Tribute To Dikembe Mutombo

I was remiss in posting when the news came out about the soon to be opened hospital in The Democratic Republic of the Congo financed by Dikembe Mutombo. On these pages I have often criticised athletes and other wealthy blacks for not putting their monies towards the betterment of black people. When I say betterment I don't mean some NGO digging a new well or some tent hospital. No what I mean is to contribute to the development of modern, sustainable infastructure. I have long stated that as a collective Africans in the diaspora are in an economic position to drastically change Africa.

Fortunately James Clingman has reminded me of Mr. Mutombo's great effort:

I received an e-mail about the article in USA Today regarding Dikembe Mutombo's project in Congo; although he has been on this quest for several years, and has appeared on Sixty Minutes and other media venues, apparently this latest story has garnered more attention, which could be due to the strategy being employed to raise the money Mutombo needs to complete the hospital.

He is asking for 100,000 people to donate $10 per month for a year in order to raise $9 million. That's right, I said, '$9 million.' It seems to me that amount could be raised in a New York minute by NBA players. Of course, if man-on-the-street folks want to contribute that's all well and good. But the fact that this brother has to organize his latest campaign to do such a wonderful thing says a lot about his fellow NBA players. It also says a lot about their Black consciousness and the lack thereof...

Hundreds of millions of dollars are earned by Black NBA players, much of which is spent at non-Black owned clothing and jewelry stores, real estate agents, automobile dealerships, and sports agencies, and they do not have the consciousness to give $9 million to one of their own. This situation also speaks to the larger problem of Black folks in general being unwilling to give our dollars to the things we say are valuable. We should be ashamed of not taking better care of one another.

Building a hospital in Congo, especially after Dikembe Mutombo has put $15 million of his own money into the project, rather than being a high percentage slam dunk, it remains a low percentage three-pointer, despite the tremendous resources controlled by NBA players and coaches.


Of course what Clingman discusses here is not limited to athletes. the sheer unwillingness of many black people to not economically support that which we talk about being important. But I don't want to dwell on the lack of support by Mutombo's peers, rather I want to offer this tribute to the excellent example set by this brother.

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