101 HUMANITY VALUES: 11 to 15 (Perseverance, Self-Confidence, Patience, Self-Care, Self-Respect)

11. PERSEVERANCE

 

-Perseverance is the ability to endure challenges and pain without giving up.


*It is the bridge that carries you from being stuck to fulfilling your dreams, despite the obstacles along the way.


**It is the strength of heart that pushes you forward, even when results seem delayed.


***It is steadfastness in your faith, hope, and efforts, without allowing circumstances or barriers to discourage you.


****The persevering person recognizes that great achievements are built through the continuation of small, consistent steps.


*****Remember: Perseverance is not the weakness of refusing to change; it is the courage to press on with wisdom, knowing that time and true effort yield fruits.

12. SELF-CONFIDENCE

 

-Self-confidence is the deep belief you carry within about your abilities, your qualities, and the decisions you make.

*It is the inner light that lifts you out of fear and doubt, empowering you to take bold steps toward your dreams.

**It is the gentle voice that encourages you when you face challenges, whispering “you can” even when negative voices try to pull you down.

***It is the solid foundation that helps you set genuine goals and pursue them, trusting that within you lies the strength to overcome obstacles.

****A self-confident person understands that their worth is not defined by the opinions of others, but by the truth of their own being; and that mistakes are lessons along the journey, not the end of it.

*****Remember: Self-confidence is not arrogance. It is a shield that allows you to use your gifts with respect, authenticity, and courage—while facing your imperfections with wisdom, never losing sight of your path.

 

13. PATIENCE

 

-Patience is the ability to maintain inner calm even during challenges, delays, or obstacles.

*It is an inner strength that enables you to control anger, fear, and anxiety while acting with caution and wisdom.
** It is the voice of the heart that keeps you on the path of your purpose, helping you wait for the right outcomes of your efforts without fatigue or rushing the process.
*** It is the foundation that allows you to handle challenges competently, understanding that success comes step by step, not instantly.


**** A person with patience recognizes that favourable results do not come immediately, and that imperfection is not a reason for discouragement, but part of true growth.


***** Remember: Patience is not laziness or inaction; it is an anchor of mind and heart that guides you to use your time, talent, and effort wisely, respectfully, and consistently.

14. SELF-CARE
 
-Self-care is the ability to care for your physical, mental, and spiritual health in order to sustain your strength and overall well-being.
*It is a treasure of the mind and heart that helps you maintain balance and calm throughout your daily journey.
**It means taking time to rest, eating nourishing food, exercising, and listening closely to the needs of your inner self.
***It is honouring your physical identity—how you dress, how you speak, and how you carry yourself—in harmony with the community around you.
****A person who practices self-care recognizes that personal well-being is a gift to others: to family, to community, and even to their work—because a healthy individual brings productivity, light, and positive energy.
*****Remember: Self-care is not selfish. It is the foundation for lasting health, meaningful living, and positive outcomes.

15. KUJIHESHIMU

 

-Kujiheshimu ni kutambua thamani yako ya ndani na kuishi kwa misingi ya heshima hiyo.

*Ni nguzo ya nguvu ya ndani inayokuwezesha kustawi, kujirekebisha unapokosea, na pia kujenga heshima kwa wengine.

**Ni kuishi kwa uwiano kati ya akili na nafsi, huku ukilinda hadhi na utu wa ubinadamu wako.

***Kujiheshimu pia ni kuthamini na kuzingatia kanuni bora za kijamii, kwa kuwa heshima ya ndani huonekana katika muonekano wako, maneno yako, na namna unavyoshirikiana na wengine.

****Mtu anayejiheshimu hufanya maamuzi yanayolinda utu wake, anaheshimu tamaduni za jamii yake, na hutimiza ahadi zake kwa uwazi na uadilifu.

*****Kumbuka: Kujiheshimu ndicho kiini cha ukomavu wa akili, maisha yenye utu, mshikamano, heshima, na amani ya ndani.

 

FROM HUMAN ZOOS TO CHARITY APPEALS: THE PERCISTENCE OF "THE DONOR GAZE."

In 1930, the film "Africa Speaks"—produced by a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London—brought to Western audiences a spectacular vision of “dark” Africa. It reinforced Victorian myths of savagery and difference that had already become foundational to colonial imagination. The so-called “darkness” of Africa was never about the continent itself, but about an epistemic failure: the inability—or refusal—of outsiders to understand human diversity on its own terms.

Explorers, missionaries, and early anthropologists were not impartial observers. Many were socially obscure in their countries of origin, seeking noble titles or aristocratic recognition to enhance their worth. Others pursued fame and fortune. Figures such as H.M. Stanley, whose personal life was marked by abandonment, achieved celebrity status through conquest. Armed with gun power, expeditions captured Africans, transporting some to Europe for exhibition in “human zoos.” Millions of Europeans flocked to witness these spectacles, marveling at the supposed barbarity of other peoples. The famous Author Charles Dickens, after visiting such displays, wrote of the “noble savage” and suggested that Africans should be “civilised off the surface of the earth.”

For those exhibited behind cages, the humiliation was profound. They may have wondered, as modern aid recipients sometimes do, whether it was in fact the spectators who epitomised cruelty. This continuity is striking: from Victorian freak shows to modern charity films such as "Darwin’s Nightmare", media has long objectified African suffering for foreign consumption. Rarely has it respected the dignity, individuality, or agency of those portrayed.

Admittedly, not everyone condoned such dehumanisation. Some contemporaries expressed pity and demanded an end to human zoos. Yet pity itself is a problematic response. Pity objectifies; it reassures the giver of their superiority. Empathy, by contrast, recognises our shared humanity, allowing one to identify with the other as an equal. The “donor gaze,” however, privileges pity. It asserts that "development" is hierachical and that the ones on the bottom have material deficiency! It sustains a lucrative cycle in which human suffering is commodified as spectacle.

The tradition of the “helper-as-documentarist” persists today. Consider celebrity poverty tours: famous figures in designer clothes weep publicly in African slums, presenting poverty as both tragedy and entertainment. Or reality television formats in which Western farmers equipped with iPads attempt to live for a week alongside drought-stricken Kenyan farmers. Poverty, once again, becomes a stage on which benevolence is performed and consumed. If poverty were to end, one suspects that the aid industry would invent new spectacles to gaze upon.

This tradition is deeply colonial. Documenting “dark Africa” was never neutral; it was a practice of domination. Missionaries, explorers, and adventurers juxtaposed images of “savages” with imperial grandeur to justify intervention. Even David Livingstone, remembered as a saintly figure, advised against photographing “ugly” Africans and maintained that only Christianity and commerce could elevate the “black race” to equality. His words reveal how entrenched racial hierarchies remained, even among supposed humanitarians.

From the cages of Victorian zoos to the close-ups of tear-streaked children in charity appeals, individuality has been consistently erased. The starving child is framed not as a person with a name, family, and future, but as a symbol—an interchangeable motif of helplessness. One suffering African body is made to represent all African suffering. Such reductive portrayals are designed to open wallets, persuading donors that their contributions are transformative, even when they often serve to reinforce dependency.

A simple ethical commitment is overdue: "do not reconstruct misery where it does not exist." As long as charity remains wedded to the spectacle of suffering, the distinction between “helper” and “helped” will persist, preserving inequality under the guise of benevolence. Genuine empowerment, by contrast, will emerge only when Africans define their own stories, free from the distorting Eurocentric lens.

EMPOWERMENT STARTS WHERE AID STOPS!

In his essay A Few First Principles for a Booming Third Sector, Harvard Business School professor James A. Austin highlights the rapid growth of charitable enterprises across the globe, noting that this sector is expanding faster than both the public and private spheres. Austin underscores its economic weight: in the United States, the nonprofit sector contributes 6.7% of GDP—more than the computer, automobile, and steel industries combined. It mobilises 11.6% of the workforce, amounting to the equivalent of 40% of U.S. manufacturing output. While the United Kingdom’s nonprofit sector is comparatively smaller, Austin points out that it nonetheless demonstrates significant, though unrealised, economic potential (Austin, 2004).

These figures illustrate the magnitude of the aid and nonprofit ecosystem, yet they also raise important questions about the dynamics of power, dependency, and the unintended consequences of aid. My own experience compels me to interrogate whether the aid industry, despite its stated aims, sometimes sustains itself more than it sustains those it purports to serve.

I remain deeply suspicious that poverty, for some, has become a source of professional and financial gain. “Poverty eradication” often appears less like a genuine goal and more like a career trajectory, particularly for bureaucrats in the so-called "First World" who are entrusted with dispensing funds to the Global South. The circulation of aid money provides jobs, maintains institutions, and fuels administrative machinery—sometimes at the expense of addressing the immediate needs of those on the ground.

I recall vividly an encounter in Dar es Salaam in 2000 with a woman named Vero, who was living with HIV. She pleaded with me to share her story with donors in Sweden because she could not access support in Tanzania under the existing rules. To qualify for assistance, she explained, one had to be affiliated with a registered NGO and agree to publicly disclose one’s HIV status. For her, this was not only humiliating but also practically impossible. Yet many, out of sheer necessity, submitted to these regulations. It is precisely this environment that has led to the proliferation of so-called “MONGOs”—My Own NGOs. MONGOs often exist simply as vehicles to channel funding from larger international organizations. However, in order to survive, they must replicate the very bureaucratic requirements of their donors—reporting, monitoring, evaluating—thus perpetuating an administrative cycle that absorbs resources without necessarily empowering those in need. In the context of HIV/AIDS, the trajectory of donor money has been, at best, convoluted, and at worst, counterproductive.

This personal encounter with Vero shaped my broader conviction: that long-term socio-economic empowerment in Africa cannot be externally engineered. The billions of dollars that have been poured into the continent over decades have yielded disappointingly little in terms of sustainable transformation. I concur with many aid critics that Africa is no longer—if it ever truly was—“the white man’s burden.” Genuine empowerment will emerge from within Africa itself, for only those who wear the shoe can truly know where it pinches.

Aid, in its current structure, often sustains systems of dependency and preserves the status of “career philanthropists,” whose relevance would diminish if genuine empowerment were achieved. Poverty, paradoxically, sustains livelihoods for some, even as it devastates others.
True empowerment, therefore, will begin not where aid is expanded, but precisely where aid stops—when Africans harness their own agency, define their own trajectories of development, and refuse to conflate charity with transformation.

101 HUMANITY VALUES: 6 to 10 (Gentleness, Wisdom, Self-awareness, Moderation, Gratitude)

-Gentleness is the ability to maintain calmness, compassion, and respect in actions and words, even when faced with anger, challenges, or pressure.

*Gentleness is the true bridge that carries you from emotions of anger and haste to actions guided by wisdom and responsibility.

** It is the strength of heart that allows you to communicate with courtesy, even when others are angry or fail to understand.

*** It is the ability to remain patient and respond with wisdom instead of rage, even in difficult or unexpected situations.

**** A gentle person is not led by anger or impulse, but governed by patience, compassion, and the wisdom of the heart.

• ***** Remember: Gentleness is not weakness or lack of conviction, but a firm stance of the heart that helps you handle challenges with wisdom and respect, while strengthening relationships and building peace.

-Wisdom is the ability to use insight, understanding, knowledge, and experience to make sound decisions.

*It is the careful and balanced application of knowledge, experience, and moral principles to handle life’s challenges and promote well-being.

• ** Wisdom includes intellectual ability, deep self-reflection, compassion, and openness of mind.
  *** It is seeing beyond present desires and choosing what brings lasting benefit to both self and society.
  **** A wise person does not let anger, greed, or pride guide their decisions, but instead considers prudence, integrity, and fairness.
  ***** Remember: Wisdom is not merely the accumulation of knowledge, but the use of that knowledge in ways that bring light, peace, and true well-being to your life and the lives of others.

-Self-awareness is the ability to deeply understand your own mind and soul—your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses.

*It is the true bridge that helps you live a balanced life by recognizing your inner value.

** It is accepting yourself without self-deprecation, while also seeing areas that need growth for further development.

*** It is examining yourself with honesty, without hiding behind fear, pride, or the opinions of others.

**** A self-aware person walks with clarity of heart, knows their boundaries, and understands how to strengthen the talents they possess.

***** Remember: Self-awareness is not self-judgment, but understanding yourself and guiding your actions with wisdom to live a meaningful life with the right direction.

-Ukiasi ni uwezo wa kudhibiti tamaa, hisia, na matendo yako ili kudumisha mizani sahihi ya maisha, na kubaki katika hali ya ndani iliyo tulivu na yenye kuleta ustawi endelevu.

*Ni daraja kati ya tamaa na busara—sayansi ya kujidhibiti na sanaa ya kuishi kwa uwiano, bila kupitiliza wala kudharau thamani ya kile unachokifanya.

**Ni mtazamo wa busara unaokusaidia kufanya maamuzi yenye uwiano katika lishe, matumizi, kazi, mahusiano, na hata burudani.

***Ni nguvu ya ndani inayokufundisha subira, kupooza misukosuko ya hisia, na kudumisha amani ya nafsi pamoja na uhusiano mzuri na wengine.

****Mtu mwenye ukiasi huishi kwa heshima, hudhibiti hisia zenye msukosuko, huepuka migongano, na hutanguliza ustawi wa kila upande.

*****Kumbuka: Ukiasi siyo kujinyima, bali ni sanaa ya kutambua ladha ya kutosheka, ili kujenga utajiri wa ndani unaochipua kutokana na kuunganisha thamani halisi ya maisha na mahitaji ya mwanadamu kustawi katika mzunguko wake wa maisha hapa duniani.

-Gratitude is the state of recognizing and appreciating all the blessings you have, both visible and invisible.*It is an inner perspective that teaches you to see the beauty of life, even in everyday things, such as meaningful relationships and experiences that improve your life. 
** It is the ability to notice and value the blessings in life—from your health, family situation, to friends who bring peace to your heart.

*** It is a unique strength that teaches you to count blessings instead of focusing on challenges.

**** A person with a grateful heart sees the value in life’s journey, builds healthy relationships, and lives with true joy and peace.

***** Remember: Gratitude is not just a spoken word, but a positive life perspective that brings happiness, humility, and good relationships with others.