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See the glass half-full - not half-empty
25 Aug 2008
When the words “African time”, “begging bowl” and “dark continent” are uttered, almost anyone can tell what the speaker is alluding to - Africa...
When the words “African time”, “begging bowl” and “dark continent” are uttered, almost anyone can tell what the speaker is alluding to - Africa. The first, so entrenched in everyday vocabulary, means to arrive at a programme later than the specified starting time; the second refers to the perpetual dependence on other countries to tackle national challenges, while the last speaks of a place wracked by diseases and backwardness.
Africans too have managed over the years to rack up a string of unflattering anecdotes for their countries and, by extension, the continent at large.
Most take pleasure in focusing on the pesky rather than the perky aspect of living; they dwell on things, which do not appear to be working, and by so doing choosing (consciously or otherwise) not to see those things that work perfectly.
Faulty impressions
Take this scenario as painted by Maku Chikasha, a Zimbabwean and one of our guest contributors in this issue, who had her impressions about a few African countries, only to have those disproved at the InterAction Pan-African Event (sponsored by the British Council) late last year: “I connected with supposedly ‘corrupt’ Nigerians; hugged the supposedly ‘war weary’ Sudanese; and had lunch with the supposedly ‘violent’ South Africans, all the while questioning my faulty impressions about these people,’ she writes.
“How had we all acquired these negative labels? In Zambia I was not swindled or stabbed violently. The Ethiopians looked pretty well fed and the Zimbabweans got into hearty conversations with the British present.”
See the people
At the close of the show, Chikasha had learned to see “other Africans as people” to relate good-naturedly with and not distant personalities to be pre-judge on mere hearsay. Mind you, she was only one of many that arrived for the event with loads of assumptions, mainly in the negative.
InterAction – and that’s the beauty of it – teaches that individuals hold their assumptions lightly, value differences in all its ramifications and appreciate the greatness that is beloved Africa.
To take the teaching a bit closer to the everyday living: granted, armed robbers stalk the neighbourhood, rapists are on the prowl, and the police seem powerless to check the menace, but what about that recently-fitted highway lighting nearby that has reduced the incidences of accidents, or that newly-commissioned borehole in the community that has put a stop to drinking that polluted stream, four kilometres away?
What’s wrong with seeing the glass half-full, instead of half-empty? That was the general mindset at InterAction in Senegal and Zambia, where the Pan-African Events held. “We did not pretend that these problems do not exist; we did not try to deny them or wish them away. What we simply did for that moment was to celebrate Africa,” writes Yashua Alkali Hamza, who also contributes to this edition.
Whatever you thought about Africa, please think again. editor@networkafricaonline.com
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