My Africa

A colleague asked from me what sort of things we hear from Africa. I told him that there are basically two alternatives: either it focuses on wars and poverty or then it's hugely romanticized and mystified and focuses on the beautiful nature and wildlife. I think these two images are really tight in our minds. Always when I leave Lusaka and see the landscape, I remember again that I'm really in Africa. Obviously, Lusaka is just as much in Africa but it's hard to remember it because it doesn't match the Africa of the images.

I thought that I'll go through some cliches and tell you how they look like from my point of view:

Poverty. Yes, there is poverty in Lusaka. It's not visually that clear though as you might expect - there are no mud huts with thatched roofs or desperate looking children with tattered clothing. There are people who struggle to provide adequate meals for the family, and who do live with less than a dollar per day. There's obviously a lot to this topic, and I'll try to write something more about it at some point. For more on the images of poverty, check this project that encourages to think beyond the pictures. (via Aidwatch)

Wars. Zambia is a peaceful country, just as I have been told numerous times. There are some refugee camps though, as some of Zambia's neighbors do not quite have as peaceful history as Zambia does (Think: DRC, Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia). They are visible only in that way that they are mentioned in the news, or as the presence of UNHCR.

Illiteracy. This is obviously difficult to judge, but I would say that it's not as big of a problem as you might imagine. Zambia's school system has it's problems (such as the low salaries for teachers, which makes them very unmotivated and the job in general not a very appealing one), but the school attendance rates are fairly good – especially in towns. According to UNICEF, the total adult literacy rate is 68 %.

Food. 95 % of time, we eat nsima (maize porridge) or rice, with vegetables and beef, chicken, fish, beans, eggs or sausages for dinner. Sometimes we have pasta as well. But yes, the odd stuff, such as caterpillars exists as well.

Heat. We've had day-time temperatures below 20°C and it's only going to get colder.

Wildlife. Again not very surprisingly, there isn't much of wildlife in Lusaka – outside zoos of some sort. National parks are more or less the only places where you can actually see wildlife, and even they have suffered because of poachers. I saw a hippo in Chirundu though, but that is already close to Lower Zambezi national park.

I used the excellent guide “How to write about Africa” as a source for inspiration. Any other cliches coming to your mind?