Monthly Archives: November 2015

by

Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph. D.

Professor of Sociology

Princess Zindaba Nyirenda, Ta Lakata: The Tears of Africa,  New York: Eloquent Books, 2009, 209 pp., 30.00 US Dollars, Hard Cover.

The world has information technology explosion; the internet, the cell phone, texting, twitter, blogs, journals, television, and on-line Newspapers. There are thousands of books being published every day. As I was quickly browsing through the “Acknowledgements” of  “Ta – Lakata – Tears of Africa”, something unusual caught my eye. A few italicized words were in a language dear to my heart: “akulu bane-yebo” – my older brother thank you; “mukanilinda yebo” – you escorted me thank you; “Bena Mphamba, munyakeso cha!” – we are Mphamba people, no one else. The italicized language was my mother tongue; the Tumbuka African language from ten thousand miles away from Lundazi in the remote Eastern Province of Zambia in Southern Africa.

Excitement

I was excited; I took a triple take at the cover of the book, and quickly flipped through the pages. What I saw was not only heartwarming but very stunningly familiar. I wanted to tell everyone I met, call my neighbors, my friends, all Americans, Africans, and all Zambians to read the book. This is the story of a woman who grew up about twenty-one miles from my home village. But her adult life is very different. Although we never crossed paths earlier in our lives in Zambia, we share a very common foundation just growing up with some aspects of traditional Zambia. This common foundation may be true for and shared by many Zambian and African women as well as men of her generation.

She was born Princess Zindaba Nyirenda of the royal family of Chief Mphamba of the Tumbuka people of Lundazi in Zambia. What makes her story riveting and keeps you turning pages is how she immigrated to the United States at the age of 21 in 1985.  She accompanied her husband with their children but experienced unpredictable pain of separation and suffering with her whole family being ten thousand miles away back in Zambia in Africa. The most devastating is when dozens of her siblings, relatives, and former classmates died of HIV/AIDS. Zindaba recalls them as the dreaded midnight calls. She sought solace and comfort in God, prayer, and the Bible during such moments of deep grief.

“Ta –Lakata; The Tears of Africa”  is the untold story of the contemporary African who has the long umbilical cord connected to Africa but lives abroad most of her adult life. How does one reconcile the tensions of the abject poverty, death, AIDS orphans, and the suffering that exists in Africa, on the one hand,  and the wealth, affluence, and excesses of the  Unites States, on the other hand? No wonder Zindaba feels frustrated, disappointed, depressed, and in some cases angry.

Narrative Tone

The urgent-tone narrative of the book is right from the busy multi-tasking contemporary reader who has the cell phone in hand, texts and twits people, eats a hamburger while watching TV: the book reads fast and furious. The book demands not to be put down not even for a few minutes. The title “Ta Lakata” draws on the metaphor of dry leaves falling off the tree, floating away, and falling all over the world. These are the Africans and Zambians who floated away from the homeland tree of Africa but live all over the world today including the United States.

Zindaba shares intimate details about her family growing up in the city and then a rural  small sleepy town of Lundazi. Her journey from this small town, to St. Monica’s Girls Catholic School, to University of Zambia, and finally the United States is fascinating because she uses a furious and in some places provocative narrative. Describing childhood in her family, Zindaba says: “The Nyirenda children were known in our town as “tubazungu” (the little white girls), because we spoke a lot of English and led a pro-Western lifestyle, and because in a place that traditionally expects only boys to be leaders, we, the girls, created our own entertainment for the village children.” (p.25)

This reflects the many contractions and conflicts that were inherent in many Africans of many generations perhaps since the 1880s in the classic novel “Things Fall Apart” by the renowned African writer Chinua Achebe.  This is the conflict between Western Christian culture and indigenous Tumbuka or African lifestyles. For example, describing  her experiences in the village Chinamwali traditional girls initiation ceremony, Zindaba says:

“Here I was, a girl from the city who danced to discotheque music like the songs of Michael Jackson’s  “Thriller” and The Commodores, reciting all their lyrics by heart. And the women in the village were beating drums demonstrating and teaching me how to wiggle my waistline. “My God, this child is stiff!” they would exclaim angrily……..After this whole episode, I graduated with mkanda strand of beads adorning my waistline, ……….” (p. 103-104)

Conflicting Influences

Clearly, these powerful conflicting influences are apparent in her entire book.

Zindaba links her personal family tragedy to the last five chapters in which she challenges all readers to day to find a solution to poverty, HIV/AIDS, orphaned children and death in Africa. Zindaba proposes that the heavy contamination of drinking water and pollution by the mining industry chemical waste disposal, unclean drinking water in the entire country, and malaria may be leading to poverty, disease, suffering, and the high death rates in Zambia and Africa. What is the reader going to do? Why is there so much silence among Africans and Zambians about these serious problems especially wide spread deaths from HIV/AIDS?

“This AIDS epidemic is indicative that the land and the air is so polluted, and people are not going to survive until we address the source of this calamity and dilemma in the Southern hemisphere. People are dying, suffering from every single thing and more – a product of careless mining efforts and mess that is man-made, engineered by human hands in the quest of materialism and spreading civilization – and no one is doing anything about it. People are choosing to remain silent, and this silence reigns.” (p. 169)

Is it because of deep shame? She does not spare herself blame for being silent for so long. What is very eerie is that in the very last part of the chapter of the book, she gets another mid-night phone call; her sister had just died of HIV/AIDS.

African Elites

The book is about the elite Africans who were born in the 1960s at the dawn political independence from European colonialism in Africa coming to intellectual maturity. They want to tell their own story and ask the difficult problems of globalization today. The book is passionate and refreshing as it is no longer about how an American reporter, Western technocrat, or International AID worker sees the lives of Africans. We have enough of these books.  It is an African herself passionately expressing and narrating her point of view and perhaps the views and experiences of many Zambians and Africans in the Diaspora.

I highly recommend this book for all readers who want to understand what it means to be an African living abroad to day. I especially recommend it for all young and older Zambians and Africans who live in the Diaspora. This book will expose you to a little bit about our history, the role of Christianity and spirituality in our lives, some of the triumphs, joys and nostalgia we enjoy. Zindaba will also expose you to the pain, grief, heart breaks and frustrations we endure every day, and some of the hope, the possible questions and solutions to our lives. The book really expresses the strength and resilience we have always had as Zambians and Africans.

 

 

by

Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph. D.

Professor of Sociology

We are only fourteen days from the terrible Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed and scores wounded. Before that, suicide bombings in Beirut had killed 43 and wounded 239. Two days before the Paris attacks, Boko Haram in Nigeria had killed an estimated 60 people and wounded hundreds in suicide bombings. There is heightened anxiety and vigilance about whether these terror campaign bombings and shootings will hit the American streets. One can ask the question: “What should we have Thanksgiving for when we are living with so much terror, death and war?” Where is God?

This is what we should characterize not as the fog of war but the fog of life. The most troubling memories from those who survived the immediate aftermath of the total destruction after nuclear bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan to end WW II, was not just the utter devastation itself the likes of which no one had seen before. But it was the aimless wandering of survivors as there were no other human beings in sight to help the wounded survivors and the destitute in cities of more than 300,000 thousand.

This Thanksgiving we should be thankful that the survivors of the Paris massacres, the Beirut bombings, and the Boka Haram killings have police, the military, emergency workers, hospitals, doctors, nurses, families, neighbors and all of us who offered them love and consoled them. We should be thankful that those killed can be laid to rest is safe peaceful cemeteries. We have been there with candle lights at make shift memorials.

These tragic events this Thanksgiving may be the best moments for us to acknowledge what we have lost, appreciate what we have, and the best we can truly hope for tomorrow. We have lost so many people and military members in the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. We have lost so many lives to guns due to gun violence in cities, neighborhoods, streets, families, schools and colleges. Many of us may have an empty seat at the Thanksgiving table because a member of the family passed away this year who might have been a patriarch or matriarch in so many ways we might never have truly realized until they were gone. Others are grown children who have moved away to distant places for work and marriage. All we have is their empty seat and place mat. Pets that used to hover under the table may also have passed away.

The brightest part of Thanksgiving is if the family has the newest member who was born or was adopted this past year. The new exciting addition of the baby may sooth some of the emptiness we may feel as families. That empty seat will have a baby booster on it with a young person who is wondering what this spectacle is all about with all the chatter, cheer, laughter, smells and taste of food, and clanking silverware. Next year the new member of the family will forever know what Thanksgiving dinner is and will happily anticipate and participate in it for many years to come. We should all be thankful that we have each other and can still feel good, have hope and be optimistic about tomorrow. If anything happened we still have other people who love us and can depend on whether we are in America, Nigeria, Syria, France, or Beirut this Thanksgiving. May be God is still present after all.

by

Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph. D.

Professor of Sociology

Since the British colonized the then Northern Rhodesia now independent Zambia in late 1800s, we have been made to believe that English is the only, best, and superior language to express thought. We have English as the official language which we use in education from the first grade all the way to secondary school and university. Since Zambia’s independence about 50 years ago, with Zambia now having over 17 universities, we have never really seriously questioned or even explored whether English is the only and best way to express sophisticated thought. What about our 17 major Zambian languages which include Nyanja, Bemba, Tonga, Lozi, Kaonde, and dozens of others? Can they be used to convey sophisticated thought?

Communicating in a Zambian Language Video Clip

I have always known that our indigenous Zambian languages may be best for communicating, exploring, and even for research and development, technical inventions and innovations which we have been erroneously made to believe are only possible using English only. There is a 2.12 minute video clip that has been viewed more than 56,000 times that clearly confirms that we can use our Zambian languages to explain basic principles of electricity as one example. The language the boy used to explain his ideas is Lusaka Nyanja which is the lingua franca of the Capital City of Lusaka. In the video clip, a poor boy from Misisi compound in Lusaka holds a model he had built from discarded material himself to explain basic principles of electricity. https://www.facebook.com/samson.phiri.7/videos/1050732518280060/?pnref=story

He does this in such a surprisingly articulate way, that even I, as a grown man who has a Ph. D but not in electrical engineering, could instantly grasp the principles of electricity from the Kariba Hydroelectric Dam to my own domestic use may be in Lusaka or Kitwe, or Luanshya. Some have suggested that Zesco should have used this boy to explain power shading to the public.

Recommendations

The vast majority of viewers of the video clip comment that Zesco should sponsor the boy, government should sponsor the boy, and some even have said they could individually volunteer to sponsor the boy to get an education. He is clearly a boy who lives in poverty right now. My own reaction is that large institutions like Zesco and especially the Zambian government may already be preoccupied. Samson Phiri who made the video can track down the boy. He can start a fund drive that will first and foremost educate the boy. I would start by donating a hundred dollars myself toward the fund. If there is more money, he can start a program that will educate all the boys and girls who have been found to be as intellectually creative as that boy. There are thousands of talented boys and girls in Zambia who are like the boy in the video. But because of poverty and lack of opportunity, the boys and girls cannot use their creative talents for themselves as well as for the whole nation.

First and foremost, we have to make sure that corruption is completely removed. If the 56,000 viewers of the video clip each donate just 5 dollars or K65.00, a total of 280,000 dollars or K3.6 million would be raised. If we can keep all the corruption out of this, this would be enough money to educate the boy, but may be hundreds of other boys and girls who have similar creative talent but live in poverty. If we harness this boy’s creative talents, there are also other benefits for you and me and the whole country. There are many possible benefits but I identify the possible two.

Teaching Pedagogy

What the boy is illustrating in the video clip is what is called teaching pedagogy in sophisticated lingo. The boy clearly illustrates teaching methods or how we should teach from the first grade, all through secondary school, up to higher education in colleges and universities. His methodology and simplicity should be incorporated into teaching which may involve bilingualism. This means teaching both in indigenous Zambian languages and English language in order to maximize clarity when explaining a complex subject to anyone especially students in a classroom and even the public. All my fellow teachers from grade one to college lecturers should take note of the basic fundamental principles of this video clip.

Construction of Models

The simple hand held but quite sophisticated model illustrating basic principles of electricity and the power grid can be manufactured on a large scale by Zesco and other manufacturers in Zambia. These models can be of so many different types of sciences which could be sold to thousands of schools. The models could be in biology, physics, chemistry, geography, astronomy, botany, medicine, anatomy, physiology, computers, engineering, and many others. The simple but cheap models could be exported to neighboring and other countries in the world which could also use them in schools, colleges and university. That could create both jobs in the country and exports. Instead of waiting for hard to convince foreign investors, Zambian entrepreneurs, companies, educators, individuals and others could easily join in this very exciting possible profitable venture that could help enhance education.

Creative Talents in Zambia

There are thousands of young boys and girls in Zambia who have creative talents but live in poverty. One such boy is my own nephew Abiuldi Banda who lives in poverty with his parents, his brothers and sisters in Lundazi. But the boy had incredible creative talents, curiosity and was always experimenting building and testing different models of science from when he was a small boy. Once he completed Grade 12 in 2012, he was admitted to UNZA. But his parents did not have money and the government bursary was not available to him. He is now languishing with wasted talent that he and the nation could benefit from. There are thousands such boys and girls in Zambia. As a nation we just need to harness these talents for the benefit of both the individual boys and girls but also for the entire nation of 13 million people. Mr. Samson Phiri could start the ball rolling without waiting for the government, Zesco, or someone else to start what would be the best project for the nation ever.

Zambian Languages and Sophisticated Idea

If you are still skeptical that Zambian languages can be used to express sophisticated ideas that can only be expressed in English, I believe in practice. I wrote an academic article in

English a few years ago. I translated the abstract into Tumbuka and Nyanja languages. You can try also to translate the abstract into Lozi, Kaonde, Tonga or Bemba Zambian languages. There is a link to the complete academic article in English. The title of the article is: “Eurocentric Destruction of Indigenous Conceptions: the Secret Rediscovery of the Beautiful Woman in African Societies.”

1. http://people.bridgewater.edu/~mtembo/menu/articles/BanthuBakaziKukongolaAbstractDec92009.pdf (Nyanja)
2. http://people.bridgewater.edu/~mtembo/menu/articles/BanthuBanakaziKutowaAbstractDec92009.pdf (Tumbuka)
3. http://people.bridgewater.edu/~mtembo/menu/articles/AfricanBeautyRevisedMarch162010.pdf (Abstract and Full Article in English)