"The white people peeked"

The other day I was riding in the truck with the general manager to check on one of the dams that has started to erode. He told me that he had just seen a truck that stole diesel from one of the company’s generators and was selling it to the villagers. My co-worker and I had an interesting conversation on why this is happening.

In Ghana, it is considered a very serious crime to steel from another person. If some one is caught in the act, they could possibly be beaten to death. It is sad that the punishment is so violent but Ghanaians simply do not steal from one another because of the repercussions. I ask my co-worker, why then do Ghanaians think it is OK to steal from a company?

He told me a very interesting story that he has heard from a few Ghanaians who genuinely believe it to be true: When God created the Earth he told the white people and the black people to close their eyes so that they could not see what he was doing. The black people kept their eyes closed and the white people peeked. This is why white people are cleverer than black people and therefore are less poor. So it is OK for a black person to steel from a white person because the white person stole from God. (I might not have mentioned this yet, but 4 of the managers at ITFC are white so some Ghanaians view ITFC as a “western company”)

This is not to say that every Ghanaian believes this, in fact I doubt many do. This story could have also been altered by the time I heard it. But I think it sheds light on some of the complex issues with development work. There is a long history of development work here and it has affected the mentality of many Ghanaians. They have this idea that life is so much better and easier and that we do not have any problems to deal with. Some also think that westerners should just give them things without having to work for it. It is only when people start to realize that change comes from within themselves that real progress will be made. It seems to me that part of development work involves reversing the damage that we have caused by giving handouts that were not warranted.