Two different Africas: Peace Corps service then and now

From Mali to Cameroon

In 1981, at age 20 and a fresh college graduate, I flew to Mali to serve two years in the Peace Corps. I ended up staying nearly four years-two tours with Peace Corps and a few extra months helping train the next round of Agroforestry Volunteers.

After returning to the U.S., I raised a family and worked as a faculty member in environmental anthropology. I traveled a few times to different African countries for work and vacations, but never for more than a few weeks. I always wanted to stay longer to forge new bonds and understanding.

Now, more than 40 years later, I've returned-this time to serve the better part of a year as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer in Cameroon. I knew things would be different this time around, but I'm surprised at just how different the Peace Corps and the lives of Volunteers, are-as well as how much the West and Central African context has changed since the last time I was a Volunteer.

From rural to city life

Maybe the lives of Volunteers in the Malian capital, Bamako, were not as different from the lives of Volunteers now, but Volunteer life in rural villages was immensely different when I first served in the 1980s. In those days, sometimes after dinner when the dark dropped, we walked to the griot's compound, where she would tell us stories fit for young people's ears. Revived from the afternoon siestas we'd taken in the heat of the day, we could stay out late. There were no televisions, no telephones, not even electricity. There were radios and tape decks if someone had money for batteries but, for entertainment, griots were infinitely preferred-they were skilled storytellers and singers, often accompanying themselves on the stringed harp, the kora. Night was alive with the magic of song and dance and story.

Now, the Cameroonian city where I live is close to ten times the size of the village where I lived decades ago. People have televisions, telephones, laptops, and electricity. Hardly anyone tells stories, and there's less talk in the evenings. They have soccer games broadcast from Britain and other countries, and soap operas. Popular music blares from the restaurants and speakers in the streets. I haven't heard any live music in months, except for a few minutes of drumming as a wedding party or funeral passed by.

From connectedness to connectivity

Here in Cameroon, almost all Peace Corps Volunteers live alone in one- or two-bedroom houses, with faucets, toilets, and stoves with gas or propane, and sometimes a refrigerator and an electric fan. There are multiple locks on multiple doors, and we are coached on security. Volunteers must cook meals for themselves from local foods; buy furniture; pay the electric bill, phone, and internet; and figure out how to manage the Wi-Fi systems and banking from a phone. Most Volunteers are in daily touch with friends and family back home through social media, email, WhatsApp or Facebook, and Zoom.

Back then, in Mali at least, there were no phones or email to get in touch with friends or family in the U.S. Letters might take weeks or months, if they even arrived. Many of us lived with local families who helped us with everything. We ate together, told stories together, did chores together, got sick and got well together. I'm still in close touch with my Malian family from 44 years ago. The family who hosted me for two years knew me better than most of my own relatives.

Different experience, same aspirations

Peace Corps now is still challenging, but in different ways. It's incredibly hard to see the damage to the natural world from environmental degradation, pollution, extensive exploitation of natural resources. There are large amounts of trash in streets and urban streams. I miss the clear air and the clean-swept streets of 40 years ago, where at least in a village any tin can became a container for something else as soon as it was empty. Everything was recycled or reused, and the refuse piles on street corners were only made up of crop residues and goat dung, slowly becoming compost, and carefully guarded until the farmers could put it back onto the vegetable gardens and fields. It's difficult to see the discouragement young people face due to lack of jobs, even while more of them finish secondary school and attend technical schools or colleges. Yet many young people are hopeful, determined, and working for a better society and a healthier environment. Young people in Cameroon and other countries are creating their own associations and NGOs. I'm living with Cameroonian grandparents who took care of their grandchildren while their parents went to university and are now using their expertise to help their country.

Peace Corps Volunteers are still partners in these countries and communities, with people becoming our friends and family members in this new world that is changing faster than we ever thought possible. We still share the idea that maybe we can make things better if we stick together, listen to each other, and brainstorm creatively, every single day. In my own life, I have increasingly emphasized the third goal of the Peace Corps, educating Americans to the amazing cultures of African countries through university teaching and writing, while working to help explore and change the patterns of exploitation of African resources by countries in the Global North. In the U.S., my own family farm brings together volunteers from all over the world to learn about sustainable agriculture and sustainable living, with the goal of improving the care of the earth and global relations, one person and one friendship at a time.