State’s Poverty Areas Remind Writer Of East Africa

Talented, internationally-respected travel writer Paul Theroux has a terrifying verdict for poor, rural places in South Carolina: They remind him of parts of eastern Africa.
In the July issue of Smithsonian magazine, Theroux wrote of a journey through the “other South” — the parts away from prosperous cities, commercial factories, tourists’ frenzies, classical concerts and golf courses.
“This other Deep South, with the same pride and with deep roots — rural, struggling, idyllic in places and mostly ignored — was like a foreign country to me.” He outlined how he decided to travel the region’s rural backroads to discover it, just as he had done all over the world, and to concentrate on the “human architecture, in particular the overlooked: the submerged fifth” of Southerners at the bottom.
About a year ago, Theroux showed up in Allendale County, one of the poorest counties in the country where about four in 10 people live below the federal poverty level. As described in the article, he found decay, ruin and emptiness along U.S. Highway 301, once a bustling north-south artery now dried up thanks to Interstate 95. He described Allendale as “the ghost town on the ghost highway.”
“The presence of Indian shopkeepers, the heat, the tall dusty trees, the sight of plowed fields, the ruined motels and abandoned restaurants, the somnolence hanging over the town like a blight — and even the intense sunshine was like a sinister aspect of that same blight — all these features made it seem like a town in Zimbabwe.”
But while Theroux’s first impression of Allendale was dismal, he found hope when talking to people like former state Rep. Wilbur Cave who now runs Allandale County Alive. The nonprofit works to improve housing and the community. Over the years, the organization has helped people purchase better homes. It also has purchased homes and upfitted them to increase the community’s rental properties and develop a sustainable revenue stream to allow the organization to continue. Allendale County Alive also provides microloans to help local residents start businesses successfully and works to engage officials and businesses to try to get more food stores in the area.
In an interview this week, Cave said Theroux didn’t shy away from the community’s challenges in his two visits. What Theroux’s article “The Soul of the South” opened his eyes to, he said, was that it didn’t compare Allendale and its challenges to nearby Bamberg, Barnwell or Hampton counties, or to other areas in the state. It viewed the area through Theroux’s lens as an experienced traveler of the world.
“As bad as some of the facts are, we’d like to think we’re not that bad, but that was the theme he felt.”
In the magazine story, which also featured communities in Mississippi and Alabama, Cave described how the whole area needed help, but if the state is to change, its worst places have to change. Not all of those changes will cost money, but he said money was “the straw that stirs the drink.”
This week, Cave continued to be optimistic about the area pulling itself up by its bootstraps, despite all of its challenges.
“The old adage is how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Cave added, “In spite of all of the negativity, we’re trying to do some positive things here. We know that it’s tough sledding, but we’re going to continue to do what we do.”
To hear such optimism in a place with so many problems is refreshing.
But unless our state starts seriously investing people and resources into our poorest areas, such as the counties around Allendale County and a similar area between Marion and Chesterfield counties, we’ll stay at the bottom, just like we’ve been since the Civil War.
Folks, it’s an election year. Listen closely to politicians who want your vote. You’ll be surprised how many of them blather on about urban economic development, accountability and more. But do you ever hear anything about the poverty that squeezes almost a million of our residents?
We can’t keep ignoring poverty in South Carolina. Or do we just want to remain at the bottom?
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. He can be reached at brack@statehousereport.com.