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Welcome to the World
By Claire Price, U.K.
Voices from Africa tell us much about hope - there's hope even when you're born into the poorest family in your village, hope when your father abandons you as a child, hope when you become the primary care giver for your siblings before you're an adult yourself.
"In Zambia, you laugh with others, dance with others and greet others whether you know them or not. It’s even more impressive that people smile despite the problems inherent to their daily lives." -Claire Price
Teaching media at Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation in Zambia for six months taught me much about hope. Daily survival in Zambia is hard. Most people have just one meal a day - usually nshima, a porridge-like mixture made from ground maize. It is normally cooked on an outdoor coal burning stove. To make the nshima edible, if not tasty, families will add a relish of ‘greens', tomatoes and on good days, sometimes meat stew.
The economy relies on the price of copper exports, which fluctuates according to world markets. Incredibly, Zambia's GDP doesn't grow each year, it drops. According to government records, 90% of the population is unemployed. That's not exactly true - most of these people aren't in official employment but they do work as farmers, market traders or cleaners.
Farming is difficult in Zambia unless you have enough capital to build irrigation systems. In the south, near Livingstone, white landowners cultivate acres of land. Where I stayed in the Copperbelt, farms are simply cleared out areas of bush, often too dry to grow cash crops. These farmers only provide enough to sell in the local markets, generating enough income to feed their families.
I recently returned to Zambia, and became reacquainted with the problems I had chosen to ignore since my return to the UK. I saw again how families were torn apart by AIDS, how widows are left destitute by their relatives, how it is considered a crime to speak out against the government.
AIDS in Zambia is rife. As many as 16% of the adult population is HIV positive. That rises to 25% in the Copperbelt. Everyone I spoke to knew about its causes, and knew how to avoid infection. But somehow head-knowledge has not yet had a significant impact on behaviour. There's also still a stigma attached to HIV/AIDS as it's seen by some as a punishment from God.
So why did I want to go to Zambia? I have to admit that I didn't want to change the world, nor did I want to experience suffering. I went to Zambia because I was attracted by the vibrancy of African culture. My African friends in the UK had shown me the beauty of a culture that acknowledges and celebrates the value of others. I wanted to experience that for myself.
And I did. In Zambia, you laugh with others, dance with others and greet others whether you know them or not. It's even more impressive that people smile despite the problems inherent to their daily lives. The Zambian people taught me some important lessons in life - the most important being perspective.
The questions my experience raised have been raised a million times. How can we be so obsessed with diets and celebrities when people don't have enough to eat? How can we abuse our freedom of expression when people are still struggling to achieve it? Is aid or trade the answer to Africa's problems?
There is hope for southern Africa. It's expressed in the articles that were written by a few of my students that follow. These young people are the new generation of educated, visionary young people. I hope you'll be impressed by them as much as I am.
Hanging On To Hope by Mwansa Chali, Zambia
Changing the Paradigm by Pascalinah Kabi, Lesotho, Africa
Tomorrow’s Role Model by Royce Phiri, Zambia
Setting the Stage for Malawi’s Future by Mphatso Thole, Malawi
