Why am I a Jubilee debt campaigner? The movie, The Constant Gardener, offered a realistic, brutal picture of one of Africa's largest slums, Kibera. The on-the-ground reality is a slum surrounded by a lush golf course, elegant homes with a wall to keep out slum dwellers, and a nearby supermarket offering a "variety of choices."
What the movie does not show is the vitality and resilience of the children and in particular, the mothers organized in the Watoto Wa Dunia (Children of the World) project.
Debt is not about economic statistics - it is about people and their lives. Kenyans know that the debt service burden affects their health, schooling, job opportunities (or the lack thereof) and housing. Debt is slavery and at times, death. Mary, an AIDS orphan in Kibera, shared about a poem about AIDS and how it brings misery and loss. It is the people who suffer and yet struggle for their lives and those of their children. To make a better world is why I demand that the debt be cancelled.
An African man, Mr. Washiri, at the Illegitimate Debt Forum in Nairobi,challenged the audience saying, "it is morally wrong as church people not to pass the message. People must be aware. It is the reponsibility of the churches to bring the message home!" Cancel the debt requires public outrage.
Wangari Matthai, Nobel peace prize recipient from Kenya, asked, "How can you punish these poor people? Poor people are being sacrificed by their governments to pay these debts. We cannot tolerate these debts as they are literally killling our people!"
It is the women's voices that are the strongest - demanding, exhorting and importuning for justice because debt = death and slavery. Can we in the USA be morally outraged and raise our voices to demand the cancellation of the debt?
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