Lusaka City market: I did not feel like 'Mokwerekwere'

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Monday October 25, 2010 00:00

I liked Zambia, the hospitality was unquestionable, the food was good - vegetables are an important component of the dishes; environmental friendliness is also one of their best practices - beverage bottles are reused. I could have stayed but I had an obligation to duty and my country. But if I was allowed to resign while on a job trip, I could have electronically mailed my resignation letter and taken up a freelance job with The Big Issue of Zambia! 'My name is from Zambia, Kayawe, yes it's from that side,' this is what I heard the first day I started my secondary education in 2000.

Indeed I belonged; because of my name I felt a part of them at heart - the chitenge (the national fabric) shirt I bought at the Lusaka City Market completed everything.

One very influential gentleman, my English language and literature teacher Inambao Mulumemui, I will never forget. He would begin his lectures with an emphasis on all factors that groomed an individual into being a resourceful and responsible citizen of the globe. For instance, he abhorred late-coming and encouraged that students carry all the learning material for period one to four as a way of avoiding coming late in between classes.

'Latecomers eat bones, latecomers drink dregs,' he would say.  He was always by the door to give us latecomers our bone, just a minute after time his cane was summoned to duty. Like Eddie Iroh's protagonist in Without A Silver Spoon; Ure Chokwe I endured the beatings for the first week of my Form One but soon the medicine that his cane was, healed the late coming malady I suffered.

Since I was introduced to the Zambian community back in 2000, I felt a part of them. I never regarded them as the other, like most students in my institution did. Do you know othering? It is a way of defining and securing one's own positive identity through the stigmatisation of an'other,'- a social differentiation that shapes the meaning of ''them' and us'. However, whether they are racial, geographic, ethnic, economic or ideological, there is always a danger that they will become the basis for a self-affirmation that depends upon the denigration of the other group. Othering is often expressed in our society through usage of words such as 'motswako', 'motswante' and 'mokwerekwere'.

Most importantly I not only liked the magnitude of their (Zambian teachers) impact towards instilling dedication towards learning (not that the Batswana teachers didn't shape my today) but also their parenting skills. Most of them would negatively stereotype us, though they would not openly say it, that our nation lacked discipline which, to some extent, I agreed with.

Their dedication towards the academics was top notch, Habeenzu Haamilandu - son of my Home Economics teacher - was among those who had given their lives to the alphabet, with a competitive spirit as well. Not that Batswana are not hard workers, there were the likes of Kegabeng Poromate, Tselapedi Ketswabisitswe, Itshokeng Letsema, and the duo of Augustine Tigere and Kgatlhegang Kelebekae - who gave me a tough time as I was a below average student in mathematics.

When I packed my suitcase for Lusaka last week, in my minds' eye I knew where I was going though I had never been there physically. With Zambia having being brought to me by the educational system, I felt I owed a huge part of my academic career to the likes of Mulumemui and Haamilandu; and for some reason it had to be the first southern African country I visit. Not that I am bestowed the gift of foreseeing the future; but it so happened-I did not decide, the British Council in Botswana did through sponsoring a training workshop on climate change.

On the second day of my six-day stay in Rupiah Banda's sovereign state, I visited the market place where vendors converge every sunrise to eke out a living. Here, everything and anything is sold, from groceries, confectioneries, meat products, electronics and furniture. It is a highly populated area, as vendors advertise their products at the top of their voices.

I immediately disliked the butcheries because as much as it is economically wise for the lower class, the stench of the rotting meat pronounced heavy wallets for the sellers and ill health for the end users.   

Lusaka City market just like any other 'black market' in Africa is a living testimony of the importance of the informal sector towards any country's economy. Today, the role of the informal sector in African economies towards economic growth, generation of employment and incomes, and poverty reduction cannot be overemphasized. Here, prices are lowered in the evenings and I managed to get myself a beautiful wallet for K20,000 instead of parting with an additional 10, 000 pins (as the currency is called in the street language).

It is at this market that I came across President Banda's unpopularity among his people, next year's upcoming elections is the talk of the town and quite a number of would-be voters I talked to are against his ways of doing things-especially those from the Copperbelt area.

'His administration has accentuated the problem of locals not gaining anything from the resources as foreigners continue to be rich at our expense, at least the late Levy Mwanawasa was on the right track on this issue,' a woman in her late 30s, said. 

Most want Banda to re-nationalise the mines, though the concept has failed Zambia before. The recent Chinese shootings of Zambian miners has just added salt to an open wound.

Politics is talked of everywhere. Just like any market place, the Lusaka City Market is captivating, for it is everything - an economic centre, political and social forum as well; as I overhead a group of women discuss their stokvel performance after buying heaps of vegetables!

Women carry huge sacks of their products after sunset, making their way home after the market closes.

Consumers who are also heading home flood the market to make their final purchases of household necessities, making use of the lowered evening prices.

Having watched the Zambian people's way of doing things through the Lusaka Market, I cannot claim to know them - but I would love to! My companion (Malikana Mulumemui - a student of Water Engineering at the Natural Resources Development College (NRDC) and I board a mini bus to Arcades Protea Hotel where I stayed as my observation exercise closes when the market did, when the time for paying for the ride comes I produce a K500 - everyone reels in laughter, as the sum is not even sufficient to buy an handkerchief.

I loved Zambia, I could have stayed as I was not an outsider (mokwerekwere).

I nearly even tasted how it felt to be a millionaire when I touched a million Kwacha (P2,000) wristwatch!