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Major
Geographical Event in Southern Africa
Over the last few
years, right before our very eyes, a major geographical event has
been taking place in Southern Africa and it is just now that we are
becoming aware of this.
So what is this
major event?
It would seem
that a continental shift has taken place - the Limpopo River has
widened to become an ocean and South Africa is no longer part of the
African continent. It is now an island, much like SpiderMonkey
Island of Dr Doolittle fame and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean
to the west, the Indian Ocean to the east and the Limpopo Ocean to
the north. Sadly, we have not been able to obtain final confirmation
of this as, at press time, we were still awaiting confirmation from
Mr Harrison Murphy, the Director General of OMC (Organisation for
Movious Continents), whose headquarters are based in Puddleby-On-The-Marsh.
OK, we'll be
serious now.
Last year I
attended the Getaway Show in Cape Town and was approached by one
lady, who proudly informed me 'ag ja man, we are going to Africa for
our holidays this year'. She did not seem to understand my comment
'oh, I thought you were a Cape Town resident'. I put it down to my
accent.
Since then, I
have been mulling that comment around in my mind.
In June this
year, I was reading a South African magazine which deals with road
transport and at the end of an article about a South Africa
transporter who had some problems whilst transporting an abnormal
load to Zimbabwe were these comments by the transporter and the
exporter of the load - 'I am finished with Africa ...' and 'I will
never travel into Africa again'.
These comments
reflect the attitude of many South Africans that anything north of
the Limpopo is inferior and to be looked down upon, that any person
living north of the Limpopo must be intellectually challenged and
therefore to be pitied and that living north of the Limpopo is
dangerous (ag, aren't you scared?). Sadly, it is probably this very
attitude that creates so many problems for them when they do venture
north of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo.
Yet the reality
of the situation is this : yes, South Africa is very much more
developed than many countries north of it, yes, it does have a
stronger economy and yes, a smaller proportion of their population
live below the poverty line, but it is still a third world country,
with third world problems.
We have no advice
to offer our South African brothers except to suggest that they push
aside the boerewors curtain which is blinding their view of reality.
As if to prove
all the above, I was, last week, reading an August edition of You
magazine. Below is the letter from Godfrey Chungu which was
contained therein:
I have a
complaint to make through your magazine (which I like very much). I
am very disappointed with the TV show Isidingo. Maggie pretended to
be stranded at Lusaka International Airport and said: 'I am at
Lusaka airport and it stinks and there are no chairs and it's dirty.
Our airport is small but clean and there are enough chairs; you can
even sleep on the floor. It might not be as big as Joburg airport
but it is just as clean. Our economy is bad because of our
involvement in trying to liberate southern Africa, including your
country. We kept a good number of South Africans; now we become
dirt. I ask the makers of this programme to withdraw this statement.
It is damaging.
We agree
wholeheartedly with Mr Chungu's sentiments - it is this sort of
comment by people who have probably never been anywhere near Zambia
that create a negative image of this country. And it is this sort of
comment that gets peoples back up when they hear someone is from
South Africa. An apology is certainly due from the makers of this
television series.
And for Mr Chungu
- if you could contact us, we would like to give you the first 'Just
Zambian' award (see full details in this issue of The Lowdown) |
October
2005