Friday, March 29, 2024

We Africans should stop conforming to the world sterotyping

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African vibes

Africa is well known across the globe, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons ranging from diseases, poor leadership, poor organisation, corruption, the list is endless. Indeed, we have been painted as a black continent. The question is who did the painting?

Africa must exonerate herself from this generally accepted yet misinformed believe. As Africans, we need to start taking cognizance that we are our own masters of our own destination. Selling your neighbour to win aid will not lift Africa out of poverty. What am I lamenting about this Africa? Poverty must never obscure the bigger picture, Africa is one big continent which if well-coordinated can perform better than European Union and other blocs.

I would like to castigate this at a country level-Zambia. As Zambians, how patriotic are we? Should everything revolve around political affiliation. Can we learn something from United Kingdom or United States of America? How they celebrate their citizens, the most recent being Donald J. Trump US President and Wayne Rooney of Manchester United Football Club, being the all-time top scorer for the club…… How well do we cherish our fellow citizen and wish to sacrifice for our fellow Zambian? Not political cadres but Zambians? Could it be that Zambia has been reduced to two political factions? Could it be that you are either PF or UPND? Could it be that everything now revolves around politics and there is no professionalism nor patriotism? Zambians, where are we?

Lamentations by a Patriot…

29 COMMENTS

  1. If you think that Americans celebrated Trump’s entry into the White House then you did not watch the protests on the Saturday after his inauguration. Most westerners do not wear their politics or tribe on their chests. Do you know if Rooney is Tory, Labour or Lib Dem? It’s different in Zambia and Africa. In Zambia we know that most of the national team is PF. Kalusha is PF etc etc. Again, some tribes think that their languages are so wonderful that every citizen must speak them. All these tactics are used to steal the national cake for a small group at the peril of the national interest. That’s why life is so partisan and tribal in Africa. It is all a fight for national resources.

    • He was just giving examples when he mentioned Trump an Rooney. Don’t get emotional, get the message in the writing as a whole. What is the writers concern? Open your mind.

    • laguage can not be said to be tribal. In every country there is a major language which a larger percent of a country speak. For example botswana- Shona, Zimbambwe-Shona, Malawi-Chichewa, Tanzania – Swahili, etc.
      It bogus my mind as to why Zambian do not object to speaking a colonial language English….is it not that it makes doing daily business within Zambia and outside easier? This is the same way people doing business find Bemba and Nyanja as easy languages to use in doing business within Zambia. There is nothing tribal about a language because people are not forced to speak but themselves learn a language because they find it to be a language which naturally people have accepted to do transaction in.

    • Rooney looks like a BNP member…lol. If say I am Lenje or Soli and I speak Nyanja and Bemba. I would be more advantaged than a Bemba who cant speak any other language but Bemba only. That’s how I see it. Learning a new language to communicate only opens my world to another world, making main bigger in the process. I am not defeated.

    • @Truth Hates
      One reason why we stick to using a colonial language is that you might not have commented on this article if the author had written it in his or her own language… say Chokwe, or Nkoya, or Luchazi….

      The real problem regarding language, as I see it, is that we have come to associate language with political affiliation. So if you you speak Bemba, Chewa, Bisa you’re seen as PF, and if you speak Tonga, Lozi, Ila you’re seen as UPND. Language and tribe are quickly becoming elements of political identity. Because we have degenerated into a culture of political intolerance, we are also cultivating a culture of language and tribe intolerance. Playing right into the stereotypes about Africa…

    • @Chilankalipa I think it will take long for you to be at the level of @Truth Hates if you use pride, arrogance and education as tools for reasoning into this sensitive issue and topic. One thing you must understand is that even English was not the only language of UK, actually it evolved to be what it is today and as long as we use this English as our official language we will ever be enslaved. China, Japan, Korea, Russia, France, Denmark, Norway etc use their own Languages! Why not us?

    • Was this article written by a 6th grader? Wow. The article is all over the place and says nothing much of substance. If you think the USA celebrated the election of Trump, then you haven’t been paying attention to the news, as someone already pointed out. And Africa is not labeled a “black” continent by racists, as you put it. Rather it’s labelled as the “DARK” continent, which was a word first used in the 1800s by Europeans, because of their ignorance concerning the interior of Africa, which was largely unknown to them, and thus mysterious. Today it’s used by racists as a pejorative to mean a backward and uncivilized continent.

    • @Truth-Seleniko Twikale
      You might have might missed my point, or perhaps I didn’t express myself clearly. I agree with both you and @Truth Hates that the use of English as the official language has crippled us in many ways. It may have opened some doors, but I think it has also closed others. My point was, we have not made an effort over time to learn our local languages. As a result, if I try to make a point in my language, I may not be able to reach you and many others. Additionally, we have come to a point in Zambia where people will ask you what tribe you are as a way of knowing what your political affiliation might be. Which for me is a sad state of affairs

    • Democracy where the majority population is functionally illiterate and poverty rules is perfect for gangsta type politicians. Voters give their vote on the cheap (for a kitenge and chibuku) not understanding the full value their vote holds. We are dictatorships by election. Our majority people need empowerment which doesn’t interest ambitious politicians. What to do Africa?

    • Good riddance! I hope you are happy blogging in total darkness due to powercuts for the rest of your miserable life despite your favourite party having stolen $9.2billion in 5 years.

  2. THE BLACK AFRICAN IS HIS OWN WORST ENEMY!!
    I wont waste time giving examples here, BUT we all know Zambia is a Rich Country, ruined by The Black Brain!

  3. The problem is Africans (Black people) are very short sighted and we lack knowledge as to who we are. I have been insulted on this blog for opening people’s eyes with regards to who we are as black people (Africans). First look at our languages as Bantu people from the north west of Africa to the South the Language is the same, all you can deduce is that the original ancient language itself has gone into some forced major metamorphosis splintering into myriad dialects. Slavery was not about farms and money in the Americas, it was about a people and their pride – to transform them into an inferior race on Earth. Please read the Willy Lynch letter about the making of a slave, it is all over the net, it will shed some light into the mindset of a black person towards a white Man.

  4. Africa’s problems will not be solved until we go back to the root cause, refocus our energies into re-education of the black person to bring back the lost esteem which make us shrink down every generation bellow is an except from the Willie Lynch Letter :
    “The Black slaves after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self refueling and self generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands.”
    This should scary looking at our behaviour as Black people (Africans). please find and read the whole letter.

    • Slavery came into Africa in the form of “COLONIALISM” which is still enveloping us as far as Africa is now! We are not free! Our Economies are run by the Western World (Roman System) Trump was inaugurated on “Capitol Hill” does the name ring a bell? Find out the origins of the Name and please honestly look at the architecture of the USA capital City. We have also borrowed the same names as We call our main Cities “Capital” do we even ask ourselves why we build our parliaments, courts and other judicial structures in the manner we build them.

    • And do we question why the stupid white wig is still being worn by our legal minds? Its as if our fore fathers never had “courts” that arbitrated in disputes and wrong doings!

  5. GOOD RIDING SKILLS. KEEP IT UP BOYS. WE HAVE PASSED THROUGH THAT, TOO. ON ANOTHER NOTE, ZAMBIA MUST EXPEDITE THE BICYCLE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. FYONSE FYALITUSHUPA SURE?

  6. Yeah, still blaming colonialism over 50 years after the British gave up power? Why aren’t Asians doing the same? Is it the west that asked Jammeh and Lungu to mess around with elections or the South Sudanese to shoot each other out or Mugabe to run Zimbabwe into the ground until he dies in office or the Congolese to make sure they cannot have a clean election in 60 years? The bottom line is that every African understands that your worst enemy is a fellow African. It is another African that will sell you into slavery, plunder your home and r@pe your wife and daughters, and steal your electoral victory.

    • This is the typical mindset I am talking about that does not look at issues critically, you know what we lack is planning. The west plan for over 200 0r even 500 years but for you because of being so blank upstairs (brain-washed to the core) want reap results without even planning, now that is a Black man, ni mbushi nga uleitwala kumulemfwe ilakana sana when it reaches the green grass it starts eating without even moving. Politics are nothing, what we need is a realisation of a people to know who you are. Hillary Clinton attended the the inauguration of Trump because She knows who She is. I don’t respect people like you @Buck Teeth Lungu if you were put in power you will do the same evils you have tabulated above.

    • 100% MY VIEW AS WELL!!
      Africans love baseless excuses, whist making the same mistakes over & over again.
      We even have Black Boneheads in Zambia today who Believe DEAD Short Late Religous Criminal Frederick Kiluba should be looked up to, & respected in our communities, oblivious that what the High heel loving JEZEBEL Kiluba did to Zambia was Economic Sabotage, & set Zambia’s development back decades, if one includes the cash also embezzled by his “Tokolosh Henchmen” like, Xavier Chungu, Shansonga, Katele, Maxwell Mwamba, & other Criminals under his command.
      IN ANY FUNCTIONING SANE NON- FAILED STATE, THAT SHORT BANDIT WOULD BE ROTTING IN AN UNMARKED PRISON GRAVE, & NOT EMBASSY PARK!!
      Any Wonder Black Africa lags behind on this Planet??

    • Cont;
      I agree with Buck Teeth, still blaming colonialism, after 50 years of “so called Independence”, whils the majority of your citizens still sh1t in holes or bushes, or go to school under trees, despite the Billions of U$ Dolllars in state coffers dissapearing into a Black Hole! SHAME!!

  7. The article is directionless. You wonder what the author is trying to say. His headline is not so sensible: what’s the meaning of “We Africans should stop conforming to the world sterotyping?” The contributions in the form of the readers’ posts are equally directionless. Most posters haven’t bothered to read in their hurry to show their opinions

  8. I thunk that rather blaming others lets look at ourselves first to see if we can improve….have goal, plan wor, to that goal and find reasons to actually do something. We find reasons not to something rather than start and finish the project…. don’t blame others look at ourselves.

    Stereotypying is copying…..so why havent we progresssed

    • Like I’ve said above most people are commenting without understanding anything. Stereotyping is not copying. It is group characterising. I don’t know how the author related this to his here and there attempt at discussion

  9. PW BOTHA TO HIS CABINET (1985)
    “By now every one of us has seen it practically that the Blacks cannot rule themselves. Give them guns and they will kill each other. They are good in nothing else but making noise, dancing, (Dununa regret Lungu) marrying many wives and indulging in sex. Let us all accept that the Black man is the symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence. Isn’t it plausible, therefore that the White man is created to rule the Black man? Come to think of what would happen one day if you woke up and on the throne sat a Kaff*ir! Can you imagine what would happen to our women? Does anyone of you believe that the Blacks can rule this country?”

  10. My dictionary sas stereotyped repeated without variation,lacking originality or individuality. tired stale hackneyed.
    But then again who am I to disagrre with the learned Bapompo Babufi
    And group characterising is,,,,,,you tell me.

    • You need to get a better dictionary. Try Miriam Webster. To stereotype is to have preconceived notions about people: blacks are criminals is a common stereotype. A stereotype is especially about a group of people. Many stereotypes are racist, sexist, or tribalist

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