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from Engaging Concepts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2017
A monkey was walking along a river and saw a fish in it. The monkey said, ‘Look, that animal is under water, he'll drown, I'll save him.’ He snatched up the fish, and in his hand the fish started to struggle. And the monkey said, ‘Look how happy he is.’ Of course, the fish died, and the monkey said, ‘Oh, what a pity, if I had only come sooner I would have saved this guy.’ Traditional African parable, The Monkey and the Fish (Mia Cauto, cited in Gourevitch 2010)
I want to talk about generosity on the part of the cultural sector in its dealings with the public, and the problem with it. One has only to look to southern hemisphere voices – writers, playwrights, poets, academics – to hear a very different perspective on northern hemisphere generosity as demonstrated by its institutions – but, first, a small literary allegory.
There are a number of moments in the Somalian author Nuruddin Farah's wonderful book Gifts (Farah 2000) in which Duniya, a single mother and nurse working at the hospital in Mogadishu, has cause to question the generosity of others, such as when Bosaaso offers her a lift in his taxi. You see, Duniya distrusts givers.
Bosaaso: ‘Why don't you come with me?’
Duniya: ‘Why’ she asked, curious to know what his answer would be.
Bosaaso: ‘I'll give you a lift, then reward you with further gifts.’
Duniya: ‘But I haven't asked you to do me a favour, or give me a lift or reward me with presents, have I?’
Bosaaso: ‘You are a fool if you don't.’
Duniya: ‘Let me be’, she said in such a hostile voice that he drove off.
Later, when Duniya finally accepts the lift, she asks him, ‘Why do you give me these lifts, Bosaaso? Please tell the truth.’
Bosaaso: ‘Why do you accepts lifts from me?’ he asks.
Duniya: ‘That's a foolish question, since your giving precedes my acceptance or rejection. My accepting your gift of a lift is itself a reciprocal gift. So may I now ask why you accept my gift?’
Bosaaso: ‘Why are you hesitant about receiving things from others?’
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