Seize Wisdom

In my younger years, I recall one of the many days when i sat down with my father in our living room, at a time when all my elder siblings had been away for school, in various locations across the country. "My son, as you grow older and face different people and situations in life, you must never be sheepish". Not having as good a command of the language, I thought the old man had made a mistake and I tried to correct him. "You mean cheapish?" I inquired, to which my father resoundingly refused and emphasized that "Sheepish" was correct.

 

He went on to explain the meaning of the word and the lesson behind his choice of the word. It was evident that the old man was not only imparting wisdom but also schooling me in as far as the English language was concerned. It was yet again a re-affirmation of what I had already known, that Superman had nothing on my father.

 

My eager ears facilitated this transfer of wisdom thereby complying with the universal truth that "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear".

 

A question we must all ask ourselves is;"when was the last time we had a candid and enjoyable conversation with our elders?”. For hundreds of years, Africans depended on the direct story telling and interaction of elders and children to transfer knowledge and wisdom. Both groups; the children and the elders, found this not only enriching but also entertaining so much that the very first consideration for nanny duties rested with the grandparents. It is very obvious that our ancestors were on to something with this arrangement as a platform for knowledge and wisdom transfer.

 

Our society has, unfortunately separated from these ideals by adopting paid Nannies to take up the roles grandparents previously handled thereby perpetuating the development of a generation with limited wisdom and tradition, owing to the fact that, for the most part, children in their most formative years; have predominantly the limited wisdom and tradition of the Nanny from which to learn.

 

This trend, now just as prevalent in African society, has been attributed to the increase in not only the cost of living but also the pace of life. This is even more pronounced in households where both the wife and the husband hold day jobs that keep them away from their children during office hours. The extra gap created by the absence of the "mother" at home has bred a thriving industry for nanny services.

 

The obvious casualty in this of course is the transfer of wisdom from grandparents to the children,infact even to the parents who return home from work ever so tired, without the energy to make the effort and time to satisfactorily interact with their elders.

 

It is well documented that the ancient Egyptians invented the first form of writing, this they used to record history and their many other inventions. This also became the means for the transmission of cultural and traditional teachings to the young generations. An argument can therefore be made that upon realization that with civilization, the need to develop an alternative way for recording knowledge and wisdom to be transferred to the next generation, other than the interaction with elders and parents, who are kept ever so busy by civilization, needed to be developed.

 

This belief that we can receive all the knowledge and wisdom from books is what is prevalent even in modern times, coupled with a misconception that the old ways from our elders are "old fashioned". With hundreds of thousands of books available in various media on any topic, it has once again become difficult to know which book is telling the truth.

 

"Wisdom is the ability to act using knowledge,experiance,understanding,common sense and insight"(Wikipedia)

 

From the definition above ,it would be correct to suggest that one of the best places to find wisdom is in our elders who can easily be assumed,by virtue of their years to have "Insight" and "Experience",in short,the things we may not be able to read out of a book.It is also true to tread carefully as not all elderly people may be said to be wise.

 

Owing to their understanding and common sense, most elders will not volunteer their wisdom but will freely provide it to those that seek it.The responsibility therefore rests with those of us seeking wisdom to be ever ready to notice avenues from whence we may access this wisdom and seize it.

 

Driving back to Lusaka, having attended the funeral mass and burial of the late, His Grace,The Most Reverend Archbishop James Mwewa Spaita(MHSRIEP),I could hardly shake the sense of major loss that had overcome me.I felt, as I still do today, that this great opportunity to sit down and interact with this great man was no more. The expanse of his years on earth,52 of which as a priest gave him a rare and great perspective on which to hinge his profound wisdom.

 

The question lingers;When was the last time we seized the opportunity to have a chat with our elders? Its a question we must avoid having the need to ask ourselves by improving our interactions with our elders and thereby receive the wisdom of the ages.

 

At the end of it all,what wisdom shall you give your children if you do not have any? Old age is no guarantee of wisdom,seize the opportunity now.“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
― William Shakespeare, As You Like It    

 

50 Year Old Smile of Africa!!

Just think about it, take the map of Africa, shade out all the other countries and leave out Zambia...it truly does look like a smile of Africa, and it truly is.

As much of the Country was building up for the major celebrations for Zambia's golden Jubilee, I struggled to get into the mood to truly celebrate, I mean, why should I? A great many people shared this view. The major part of our upbringing is plagued with evidence of the many opportunities Zambia has missed, it is a well accepted position that, had Zambia put its development ahead of its politics, it would have been rivaling many of the developed nations of this world.

In the late 1970s and the early 1980s,the years of my birth and of course childhood, the name Kaunda was synonymous with the word President, it was common for kids to confidently ask who, for instance, "the Kaunda" for Tanzania was, others kids, just as confidently,would provide an answer without questioning the flaw in the question; this goes to exhibit what those in the marketing profession would refer to as "product positioning". Indeed, Kaunda had positioned himself so well in our generation to the extent that we believed he was the presidency. Others in the political sphere would simply refer to this as indoctrination, I am somewhat inclined to agree with the later.

This positioning of Kaunda also enabled the citizens to some extent adopt the spirit of the man Kaunda, a humanist at heart, a fighter for togetherness as evidenced even in the slogan he coined; "One Zambia, One Nation". Of all the faults many will find in his tenure, it is hard to avoid noticing the efforts this humanist put into ensuring that the 72 tribes of Zambia put their oneness ahead of any ethnic polarities. This remains the reality of modern Zambia with so many inter-tribe marriages that the biggest pure ethnicity is Zambianess.

As the late Stev Jobs put it, the dots of life can only be connected from top to bottom, as if following a pre-written script,5 presidents in 5 decades is a statistic often overlooked.2014,Zambia's jubilee year, under the leadership of Zambia's 5th president and over two decades after Kaunda's rule, the unique attributes that where the pinnacle of Kaunda's rule managed to survive 3 other presidents and are destined to survive the current president. It should therefore be worth betting on these attributes as being part and parcel of being a Zambian.

The question, however still lingers.Why should we be celebrating? Our economy has not realized the potential it has for some many years been highlighted to have, we still battle with poverty,disease,poor infrastructure? To ask this question, as many of my fellow Zambian's would tell you, is to fail to appreciate the reality, the core of being a Zambian.

Those in the know have been celebrating since the turn of the year, the fireworks littered the night skies of Lusaka and many other metropolitan places in the country, dancing the night away climaxed by the countdown as the clocked ticked October 23rd away and ushered in 24th of October 2014,Zambia's Independence Jubilee. This level of euphoric celebration was last seen in February 2012 when Zambia lifted its maiden CAF Africa Cup Trophy.

"One land and one nation is our cry,

Dignity and peace 'neath Zambia's sky,

Like our noble eagle in its flight,...."

We celebrate because we are Zambians, those that celebrate only when the sun shines on them are not intrinsic, we celebrate because of an even more important reason, our oneness, the moment we wait for outward tangible reasons to celebrate, is the day we lose our independence to those that can control that object.We are free of such dependencies and this freedom enables us to smile even when it is dark because we have the freedom to do something about that darkness.The Zambian National Anthem puts it very clearly,"One land and one nation is our cry,dignity and peace neath Zambia's skies".By celebrating our oneness,we are actually standing by the pledge in our anthem,One land and one nation is our cry.

As the proceedings of Jubilee celebrations went on country wide,i could not but appreciate that this freedom we have came at a price, this is the angle many of the older generation appreciate even more whilst my generation struggles with it.What makes it easier for us to appreciate are the ideals the "freedom fighters" stood for and enshrined in our national anthem.Today ,we honor their sacrifice in song and dance, we appreciate.With this appreciation comes a realization that freedom also brings responsibility,a responsibility to keep the ideals of the founding patrons of this nation and use their foundation to create a better Zambia for our children.

An echoing reminder in my mind says, only babies are truly free as they have free minds.Freedom to think and map out a successful Zambia is what we won from colonialism.We have 50 years experience on what doesn't work, its time to usher in a 50 years of strategies that work.We are out of laboratory now, we ready to conquer the future and usher in a successful Zambia were we shall truly say

"Free men we stand,Under the flag of our land"

A flag that was holstered in honor of the new nation, Zambia, in 1964 at the source of the Zambezi river, in the Kaleni Hills of north western Zambia.

Do you still not appreciate why we celebrate? We celebrate because we are free Zambians and citizens of this proud smile of Africa have been able to say this for 50 years now. Happy 50th birthday mother Zambia.