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About Grapevine

July 2005

Around AA: Into Sub-Saharan Africa
AA Pioneers in Sub-Sahara Africa Meet

Although AA has been present in South Africa since 1946, and the first Swahili-speaking group was formed in Kenya in 1975, groups where African languages are spoken are still rare. That’s why the first Sub-Saharan Africa Zonal Meetings are so important. They give the AA pioneers in African nations a chance to exchange ideas and to learn more about the Traditions. To find out more about the growth of AA in this part of the world, the Grapevine recently talked by phone with Jean G. from Cape Town, South Africa, who helped coordinate the first Sub-Saharan Africa Zonal Meeting in 2003. When we spoke with her, Jean was preparing for the second meeting, scheduled for June.

Grapevine: Let’s put first things first. Would you tell us how you first got sober?

Jean G.: Yes, I have just celebrated my twenty-sixth year of sobriety. I came through the doors of AA in a place called Benoni, which is about twenty-five miles from Johannesburg. There were — and still are — plenty of meetings there for me to go to, or be taken to, as was my case. It took me three months to “get” AA, but I wasn’t allowed to disappear. Since then, I have traveled extensively and found AA to be largely the same all over the world. Even when I have sat in meetings where I couldn’t understand the language, I have felt that I could understand what was being said.

GV: How did you get involved in the Sub-Saharan Zonal Meeting?

JG: It began with what was at first called the Into Africa Project, which was started to help the South African service structure of AA connect with AAs in the surrounding countries. Although people had discussed this initiative for a long time, it really began about eight years ago. Several people took on the responsibility of the project but none of us understood what was actually required. I was a General Service Board Trustee when members of the GSO offices from the U.S./Canada and the United Kingdom came to South Africa to discuss the project. I was at that meeting. I got the idea of participating then and remained interested and excited about it. I volunteered when the person who had been looking after the project resigned.

GV: What was discussed at the first meeting?

JG: Our first Sub-Saharan Zonal Meeting was held in June 2003. It had self-support as its major theme, along with how to handle the committees on Public Information and Cooperation with the Professional Community (CPC). These two areas had received a lot of attention in several of the countries and as a result their membership is growing, which, as far as I can tell, has helped their finances. I am putting the question of anonymity on the agenda for one of the workshops this year, as I have had several queries about how to handle this.

GV: Which countries will be represented at this year’s meeting?

JG: Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Namibia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and South Africa are all set to attend the second meeting in June of this year. Sadly, we seem to have lost touch with Lesotho. Attempts to make new and interested contacts there have failed so far.

   This year, we have added Swaziland and Zambia to the list. They seem very dedicated and mentioned that they have at least one AA group that is flourishing.

   We have some contacts in Angola as well. They are Portuguese-speaking and we are have trouble maintaining contact, so I don’t think there is much hope of their being here this year.

GV: Where will the meeting take place?

JG: At an inexpensive hotel outside Johannesburg. All delegates will fly into Johannesburg International Airport. The arrangements are not as simple as they might be in other parts of the world. South Africa has huge numbers of illegal immigrants who flow in from countries to the north of us, so visas are only issued when you provide a return ticket and a letter from us saying that your accommodation and subsistence are taken care of. Not all of our delegates have their own e-mail or the ability to print anything out, nor do they have faxes. So these letters have to be posted — and the post can take up to three months to get there! (Sometimes I think I am quite mad to have taken this on at all!) Flights are also a problem, as there are not always daily flights to South Africa and fares vary hugely among the various airlines.

GV: Would you tell us a bit about the format and the agenda?

JG: The meeting this June will have the same format as the last one: delegates will work in discussion groups between general sessions. At the general session on Friday night, delegates will be introduced, and Willem V.H., trustee from the General Service Board in Great Britain, will deliver the keynote address.

   On Saturday, delegates will present a report on what has happened in AA in their countries since the last meeting, and these should also provide discussion topics. Then the real business gets going: We break out into two work groups to discuss the agenda topics and then reconvene in the meeting room for report-backs. It is good to have two delegates from each region — it enables us to break into two groups with one delegate from each country in each group.

   As I said, anonymity will be one topic and finance will be another. We also would like to know how each country has used the complimentary literature they got after the meeting in 2003. The idea was that the sale of literature could be used to garner sufficient money to set up at least a telephone number and address for AA in each country and to set each on its way to self-support. We hoped it would help them establish some kind of “office” — however small.

   On Saturday night we go to a nearby restaurant for dinner. The meeting will adjourn just after lunch on Sunday, although three delegates will have to leave early because of flight times.

GV: Which language is used at the meeting?

JG: Hundreds of languages are spoken in Africa. We have eleven languages in South Africa, and in Tanzania, I believe there are twenty-seven. However, the Sub-Saharan area was mostly colonized by the English, so most people have a working knowledge of the English language and that is the language of record for the meetings. The Central African Service Meeting, which is tentatively planned for 2007, will include mainly French-speaking countries, as that part of Africa is where the French did most of  their colonization.

GV: Are there distinctive differences between U.S. approaches to AA and Sub-Saharan African approaches?

JG: There don’t seem to be any significant differences between U.S. and South African approaches to AA. The biggest difference lies in the fact that most people of Africa live in absolute abject poverty. The notion of self-support is difficult for them because many do not have the means to support themselves and their families, let alone AA. Some of this is true for South Africa as well. However, I am delighted to say that the Sub-Saharan Meeting countries seem to have grasped the concept with enthusiasm and are quite amazingly inventive and imaginative in the ways they pay their way.

There may be one cultural difference which could be significant and that is that the drinking of alcoholic beverages is often part of African rituals. For example, beer is sometimes brewed for ceremonies that are held for ancestors, and some believe that the ancestors would be offended if the participants were not drunk. Drinking alcohol is also thought to be part of one’s “manliness” in some areas.

GV: As AA has spread around the world, it seems there is always a real hunger for the message. Is that true in Sub-Saharan Africa as well?

JG: The enthusiasm I have found for AA in Sub-Saharan Africa has been an absolute joy to me. It has made my own gratitude and sense of the miraculous grow and shine for me. I get long and involved reports from several of the areas telling me about their activities, which government departments they have managed to contact, how many new groups have started, what ways they have found to pay for their meeting places, how to stop the press from taking photos of them. I have also been deeply touched by the affection that we have developed for each other. I get Christmas and Easter greetings from them and photographs of their families, as well as of AA functions. I must also add that the support and enthusiasm I have received from our general service office manager here in South Africa has been invaluable. While she is not an alcoholic, she has been drawn into the excitement and earned the affection and respect of the delegates.

GV: What is the biggest challenge for AA in Sub-Saharan Africa right now?

JG: The biggest challenge has not been making the contacts or organizing service offices, but rather trying to help my fellow AAs in South Africa understand our role. There is still a belief that the money for all of this comes from AA in South Africa. And some see this attempt to work with our neighbors as taking funds and effort away from helping alcoholics in our own black townships and areas. But this is not the case at all. Our gratitude to the General Service Boards in the U.S./Canada and in Great Britain and to all AA members, especially for literature, knows no bounds. This year, we have a couple of delegates who will be making a financial contribution to their costs.

I am happy to say that the translation of the Big Book into Zulu has gone a long way to assist in this initiative, and a local initiative to carry the message in this part of Africa is very successfully under way. Alcoholics Anonymous is growing in Sub-Sahara Africa.