Africa

These are pictures of members of the Hamer (Hamar) Tribe. They’re from the Omo Valley in southwestern Ethiopia. They take very good care of their hair. Hair grooming is essential to their concept of beauty. Women, in particular, may often roll their hair in red ochre clay and butter, twisting them into locs, or what they call goscha. Getting loc'ed up...The richer the woman is, the more butter she uses. They may sometimes decorate them with beads and feathers. Their men tend to find this style very attractive. I Read More »

I’m in the middle of reading The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World, a memoir by Jacqueline Novogratz. The book traces her journey from her time as a young banker in Africa to her current role as the founder of the Acumen Fund, a new kind of venture fund that invests in market-oriented approaches to solving problems like access to health, water, housing and energy, around the world.
 
As I thought about her life, I started wondering what is it that makes people like Novogratz able to do what the rest of us merely wish we had the ability to do -- make real contact with people in need and actually do something to move them out of poverty. I was especially curious about what Novogratz would say to people living in the developed world who are so worried about their own diminished financial well-being that they find it hard to imagine how they could meaningfully affect the lives of less fortunate people in Africa or Pakistan.
 
So I had a meeting and a series of email conversations with her to get some answers, and some inspiration. After the jump is a condensed version of our discussion.
 
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