A Review of:
Rose Lukalo-Owino,
A Legacy of Giving: The Story of Mohamedally and Maniben Rattansi Educational Trust, Allavida, Nairobi: 2008.
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In Trust for Tomorrow: Kenya Community Development Foundation, Allavida, Nairobi: 2008.
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One Woman At a Time: The Kianda Foundation, Allavida, Nairobi: 2008.
Connie Ngondi-Houghton,
Promoting Philanthropy in Kenya: The Case for Tax Law Reform, Allavida, Nairobi: 2008.
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I just finished reading a fascinating four-part series on Trends and Issues in Local Philanthropy in East Africa, published by Allavida. The series was supported financially and intellectually by the Ford Foundation’s office in Nairobi, and features a deep and substantive foreword by Tade Aina, Ford's Representative for East Africa, on the trajectory of philanthropy in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. One book in the series, by lawyer and researcher Connie Ngondi-Houghton, focuses on the need for tax law reform in the area of philanthropy. Because it builds on her past academically oriented work and has been reviewed elsewhere, I’ll concentrate here on the three more accessible texts by Rose Lukalo-Owino.
These narratives follow the evolution of the Kianda Foundation, the Rattansi Educational Trust, and the Kenya Community Development Foundation. I call them narratives because they chronicle the lives and times of the founders of these three foundations. The texts do mention Uganda and Tanzania, but the series is strongly biased in favor of Kenya, perhaps because there are more philanthropic institutions there than elsewhere in the region—or because Kenya is an economic powerhouse that creates opportunities for the emergence of charitable and development-oriented institutions. However, I wonder if a similar treatment might be done for institutions like the Kabaka Foundation in Uganda and other religious foundations in Tanzania.
Told in the form of stories, the narratives are written in a straightforward and user-friendly style that helps demystify the meaning and usage of ‘philanthropy’. In my experience studying philanthropy in Africa, these are probably the easiest texts to read and could be taught in secondary schools. The lack of interest in the study of philanthropy in Africa is partly a function of the absence of curricula on the subject, both at lower and higher levels of education. This series could serve as a module for students at all levels. This is a challenge that we have been throwing at lecturers and custodians of knowledge across the continent. Can we in Africa introduce studies on philanthropy and build centers of excellence that will be dedicated to the study of philanthropy and how it links with development visions of nation states?
As the two stories of the Kianda Foundation and the Mohamedally and Maniben Rattansi Educational Trust show, philanthropy as we understand it is a defining feature of every being. It probably begins at birth, progresses through life, and blossoms at death. Indeed, many in Africa are welcomed into this earth in philanthropic ways; they live their lives either supporting or being supported by others. And at their death, philanthropy is what bids them farewell—and in some cases their death is a philanthropic source for many causes. Many stories in the Kianda Foundation narrative, particularly one concerning a student named Gloria, reflect this. In other words, one is at any given time either a philanthropist, a recipient of philanthropic benevolence, or both.
I was at a meeting in May when the facilitator asked everyone in the room to give the number of years they had been involved with philanthropy. Many responded by giving the number of years they had been working professionally in the field. Someone in the group said she could not distinguish between the years she worked in another field and the years she worked in a foundation. For her, all the years were dedicated to development work. When my turn came, I argued that I have more than 34 years experience in philanthropy. I explained that birth, life, and death are philanthropic experiences for me. I gave my reasons, of course. And yet that afternoon, someone giving a presentation said that she found it very difficult to be me, having to wear the philanthropic hat all the time. She was disillusioned by the failure of philanthropy to address social justice issues. This goes to show the need to understand what philanthropy is and how it is defined and interpreted by different actors in a particular time to suit a particular context. I certainly welcome this treatise in East Africa.
I am very familiar with the institutions presented in these three books, and have visited some of them in my research. It was therefore interesting to learn more about the people behind these institutions. I particularly liked Elkanah Odembo’s story: one of a young troublesome student who gets funding from the Rattansi Educational Trust and later becomes one of the crucial philanthropic leaders in the region and in Africa. The irony: he only discovers very late in life who his donors were.
Odembo and other leaders in the region who came together to establish the Kenya Community Development Foundation illustrate the power of local responses to local challenges. From an idea to a big institution, KCDF has become the foundation for development in Kenyan communities. Its story is one of transformative philanthropy, of seeking to address social justice issues. The story of the Rattansi Educational Trust is one of changing the status quo, particularly through the provision of education to all races and ethnic groups in Kenya. The Rattansi story weaves through the politics of post-independence Kenya and outlines the role philanthropy played in these events. Many of those who became senior leaders in government and civil service were once recipients of scholarships from the foundation.
There are parallels between the Rattansi Educational Trust and the Kianda Foundation. Both focus on education, and most graduates of the Kianda Foundation have gone on to become senior women leaders in government, private sector, and civil society. Once again, the Kianda Foundation answers the question we always pose: philanthropy for what? The question of philanthropic harvest is a crucial one, for if there is no harvest, there is no point in ‘farming’.
But what for me is particularly important coming out of these three stories is the question of local versus outside interventions. There is a burning debate around whether or not local actors should get support from external forces. The other is whether external actors should work with or
