How Sadio Mané inspired a first gift to GiveDirectly
Every month I make an automatic contribution to the Malaria Consortium via GiveWell. My spouse and I have also given to Against Malaria Foundation and other effective charities. Until this morning, I had not yet contributed to GiveDirectly. Learning this morning about the recently crowned African football player of the year changed that.
Months before his honors last week, Mané shared a case for effective altruism and, if not by name, GiveDirectly. As reported in the venerable Spanish sports journal, AS, Mané contrasted the extreme poverty of his upbringing in Senegal with his football stardom.
“Why would I want ten Ferraris, 20 diamond watches, or two planes? What will these objects do for me and for the world? I was hungry, and I had to work in the field; I survived hard times, played football barefooted, I did not have an education and many other things, but today with what I earn thanks to football, I can help my people,” Mané explained. “I built schools, a stadium, we provide clothes, shoes, food for people who are in extreme poverty. In addition, I give 70 euros per month to all people in a very poor region of Senegal which contributes to their family economy. I do not need to display luxury cars, luxury homes, trips and even planes. I prefer that my people receive a little of what life has given me.”
My career has been a fraction as successful or hard-won as Mané’s — just as this note is a fraction as lucid as Mané’s own words. But the obscurity of my family’s life and work does not absolve us from following his example, and I’m grateful for the push his story gave me to start supporting GiveDirectly.
“Life is about give and take,” Mané told The Guardian. “Maybe, from the little assistance I render to my people, some of the young ones can make a living from it. And I am sure by the time they become successful tomorrow, they will continue from where I stop. I am an African, and I feel it is not good to forget your roots, no matter your status and progress in life. We have to take up the challenge of rendering both morale and financial support to our people.”
As an American, my country’s and my own “roots” especially impel me to follow Mané’s lead. Much of the wealth of our society and that of other OECD countries derives from slave and colonial labor from across sub-Saharan Africa. Moral philosophy holds that a wealthy Bengali or Kyrgyz has no less an obligation than a comfortable American or European to support the extreme poor in post-colonial societies. That said, it is hard to resist the feeling that those of us with Western European heritage enjoy luxuries that can be cleanly attributed to the sacrifice of communities in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and so have a particular moral responsibility to return part of our excess wealth to poor families in those communities.
As a parting thought: the EA community should do more to celebrate Mané’s generosity, and to cultivate celebrities whose philanthropy reflects — or at least rhymes with — EA principles. Research has found that contributions by a prominent “athlete were hypothesized to influence donation intentions from potential [third-party] donors in [his] area… The results suggest that athlete identification, image of the athlete, trust toward the athlete, and cause involvement significantly influenced donation intentions.” Mané’s profile may never be higher and his example never more resonant than it is in 2020. I hope GiveDirectly and other anchors in the EA community have a chance to tell Mané’s story and convert his example into more life-saving contributions from the anonymous masses — people like me.
P.S. I leave you with The Guardian’s footage of Mané’s home village of Bambali celebrating his continent-wide honor this week. His sincere philanthropic motives aside, it’s hard to argue that Mané did not “buy” a good far more transcendent and heartwarming by forgoing his Ferraris — in favor of investing in the happiness, health, and hearts of the extreme poor.
