case illustrates, within poor communi-ties the extension o even modest amounts o oreign aid can exacerbate, inot trigger, micropolitical confict. Heightened knowledge o, and sensitiv-ity to, the local dynamics o oreign aid absorption is critical to successul

implementation o development activities. This thesis is illustrated in thecase o an artesian well constructed on the grounds o a middle school in aWest Arican Muslim community and nanced by a theo-politically progres-sive pulpit rabbi in New England.

Snapshot of a (Relatively) Impoverished Community

Yekuwa (Ykoua) is an agglomeration o two Hausa villages in the Magariadistrict o southcentral Niger, approximately seven miles rom the bound-

ary with Nigeria (Katsina State).1 Now exceeding eight thousand in popu-lation (double its size rom 1986), Yekuwa, over the last two decades, hasexperienced progressive development in both the traditional and secularrealms o administration. In terms o traditional chietaincy, in additionto the two village chies, a resident district chie (hakimi), son o the Chie


4/18

The Micropolitics of Foreign Aid in Muslim West Africa 43

o Magaria, has been enthroned. In 2004, as one byproduct o a nationalpolicy o decentralization, the government headquartered in Niamey des-ignated Yekuwa a rural commune; as a result, Yekuwa now has an electedmunicipal council headed by a mayor chosen rom among the municipal

councilors.2Under the aegis o the municipality are three development associa-

tions: or armers, or youth, and or women. There is a kindergarten andthere are three primary schools, two o them government established andthereore secular (cole de quartier;cole mixte) and one Islamic madrasa. Amajor indication o the communitys importance or the district is its beingthe site o a middle school (Collge dEnseignement Scondaire, or CEG).There is also a dispensary that dispenses rudimentary medical treatment.

For a rural community in the Republic o Niger, Yekuwa is in a relatively

avorable location. By virtue o its proximity to the countrys southern bor-der, it benets rom the relatively robust economy o neighboring Nigeria.(Monetary transactions are conducted exclusively in naira, the currency oNigeria, not the CFA that Niger as a whole uses.) The settlement is ar romthe Sahara which occupies most o Niger and sits on the lower edge o theSahel: during the national amine o 20045, people suered rom highood and related costs but no starvation.

Still, Yekuwa is incontrovertibly ensconced within the nation that theUnited Nations consistently ranks as dead last in terms o human develop-

ment (UNDP).3 The local economy is based on rain-ed dependent cerealproduction (millet, sorghum, maize) and livestock production. Outside othe ew government-employed unctionaries (teachers, medical person-nel), there are no salaried workers. There is no electricity or running water:hand-drawn and manual oot-pump wells are the only source o water. Thegamut o local commerce justies only a weekly market. Proximity to Nige-ria is a double-edged sword: in 2006 avian fu spilled over rapidly rom Ni-gerian poultry arms into southern Niger. There are no welare provisionsor the numerous widows, blind, and destitute: begging or charity (sadaka)

is a common practice. In short, conditions in Yekuwa may be marginallybetter than the average or Niger as a whole, where lie expectancy is 44years, adult literacy barely tops 14 percent, and 85 percent o the popula-tion survives on two dollars a day or less (61% survive on US$1.00). Hard-ship denes lie in Yekuwa as it does throughout rural Niger: developmentis a slow and imperceptible process, a theoretical concept barely graspedby the population at large. There is nevertheless one sustaining orce thatdoes impart hope and meaningul existence within grinding conditionsotherwise determined by material privation: Islam.

Preliminiary (T)sadaka

Upon the birth o my rst-born (a daughter) in 1987, I sent word with a requestthat the town crier o Yekuwa spread the news. As is customary, I arranged to


5/18


give a small sum o cash to thank the town crier or his eorts. The same pro-cedure was ollowed two years later ollowing the birth o my son.

During intervening visits, ad hoc, I extended modest amounts o sada-ka to individuals, as culturally appropriate: to widows o recently deceased

riends; to the blind and otherwise disabled; to almajirai(young Koranicdisciples). It was with the impending bat mitzva (the coming-o-age cer-emony or Jewish emales) or my daughter that the rst attempt at widerscale sadaka distribution was instituted, thirteen years ater her birth.

Distribution o sadaka is an integral part o lie-cycle rituals within Ni-grien Hausa society (Nicolas 1975). At naming ceremonies or newborns,at public wedding rites between betrothed amilies, at mourning sessionsollowing unerals, it is customary or sponsors and attendees to make do-nations that are in turn recycled to other attendees in the orm o kola

nuts and to the presiding mallams (Koranic masters) as honoraria. Nottocontribute even a token amount o sadaka in such contexts is culturallyuncouth.

Similarly, giving tsadaka(Hebrew: charity) has become an integral parto the coming-o-age ritual or Jewish adolescents in North America. Neigh-borhood soup kitchens, shelters or the homeless, abandoned animal clin-icssuch are typical recipients o bar/bat mitzva tsadaka projects. Givenmy longstanding relationship with Yekuwa, and the villagers ot expressedinterest in the growth o my amily, we conducted a traditional Hausa dis-

tribution o(t)sadakain each o the villages in honor o Arielles coming oage.4 Instructions went out that the (t)sadaka should go to the needy, asdened by categories utilized in the carrying out o village censuses con-ducted in the course o research.

In each o the villages an interlocutor-correspondent prepared a listwith the names o the (t)sadaka recipients. In Yekuwa, one hundred andour people each received ty naira; in the neighboring village over theborder in Nigeria, one hundred and nineteen individuals received thesame: based on updated censuses that I conducted in 2000, this represent-

ed approximately 1 percent o the population o each community. One othe lists detailed the ollowing categories o recipients: blind (or partiallysighted); mentally disturbed; extremely poor; crippled (polio, crawling);dea; widowed; leprous; other.

No doubt encouraged by this expression o religiously inspired bene-cence, the Sarkin Makaho (King o the Blind) o Yekuwas sister village inNigeria approached me during a subsequent visit. Should you be able andAllah so move you, he suggested, please think about building a villageGuest House or the Blind.

Thus germinated the idea or the (t)sadaka project tied to my sons barmitzva in 2002thirteen years ater Samuel was born and two years aterhe had accompanied me on a visit to the village.5 A subsequent visit to thevillages generated (1) a realization that the Guest House or the Blind wasrestricted to blind men; and (2) a request rom the principal o the middle


6/18


school o Yekuwa to nance construction o latrines or both male and e-male pupils. Gender bias with respect to the shelter or the blind was ad-dressed subsequently by construction o a separate Guest House or BlindWomen, nanced by my mother, aunt, and daughter. Provision o sanitary

acilities in Yekuwa became the entry point or rabbinic involvement in thisNigrien community.

The CharityDevelopment Nexus

Temple Emanu-El was ounded in 1924 to serve that portion o the Jew-ish community o Providence, Rhode Island, adhering to the Conservativemovement o Judaism. While conservative may have been an accuratecharacterization o the denomination vis--vis the less ritualistic and hala-chic(Talmud-adhering) Reorm movement, it is a misnomer with respectto contemporary notions o politics and social justice. Although Conser-vative congregations dier considerably (based on membership and therabbis theo-politics) in their attitudes toward and involvement in policyissues that transcend the Jewish community, by and large they have come toembrace an expansive application o the principle tikkun olam(repairingor mending the world; the Hausa equivalent is gyaran duniya).

It was in this spirit o tikkun olam, undergirded by tsadaka, that I per-suaded the rabbi o Temple Emanu-El, in the course o an inormal and

inormational discussion, to nance the construction o latrines in Yekuwa.Given the potential or political mischie or suspicion that could arise athigher levels o Nigrien ocialdom rom ormal Jewish charitable in-tervention in this Muslim societyand with such activity occurring at theheight o the second Intiadah in Israel/PalestineI asked that the rabbisidentity not be divulged in ocial correspondence. Invoking the Talmudicmaxim that anonymous charity is higher than attributed tsadaka, the rabbireadily agreed.

Conceptually, it is unclear whether rabbinic sponsoring o latrines or

Muslim children in a West Arican school should be characterized in terms odevelopment (a secular notion) or charity (a notion with religious inspira-tion). Secular developmentalists could easily justiy school latrines in terms ogeneral hygiene and especially emale empowerment (see LaFraniere 2005).The rabbi himsel employed more Buberian language to describe his motives:human dignity, respect, privacy. In the context o MuslimJewish tensions re-volving around the PalestinianIsraeli confict, some might see the gesturethrough the lens o instrumental theo-politics (see Miles 1996). Social scien-tists, o course, could easily take issue with the hermeneutic, methodological,

and indeed ethical propriety o integrating my religious background into theeldwork locale. That line had already been crossed a year beore, however,with the original distribution o (t)sadaka unds to mark the bat mitzva.

A letter dated March 26, 2003, rom the principal rearmed the needor latrines or the middle school pupils and requested expedited send-


7/18


ing o the promised sum so that the work be entirely completed beorethe rainy season. A subsequent letter conrmed the receipt on May 15,2003, o the money transerred via Western Union and collected at the BIABank in Zinder. That same letter went on to explain a change in program

plans: At the meeting o the School Board, the governing body o second-ary schools in Niger, it was armed that priority here still goes to drink-ing water. The decision was thereore taken to dig a well. Permittingcommunity-dened needs to determine the actual use o externally undeddevelopmental assistance is a time-honored proposition. However, the im-plications o this unilateral change in project goal were more problematic:The decision was thereore taken to dig a well, even though the amounto money available will not be sucient. In order to do so, it is necessary tolaunch another nancial oensive to complete the project. Dated Novem-

ber 7, 2003, the letter went on to conrm that construction o a traditionalwell in place o a pupil-latrine was proceeding.

Despite the ait accompli, the rabbi not only agreed to the modicationo the original project goal, but also decided to underwrite the additionalunds necessary to complete the well. When I returned to Yekuwa in De-cember 2003, work on the well had been held up on account o traditionalwrestling and boxing matches that had drawn away most o the able-bodiedwell-workers. With a ew apprentices the master well-digger had proceededon his own, but water had not yet been reached by the time I departed the

village. There was also now a planned second phrase o the well project.With the redoubled rabbinic contribution, the principal now envisionedimprovements beyond the well project and the provision o regular drink-ing water or the students. These included a range o school gardeningactivities and a protective wall around the well to prevent contaminationrom animals attracted to the water source.

In ace-to-ace conversations with the principal and other village schooladministrators, I revealed the identity o the hitherto anonymous donor.Pictures o the rabbi, in liturgical dress and taken in the synagogue, were

widely shown and let as mementos. Subsequent correspondence reerredto the salvic actions o my spiritual leader, the honorable Rabbi. To allwho saw the photos, great interest was taken in the displayed Torah scrolls,skullcaps, and prayer shawls.

Emphasizing the role o the rabbi in the well project had strategic val-ue: I retained my role as scholar-riend o the community, and at best inter-mediary o (t)sadaka development, but deliberately eschewed adopting thepersona o donor per se. Maintaining the long-term scholarly relationshipwithout giving back to the community had become, over time, ethically

problematic; but it also would have been problematic or me to assumethe image or title (as a Nigerian immigration agent would later put it) ophilanthropist.6 It had taken many years, and some strategic personal in-vestments, to earn the status o son o Yekuwa; becoming beneactor oYekuwa would ineluctably distort and problematize this position.


8/18


Micropolitics and External Aid

Hal a year later, not yet having received conrmation that water had beenstruck (much less news o the second phase o the project), I wrote to the

principal. The response, dated August 1, 2004, carried a single word in thesubject line: Regrets. Although the letter conrmed that water had beenstruck, and indeed that there had been a ceremonial inauguration, the let-ter continued:

I have the proound consternation to inorm you that I was transerredright in the middle o the school year. It is [M.M.G.], the surveillant(assis-tant principal; school disciplinarian), who is at the bottom o this transer.He is, in eect, someone who never accepts obeying his hierarchical supe-

riors. He was very jealous to see me coordinate the activities o our projectbecause or him, I am a stranger to Yekuwa. His philosophy has alwaysbeen than every non-native civil servant serving in Yekuwa is called tranger[stranger/oreigner] and should be his valet.

The principals status as local tranger to Yekuwa is notable, espe-cially in light o the work by Shack and Skinner (1979) on this subject.The stranger in West Arican parlance has generally been someone romanother colony, another country, or another region. But this principal hails

rom ewer than teen miles rom Yekuwa. Unlike the archetypical Yekuwavillager (Hausa), he is an ethnic Fulani; but this is not typically a source oethnic rivalry. Tension between Hausa and Zarma has been noted morecommonly or Niger, but even this is not as great as the tension betweenthe sedentary negroid peoples (principally the Zarma) and the lighter-skinned nomads (the Tuareg and Tubu) (Charlick 1991:9). In the caseo Yekuwa, we were witnessing what I would characterize as localisticallybased indigenism. A January 2004 letter addressed to the preect o Zinder(the region in which Yekuwa is located), signed by nineteen non-native

civil servants o Yekuwa, made the case most directly: We civil servantsserving in Yekuwaso-called Strangers/Foreignersnotwithstanding ourbeing Nigrien and parents o Nigriensregret to inorm you o the exis-tence in this locality o a pocket o xenophobia [that makes] working condi-tions insuerable. The letter went on to state that over a our-year periodo time, these non-native civil servants had been victim o concoctedwritten denunciations as well as calumny circulated at such communal oraas public meetings, weddings, and naming ceremonies. Their tormentersstrategy was expressed with an analogy: When one wants to kill a dog, it

is. . . accused o carrying rabies. The letter concluded with an appeal to thepreect in the name o all those solicitous o the socioeconomic develop-ment o the country.

Three months later, the ormer principal ollowed up with a requestthat the rabbi send 170,000 CFA right away to nance the construction


9/18


o boy and girl latrines at the middle school to which he had been trans-erred.

Undergraduate Development Enthusiasmand Reality Check

Undeterred by the unhappy political turn o events, the rabbi remainedwilling to aid in (t)sadaka in Muslim West Arica. At this juncture, however,I decided to bring the request rom the principal to the attention o the un-dergraduates in a course I was teaching or the rst time entitled Politics oDeveloping Nations (PDN). Appalled to learn that schoolchildren in ruralArica had no toilets, they readily collected several hundred dollars romamong themselves or building the latrines. First, however, I initiated a ull-blown and open discussion about the propriety o integrating such a nan-

cial component into the academic enterprise o an undergraduate course.With but one or two dissenters, the class enthusiastically endorsed takingon the latrine project. So as to keep it within the parameters o a struc-tured class learning experience, I discouraged proposals or undertakingundraising within the wider student community. And so as to preserve mystatus as intermediary rather than outright donor, I delegated to a studentthe task o corresponding with the principal. It was the student, then, whorst received the news that the principal had again been transerred (thistime to a desk job in district headquarters) because in Niger, when you are

suspected o belonging to a political party that is not in power, you are re-moved rom your position o responsibility because you are considered anopponent (detractor o government policy). It was the same student whoalso processed the news that his classs money had not, ater all, been usedto pay or latrines at a middle school but rather or bench-tables or thenewly created primary school in the ex-principals home village.

For some students, the unilateral transer o their aid rom latrines tourniture was a betrayal o sorts; others argued persuasively that the newcause was equally valid, and that as sympathetic donors they should not be

so controlling. The ormer principals added request or a partnershiportwinningbetween the undergraduates university and the primary school(to provide urnishings or three classrooms, notebooks, teaching aids and,once again, latrines) might thereore have had a positive resonance. How-ever, the letter also begged the undergraduates to provide him with a cellphone. He was about to retire, he wrote the class correspondent, and hadew resources on account o delays in government salary payments. More-over, personal cell phones were de rigueur in his new milieu, and the con-trolling company was on the verge o raising user ees. I thank you in ad-

vance, he wrote, my dear sons who will not hesitate to come to the rescueo their poor ather. I count on your promptness and speedy reply.

This latest twist did generate some classroom discussion regarding thedevelopmental utility o cell phones in rural locales where land lines arenonexistent. In the end, however, enthusiasm or continuing to rely on the


10/18


ormer principal as a conduit o development aid evaporated or all par-ties concernedincluding the rabbi. Despite the culminating disappoint-mentor perhaps on account o itthe exchange with the ex-principal oa middle school rom the least developed country on earth was a proound

learning experience or undergraduates rom the most powerul nation inthe world. It concretized the study o development as well as the dicultyo achieving it. More than any lecture could, it instilled the reality o NorthSouth dependency.

Politics of the Rabbis Well

In anticipation o my return to West Arica in March 2006, I took an emptybottle o drinking water rom the repast ollowing sabbath services in Provi-

dence. I vowed that I would ll it in Yekuwa so that the rabbi could drinkrom his well in Niger.

Shortly ater arriving, I searched with diculty or the rabbis well: vil-lage housing had expanded almost to the perimeter o the middle school,and spatial perspective was very dierent rom what I had been amiliarwith just two years beore. The well, when I nally discovred it, was a pro-ound disappointment; in local parlance, it had died. No longer givingany water, it had been stued with bramble to prevent the unwary romaccidentally alling into the abandoned pit. I thereupon requested an au-

dience with the hakimi, to be attended by the two village chies and theprincipal o the CEG. Two sets o reasons were proered at that meeting(and at a subsequent one, with the mayor) or the wells dilapidation: oneindigenous and one technical.

The indigenous explanation was that the eyes o the well had be-come blind or lack o care. A well must be constantly primed; otherwiseit will dry up. Students at the school where the well had been dug werenot drinking rom it enoughthey were studying instead. And the masterwell-diggerthe person who had been paid to dig it in the rst place

considered his job over once water had been reached. No one was in chargeo maintenance. The technical explanation was that rom the outset thewell was not geologically, topographically, or hydrologically sound. It hadbeen constructed in artisinal ashion, not scientically: neither the loca-tion chosen nor the technology employed was suitable. Modern wells aremade dierently, with much more sophisticated equipment. That is why itstopped giving water ater only a little time.

As I dug deeper, however, I sensed that the overarching reasons or thewells abandonment were political. According to the new principal, the well

was a private, person-to-person enterprise between his predecessor andme. The ormer principal had not inormed the sta, he claimed, whichincluded himsel. Without saying so explicitly, the new principal made itclear that when he took over the CEG he had no sense o ownership o, orresponsibility or, the well.


11/18


Based on the correspondence that I had received rom the ormer prin-cipal (the tranger), this was patently alse: it had been at an ocial parentteacher meeting that committee members had decided to use the rabbismoney to dig a well rather than latrines. This correspondence also identi-

ed the ringleader who supposedly had plotted, be it out o ethnic rivalryor partisan politics, to have the ormer principal ousted rom his position.It was only ater I returned to the U.S. that, rereading the correspondenceand ocussing on the names, I realized who this plotter was: the mayor!

Nevertheless, as yet oblivious to these machinations, I leveraged therabbis well in separate discussions with the current principal and the may-or. To the principal, with the hakimi and two chies witnessing, I asked rhe-torically, What am I going to tell my imam? I then handed over the emptywater bottle rom the rabbis mosque, expressing the wish that, with the

principals leadership, one day it would be lled with water rom the welland the rabbi would drink rom it. I ollowed up this symbolism o thewater bottle with a letter to the principal documenting the chronology othe rabbis donations and ocial school meetings about the uses to whichthey were supposed to be put. The letter (in French) concluded: I cannotadequately convey, Monsieur, the importance that this rst eort o directand decentralized aid to the students o the Middle School o Yekuwa en-tails. The uture o all uture assistance rom the donor, students, and othernonprot organizations depends on it. Indeed, it is question not only o the

development o the Middle School, but o all Yekuwa.I similarly leveraged the well in my communications with the mayor,

both in person (when the question o international assistance or Yekuwasdevelopment plan was rst raised), and on paper (by sending him copies othe above reerenced correspondence). Future aid, I made clear, would bejeopardized by poor perormance outcomes. I also communicated the dateo my next visit.

Goats, Bulls, and a Wedding

Despite this ultimatum o conditionality, as part o my coursework on de-velopment I acted as the mediator or a student-run eort to pool person-al contributions and a departmental grant or two new projects in Niger.Undergraduates pitched in to purchase a cart-and-bull; graduate studentsdesigned a goats-or-widows project, modeled ater Heier International.7Thanks to a well-organized womens group in Yekuwa, the selection orecipients and the distribution o goats went relatively smoothly. Politicsamong the menolk, however, complicated the bull-and-cart project in ways

reminiscent o the well.As mentioned above, since 2004 the local system o governance through

traditional chies had been complemented by that o an indirectly elect-ed mayor chosen by the new municipal council. The mayor, inormed omy impending visit and propelled by the national policy o development


12/18


through decentralization, had prepared several documents.8 One was anelaborate our-year development plan or the entire commune o Yekuwa.The plan recognized the ragility o the commune due to a limited nan-cial resources base, insucient surace water and thereore lack o potable

water, depleted soil, ew natural resources, little socioeconomic inrastruc-ture, constrained access by the population to basic social services, etc. Itwas the mayors ervent hope that I would post the plan on the Internet andthereby generate unding rom generous donors in the U.S. and the worldover. He specically mentioned Bill Gates in this context.

The second document declared me a citizen o the Rural Communeo Yekuwa. As he handed me the document, the mayor emphasized thatsuch citizenship conerred obligations as well as privileges.

I did not know at the time that there had been a serious rit between

my main Yekuwa host and close riend, Alhaji M. H., and the mayor. Parto the tension may have stemmed rom the implicit transer o power romthe Yekuwa village chiea close relative o Alhaji M. H.to a mayor whoexpressed the inveterate disdain o Francophone volusin regard to sup-posedly old-ashioned and uneducated traditional authorities. (We mustmake concessions, the mayor told me. At least at the beginning.) Anoth-er inormant revealed that the mayor and the alhaji had clashed in recentlocal elections, backing rival parties.9 Alhaji M. H., moreover, had accusedthe mayor o corruption: the diversion to his personal use o thirty bags o

cement earmarked or communal purposes. I knew none o this when I wasseeking a reliable group to take possession o my student-nanced bull-and-cart, and the mayor steered me to the Groupement de Jeunesse, or YouthGroup.

Alhaji M. H. was adamant: under no circumstances should the cart-and-bull go to what he characterized as the government group. Rather, it hadto be oered to the Samariyya, the youth group o the talakawa(common-ers). Otherwise, he said, I would be siding with the elites against the people;this he could not abide.

Associated with the ancien rgime, the Samariyya hearkened back tothe Development Society o President Kountch (Robinson 1991). Despiteits longevity and local legitimacy, it was no longer a recognized group, atleast not by the new municipal authorities. Were I to ollow my old riendsadvice and grant Samariyya the cart-and-bull, I would not only be alienatingthe mayor, that newly critical lynchpin in the village polity, but also jeopar-dizing the decades-long riendship that existed between me and the villagechie. For the chie understood well the necessity o working with the newauthority, and he could not risk compromising his position by sanctioning

the project with an unocial, unrecognized group. He, too, was caughtin the middle, squeezed between the passion o his younger relative orthe people and his need to tow the line with the new government execu-tive. But he did not have to eed an undelivered bull. Nor did he rerainrom expressing a somewhat patronizing view o the bull donors: Those


13/18


students o yours dont have much money to give. I they had moreandespecially i they were more knowledgeablethey would not have tried tohelp out by buying and oering a bull in such a way. I itsyourbaggage, hecommented proverbially, it wont go neglected (i..e, property that has no

identiable owner is likely not to be taken care o).A way out o this dilemma was oered through the wisdom o another

old riend, Souleymane, a mallam (Islamic teacher/priest) who had trav-eled rom Magaria to visit me. It is not a big problem, Mallam Souleymanearmed; I did not really have to choose between the two sides: There is de-mocracy everywhere in the world now, is there not? In America, too, thereis democracy. Let the students themselves decide. Mallam Souleymane ur-ther suggested that until a nal decision was made we could leave the bull-and-cart in the hands o my ormer horse handler, Gito. There was no ur-

gency to my undergraduates decision. Indeed, it was not even pertinent topoint out that, since the semester had ended, the class had disbanded andthese students would never actually reassemble as a whole. Mallam Souley-manes temporary solution was expediently, i not ingeniously, indenite.Both the mayor and alhaji agreed, independently, that it was indeed properto leave the choice o bull recipient to the students.

In the meantime, we designed a more inormal system o communalbull-and-cart access. Since transport was a major constraint on individualarmers and householders, the bull-and-cart would be used, or example,

to lug ertilizer to the elds, to bring home crops ater harvest, and to haulbricks or home construction. The town crier was commissioned to circulatethrough the village announcing that, thanks to the researchers students, abull-and-cart was now available or anyones use. Whether a villager couldpay the costs o the days hire (evaluated at between 40 and 50 cents, de-pending on distance) was irrelevant: even those without money could bor-row the bull-and-cart. The village chie asserted that it was publicly knownwho would be able to pay and who could not. Monies collected would beused or the eeding o the bull, and the village secretary (Maaji) would

keep records. To provide an initial cushion, I opened a community chestor bull eed o approximately twenty-ve dollars.

One morning, members o a wedding party rom both the brides andgrooms side o the amily appeared unannounced at my lodgings in Yeku-wa. The main purpose was to ocialize the marriage o the two amilies. A-ter Mallam Souleymane, the visiting riend, asked that the parents counseltheir children to be patient with their spouse (to the husband: Be kind;to the bride, Do not run away), Alhaji M. H. seamlessly integrated intothe wedding ormalities the problems o the rabbis well and the promise

o the students livestock gits: Similarly, may the assistance wrought by thestudentsthe goats, the bull, and the cartproceed properly, without anyproblem that might bring us shame or embarrassment. Unlike the well atthe middle school. The oreign imam wanted to help, and built the well.Already, ater less than a year, she is ruined. The oreign imam was sup-


14/18


posed to drink rom the well; [our riend] brought a bottle so that his imamcould do so. But it could not be. So he put the bottle in the hands o theprincipal, as a sign o what he needs to do. May nothing like that come othe assistance rom [our riends] disciples.

Lessons Learned

The long-term impact o the rabbis well and related goats-or-widow andbull-and-cart projects are unknown. Still, they have already claried cer-tain lessons that other Aricanists contemplating direct grassroots aid mightcontemplate. These lessons are not proered to discourage engagement,but rather to render any such engagement all the more realistic.

Importance of Local Responsibility

I the intention is to benet a resource-deprived community, the experi-ment demonstrated that it is easier to buy a bull, or a herd o goats, thanto give it away. Similarly, it is easier to get a well dug than to have it main-tained. A close riend o the eldworker in Yekuwa put it this way: Ka badaa jamaa, babu mai-kula: I you hand it over to the people, then there is nooneto care or it.

It is in this context that the rabbis well is so important, at least as much

or the water it may provide thirsty pupils as or its testing o local respon-sibility. Requests/expectations/ demands or assistance can be limitless. Assymbol o the external help that has been provided, but one requiring localmaintenance, the well takes on great import in the larger scheme o directpeople-to-people aid. A well is not just a well; the benet o having it ac-crues only by virtue o the local participation in maintaining it.

Politics, Butchery, and Doing Good

Electoral democracy has oten been likened to meat processing: one mayrelish the outcome, but the details may repel. The same may be said o do-ing good, especially or well-intentioned Westerners vis--vis impoverishedThird World communities. Giving money to worthy causes is incontestablylaudable; actually spending the money, and dispensing the goods so ac-quired, can be dicult and uncomortable in its implementation. It mayalso be raught with unpleasant side eects and consequences. Creationor reinorcement o a dependency complex is one such danger. Inevitabledashing o raised expectations may be another. There are intercultural am-

biguities to giving that are learned with diculty.Job descriptions or doing good in impoverished Third World set-

tings ought to bear the requirement thick skin. One must not be undulyupset by painul human reality, by the misery o the destitute blind, by theindigence o the dea-mute. One must be steeled against diculties attend-


15/18


ing the transition rom helping needy individuals to helping a needy com-munity.

Indignenous Triage and Cultural Biases Regarding The Needy

Caring or the lowest o the low, dened as the most physically needy, isa Western cultural trait that oten goes by the name humanitarianism.While the principle o charity is rmly engrained in the Islamic world,putting the last rst makes little sense in an economic environment inwhich a majority o individuals and households struggle or survival. Help-ing the blind, the crippled, and the inrm through charitable donationsis religiously laudable: but investing signicant resources in them can si-multaneously be seen as holding back the more dynamic elements o the

community. This lesson emerged most clearly in the goats-or-widows proj-ect, elaboration on which space does not allow. Examined rom within andclose up, communities subsisting at the lowest levels o material develop-ment practice an indigenous orm o triage or survivals sake.

In the local context, altruism rom abroad is not easily comprehended.Viewed rom inside, the visitors eorts to help the neediest makes littlesense. Only a semblance o sel-interest, in act, can save the altruist rombeing overwhelmed by demands or help.

Too oten, host country nationals who have made it, either through

schooling or inherited nobility, are downright disdainul o those whomWesterners eel most compelled to help. Les misrablesare embarrassing tothe local elite, or they are reminders o the impoverished state o their ownsociety. Members o the elite do not identiy with the poorest o the poor;their aspirational identication is with Westerners. When the latter identiyinstead with les misrables, an inter-elite disconnect results.

Conclusion

The biblical Song o the Well (Numbers 21:1718) lyrically expresses thejoy, accompanied by song, that the digging o new wells occasioned withinthe water-scarce environment o ancient Canaan: Spring up, O well, sing-in-chorus to it; the well that was dug out by princes! that was excavatedby peoples nobles! with scepter! with their rods! Yet wells have also beencauses o strie (Miller & Miller 1952:814). Today, both the joyous andconfictual properties surrounding wells are evident more commonly in theSahel than in Israel.

As outlined, an unusual rabbinic intervention in a Muslim community

came to highlight both the positive and negative potentialities o well-dig-ging. On one level, the religious prole o the donor was incidental: themicropolitical machinations surrounding the wells maintenance (or lackthereo) had little to do with its original nancing. Yet the religious im-perative to do good abroad did become enmeshed with local politics in


16/18


unoreseeable ways. It also set into motion a series o other interventions,involving goats and bulls and carts, with delicate and still unolding out-comes.

Local politics render much more complex the goal o accomplishing

grassroots, international development than some academics (see, e.g.,Sachs 2005) and Western donors imagine: Thomas Dichter (2003) and Wil-liam Easterly (2006) provide comprehensive explanations or why this is so.In addition to the contrast between relie and development, the story othe rabbis well also illuminates the messy contours between morally drivengiving and locally directed projects. Faced with the inevitable rustrationsand disappointments that such well-intentioned initiatives occasion, whatcourse should one take? One possibility is to ollow Rondinellis (1983)and Kortens (1980) prescriptions to view development projects as experi-

ments and a learning process, accepting that experimentation carrieswith it the risk o ailure. Another is to embrace the Hausa proverb, Betterthe smallest present than the most magnicent meanness, and joint to itthe Talmudic maxim: It is not or you to complete the work. Neither areyou ree to desist rom it (Pirkei Avoth2:21).10

Afterword: Fiteen American university students in tow, I returned to Yeku-wa in December 2006. Leverage seemed to be working: the mayor claimedto have paid or repairs out o his own pocket, and water was again being

drawn rom the rabbis well.

Acknowledgments

Three anonymous readers or this journal made critical comments that un-doubtedly enhanced the quality o this article, even i my revisions did notentirely address their concerns. I also thank colleagues who presented eed-back to my presentation at the Arican Studies Association annual meetingin 2006 in San Francisco. Various members o Temple Emanu-El in Provi-

dence, Rhode Island, and the Northeastern University community have,benownst to them and not, challenged me to assume greater humanitarianresponsibility or my research in Arica. So have my aunt, Hannah Bryman,and my mother, Helen Miles-Rayner. As should be apparent rom the text,without the ecumenical benevolence o Rabbi Wayne Franklin, there wouldhave been no well, and no article

References

Buber, Martin. 1970 [1923]. I and Thou. Scribner: New York.Charlick, Robert B. 1991. Niger: Personal Rule and Survival in the Sahel. Boulder, Colo.:Westview.

Dichter, Thomas W. 2003. Despite Good Intentions: Why Development Assistance to theThird World Has Failed. Amherst: University o Massachusetts Press.


17/18


Easterly, William. 2006. The White Mans Burden: Why the Wests Efforts to Aid the RestHave Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. New York: Penguin.

Kalala, Muimana-Muende, Mahamadou Danda, and Al Schwarz. 1993. Dsengage-ment Etatique, Transert de Pouvoir et Participation Populaire au Sahel: De laProblmatique lAnalyse de lExprience Nigrienne. Centre Sahel: Univer-sit Laval Srie Dossiers no. 28.

Korten, David. 1980. Community Organization and Rural Development: A Learn-ing Process Approach. Policy Administration Review (SeptemberOctober):480510.

LaFraniere, Sharon. 2005. Another School Barrier or Arican Girls: No Toilet.New York Times, December 23.

Lee, Richard Borshay. 1969. Eating Christmas in the Kalahari. In Richard B. Lee,ed., The Dobe !Kung. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Miles, William F. S. 1986. Islam and Development in the Western Sahel: Engine or

Brake?Journal: Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs7 (2): 43963._______. 1987. Jewish in Muslim Black Arica: Refections on the Mazrui-HabtuDebate. Issue: A Journal of Opinion15: 4548.

_______. 1989. Motives, Morality and Methodology in Third World Research. PS:Political Science and Politics22 (4): 85255.

_______. 1993a. Colonial Hausa Idioms: Towards a West Arican Ethno-ethnohis-tory. African Studies Review36 (2): 1130.

_______. 1993b. Hausa Dreams. Anthropologica35: 10516._______. 1994. Hausaland Divided: Colonialism and Independence in Nigeria and Niger.

Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.

_______. 1997. Black Arican Muslim in the Jewish State: Lessons o Colonial Nige-ria or Contemporary Jerusalem. Issue: A Journal of Opinion25: 3942.

_______. 1999. A Lie. Commonweal126, no. 10 (May 21, 1999), 31._______. 2003. Sharia as De-Aricanization: Evidence rom Hausaland. Africa

Today50 (1): 5075._______. 2003. A Horse, a Chie and a Political Anthropologist. Indigenous Poli-

tics, Confict Resolution and Globalization in Niger. In Oluemi Vaughan, ed.,Indigenous Political Structures and Governance in Africa. Ibadan: Seer Books.

_______. 2005. Development, Not Division: Local versus External Perceptions othe Niger-Nigeria Boundary.Journal of Modern African Studies43 (2): 297320.

Miles, William F. S., and David A. Rocheort. 1991. Nationalism versus Ethnic Iden-tity in Sub-Saharan Arica. American Political Science Review85: 393403.

Miles, William F. S., with Samuel B. Miles. Forthcoming. My African Horse Problem.Amherst: University o Massachusetts Press.

Miller, Madeleine S., and J. Lane Miller. 1952. Harpers Bible Dictionary. New York:Harper & Brothers.

Nicolas, Guy. 1975. Dynamique Sociale et Apprhension du Monde au Sein dUne SocitHausa. Paris: Institut dEthnologie.

Pirkei Avoth(Sayings o the Fathers). 1945. New York: Behrman House.Robinson, Pearl. 1991. Niger: Anatomy o a Neotraditional Corporatist State. Com-

parative Politics23: 120.Rondinelli, Dennis. 1983. Development Projects as Policy Experiments. New York:

Methuen.Sachs, Jerey D. 2005. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. New York:

Penguin Press.


18/18


United Nations Development Program (UNDP). 19902005. Human DevelopmentReport. New York: Oxord University Press.

Notes

1. Yekuwas borderline location was a major actor in choosing it as Nigrien oilin my comparative study o the long-term legacies o the colonial boundarythat separated the Hausa people into Nigeria and Niger (Miles 1994). Relatedresearch on Yekuwa and its counterpart in Nigeria has ocused on dreams(1993b), sharia (2003), and identity (Miles & Rocheort 1991/1997). I havealso approached issues o local development there rom the perspectives oIslam (1986) and boundary inrastructure (2005). My concerns with the racial,colonial, and neocolonial contexts to eldwork in Hausaland and elsewhereare explored in Miles (1993a) and, with respect to Peace Corps service, Miles

(1999).Contested ownership over my horse in Yekuwa stimulated urther refec-

tions on the problematics o researcher involvement in eldwork sites (2003;orthcoming). As relates to the interreligious dimension embedded in this casestudy, my prole as a Jew conducting eldwork in Muslim communities in thesub-Sahara has given rise to previous Arican Studies Association publications:Miles (1987) and Miles (1997).

2. As a national policy, decentralization began a decade beore, concurrent withstructural adjustment imposed rom international lenders. See Kalala, Danda,and Schwarz (1993). Since its heyday as a neo-traditional corporatist state

(Robinson 1991), Niger has experienced tul periods o democratization.3. As a result o economically devastating eects o civil war, in some years Sierra

Leone has overtaken Niger in the dubious distinction o lowest-placed rankon the UNDPs Human Development Index (HDI). That is an acute place-ment; Nigers is chronic.

4. I have coined the term (t)sadakaas an amalgam o the Hebrew and Hausa wordsor charitable giving.

5. A visit that was partly connected to his status as uture heir to a disputed horse(see Miles 2003; orthcoming).

6. That said, being labeled a philanthropist at the border control station didhave strategic value: it was on that basis that extraordinary arrangements weremade to allow me to exit and reenter Nigeria, even though I was not in posses-sion o a multiple entry visa.

7. I acknowledge the suggestions o Momodou N. Darboe or the cart-and-bullcomponent o the project.

8. Both the mayor and the high school principal identied themselves as my stu-dents, in that they had attended the middle school where I was teaching as aPeace Corps volunteer in the late 1970s.

9. The mayor stood with the Convention Dmocratique et Sociale (CDS), headed

by Mahamane Ousmane, the second largest party in the national governingcoalition. The alhaji backed the Parti Nigrien pour la Dmocratie et le Social-isme (more commonly known as Tarayya), the major opposition party headedby Mahamadou Issouou.

10. Da babbar rowa gara karamar kyauta and Lo alecha hamlacha leegmor vloata ven-horeen lheebatel meemena.

the rabbi’s well

Documents