The Politics of Charity

Abstract

Mawuli has a slight frame and a boyish grin that seem to belie his age and authority. Now in his late 40s, he is the programme director for one of Ghana’s leading advocacy non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and a public figure of considerable repute. We are talking in his air-conditioned office over the coffee and croissants that he has ordered as a late breakfast. He is dressed in a brightly coloured ‘local batik’ shirt that seems a deliberate understatement of status. Round gold glasses frame sparkling eyes, animated by the fervour and passion with which he speaks. Even as we are exchanging pleasantries he talks in long elegant sentences. He finishes his coffee and I ask what led him to the work he does today. His answer takes us back to his childhood, and to a set of experiences and ideas that seem oddly out of kilter with the sterile office in which we are sitting.