By Dr.Charles Ngoma
Wherever I go in Zambia I see imitation. We are very good imitators but the trouble is we do not imitate the right things. We are good imitators of fashion. Now as George Santayana said, ‘Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit.’ How so true! Our young men and women want to dress up like their idols on television and in the movies. Zambian ogle at the latest gadget, the latest video game, latest in everything that is consumable when they cannot afford. This is a trend that knows no status in our society and even the poorest of the poor would covet a better mobile phone that has the smart capabilities! This insatiable appetite for the latest is fuelled by those who have the ability to travel to ‘south’ the short form for South Africa. Those who cannot afford the high cost of the real thing will make do with the imitated imitation from China and these are ubiquitous. China is the world’s biggest producer of imitations, and the ever warming Sino-Zambia ties are a real conduit for these cheap imitations that flood the country.
We imitate even in religious affairs. I can well remember the days when every native born Zambian preacher would don an American accent in their preaching. God was pronounced as Gad and Amen was Eh men, just to sound like from across the Atlantic ocean! In the present time, America is not much in the vogue but we are picking up certain traits from our West African friends, especially the Nigerians. Our musicians are the worst imitators almost to the point of annoying. We have had imitated Congolese soukous (nick-named rumba) for ages, but recently we have migrated to American style hip-hop, rap and so called ‘gospel.’ In the meantime reggae is on the back burner. Not to be outdone, these different genres of music have even found their way into so called ‘worship’ services and churches. We are imitators.
Now, there is nothing inherently bad about imitation. Imitation is the way the human being learns and develops. Indeed the holy scriptures urge on the devout to imitate Christ and Confucius said, ‘By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.’ We can turn this habit of imitation into something very productive if we imitated the right things and the right people.
Politics.
Let us imitate how the most enduring and successful political systems are doing things. The western democracies have not always been this successful. There was a time when they also used to attack each other violently during elections. However, they learnt how to do politics in peace. They learnt how to debate issues and let the power of words convince the voters not bribes and coercion. They learnt to accept defeat with dignity and support the government of the day. The civil service learnt to obey the government of the day and assist politicians to achieve their pre-determined goals. Let’s imitate that.
Civic responsibility
Most cities in the developed world are clean and tidy. There is order and every citizens knows where they stand in that order. People do not throw litter anyhow and where there are regulations about recycling, everyone tried to their best to allocate their refuse accordingly. Many people are engaged in voluntary activities even if they are unemployed, where they feed the homeless, raise funds for charity or serve in the military and police service. Let’s imitate that.
Honesty and probity.
Corruption is everywhere, but I have been impressed with the sense of honesty by which the vast majority of people in the west serve. From the cleaner in the office right up to the chief executive, everyone puts in a good day’s work at the office. I have never seen anyone chatting on the phone, using company or government time and phones for long hours on personal business. I have never seen anyone surfing the internet to log into Facebook or Messenger during working hours while neglecting to do their work. Nearly everyone has their own PERSONAL computer at home where they can do that. It is not surprising that internet traffic and comments on Zambian websites grinds to zero after working hours because many use and abuse the office computer! As for phones, yes, there are personal mobile phones but texting and chatting during work hours on private and personal matters is theft of your employer’s time. In the west, people tend not to accept gifts given in the course of and by reason of their public service. As they say, ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’ there is an aversion to receiving gifts. Let us imitate this.
Local amenities and conveniences.
Take a short cut through an alley way in Zambia and your nose is assaulted with faeculent and ammoniac smells from human waste. This is partly because of the lack of decency but also the lack of provision of conveniences by the local governments. We throw litter everywhere and defecate anywhere because we have been brought up to think that as long as no one is looking, we are in the bush! No, my friends, we are now in the city and city waste does not just disintegrate and mix with soil. It accumulates and lingers forever. If there is a provision for public toilets, there will be no water in th toilet and no toilet paper. I cannot think why a person would not find some paper first of all before answering the call of nature instead of using the wall! How do smears get that high? We can imitate the public amenity and convenience cleanliness of our friends. If the councils cannot do this, we have been electing wrong people into office.
Order.
Now this I believe is one of the most admirable things that I have ever seen in western countries. Take a Google map and pick out one city in Europe and another in Africa and you can see the neat arrangements of buildings and streets. They do not have to be tarred at all, but there is order. Trees are preserved and green fields are conserved. Turn to a Zambian town and the only part that looks orderly is that which was planned or built before 1964. Ever since independence, we through city planning to the wind and every man did what was right in his own eyes, in a great majority of cases. Houses are built without a pattern and order. Some houses have been built before a road is there. In western cities there is road paving everywhere and some roads have cobble stones because they were done more than 500 years ago! Why can’t we learn to put stones (which we have in abundance) to pave our public places like bus stations and markets? We can imitate this.
Personal behaviour in public.
This follows right on the heels of order because it is orderly behaviour. Have you noticed that no one will get in or stay in a queue in Zambia unless they are told or forced to do so. The principle of quieting is not native to us. We can imitate our friends.
Well, there are many other areas of public and private life which I could mention but let this suffice to jog us into being better people for a better country. We are good at imitating and if we are that good we would do very well in a very short time. There is no shame in imitating, because the west imitated from the Romans, the Romans, from the Greeks, the Greeks from the Persians, the Persians from the Babylonians, the Babylonians from the Sumerians but all imitated from the Africans. Let us take up our rightful place in history and be once again the innovators. Let me paraphrase a quote from the German-born American composer, conductor, pianist, and professor, Lukas Foss- ‘For years that may mean imitation. Then, one day, it is like a door opening, and a new thought comes in. Why not try this instead. Suddenly we are doing something original, almost in spite of ourselves.’
How can people live in such a country. It is really beyond me
Thanks
the same way you lived there when you were growing up.
Correct Imitation is what has brought the chinese economy to what it is today
Exposure or a lack of it, is one big issue. An average Zambian has not been to any of the western countries you are talking about. Not re-inventing the wheel makes logical sense. But how may someone who has never seen a wheel not try to re-invent one? In Asian chountries such as China, Taiwan, Indonesia etc. it’s primarily the people who had been overseas to Europe and America who went back to change things in those countries. Indeed, there is so much that we can copy from the west. But copying is one area Africans and Zambians in particular are not too good at. The influence of those among us who have been overseas, is oftern times resisted and rejected.
The writer seem to contradict “Itself”………………………..\:d/
Whats is this Doc talking about ? Ine lost, I thought he was going to say something on ‘Donchi…’
YOU *****!! read again!
This situation arises because we love imitation but don’t like the hard work and responsibility that comes with it.No man was ever endowed with greatness,great things or opportunity without at the same time being saddled with responsiblity.Zambia and zambians we are like a baby with a loud alimentary canal on one end and no sense of responsibility at the other end.To whom much is given much is expected and we’ve had little for very good reasons.
#Mushota, Your question should be, “How can people live with such garbage?” I also can’t comprehend how people can live with such garbage. this is one reason why I hate living in Lusaka because it is now the garbage city of Africa. The council no longer functions and council laws are no longer obeyed. Some of us remember the days when the Cobra cleaned up Lusaka. He should be made the Lusaka governor again if cleanness is to come to Lusaka again. Ironically, LCC was under the Cobra’s councilors.
let us also imitate nature to bring about political prosperity eg when season comes all trees drop old leaves, new ones shoot up,then good fruits. Equally,old politicians should be paving way for young ones to avoid delays in youths getting political positions,then only shall we be able to see the desired prosperity.
Very important reasons as to why SATA must be made President of Zambia by 21st September 2011 simple as drinking water. you want cleanness than Sata is the Answer Â
I repeat this for your benefit just incase you never saw what I posted some time back. I tis not sata that will change the country, it the  is you the Zambian think that way and maybe we might start moving in the right direction.
Can’t wait for the time when Zambians start speaking with a Choncho accent.Â
They already do!!! East Asians and Zambians share the same ‘l and r’ condition.
Problem is zedians are good talkers but terrible doers!
@ Mikomfwa Mpatamato Nice one i wish you said it on friday nga nachikolwa sana
The author just downloaded what has been burning in my mind for years.My opinion is that at the moment there is no order in Zambia.People simply dont care.People and organisations dont seem to take responsiblity.Disorderliness is a time bomb.
ChiSATA is a master of chaos. Lusaka is where it is bcos of PF councillors who were too busy sharing plots of land to bother with cleaning the streets. If you give State House to these Patriotic Fascists and SATAnists, even the current mediocrity will disappear into utter CHAOS!
Imitate manufacturing. Start making goods that you import in large quantities. Aim to stop exporting raw materials. Imagine you even import copper pipes! A lot has to do with enlightened leadership. In this age, you don’t need leadership that believes foreigners & donars will provide you what you need. You need leadership with a clear vision for the country. Leaders who can quantitatively tell us that I want us to move from here to there in the next so many years in clearly identified areas with clear benefits to accrue & then capable of mobilizing everybody towards the goal. You need everybody to pull in the same direction. I passed through Abidjan last week and the new guy there is doing a very commendable job. Shows you what quality leadership with the right vision can do so fast.
I think we are the ones to blame really for example when i visited zambia early this year i saw one man on muvi tv who was going round lusaka cleaning and triming the trees am telling you the places he cleaned looked so clean i think he didnt get support i dont know if hes still there if people could think like him lets say 1000 people then zambian can cleaned up .and they should put trash bins in the streets and responsible citizens who cares about there country maybe they are foreigners than citizens.honestly how can an adult just throw a cane on the ground after drinking especially call boys and ba market they need displine wait and see if i become a lusaka governor there will be fresh air in lusaka.
little mama #15, that is so coincidental, i was actually talking about that man this morning, and those were my exact words, if people would think like that man life would be better to some extent.
#1 Ba Mushota, I wonder how you were released so fast after causing disorder and riots in London. You should be in prison for having participated in recent UK chaos…
Perhaps Labour day should be changed to Country cleanliness day. Instead of parading in the streets to listen to political speeches, every Zambian should don working clothes and volunteer to clean up the environment.. We do this at home why can’t we do it in the communities we live in? Where there is a will there is a way. IT IS NOT JUST POLITICIANS, it is the people themselves that need a mind change.
I can not belabour the point that the writer is making. Well Written.
WORD!WORD!WORD! LETS IMITATE THE RYT THINGS PIPO.
This is a good article. There is a lot of positive change that can take place with just changing our attitudes.However such changes need to be driven from the top downward because they are not inherent and should be taught and enforced.
I think the phrase the author should have used is Benchmarking; if everyone is working towards targets anything is doable. The Japanese had to look at the European rail systems before they could build and perfect their Bullet trains. If Lusaka City Council benchmarks itself against say Cape Town, looks at a variety of efficient council tax collection systems and revenue allocation systems from around the Globe. It then builds a framework to work from with targets, refuse would be a thing of the past. Remember that LCC once upon a time used to collect refuse weekly in Woodlands from door to door back in the day. Â
Well spoken. The imitation thing reeks of inferiority complexes.
When such a good topic comes up, even the commenting is constructive. Well done people.
This goes to show that not all Zambians are shallow or stu.pid as some people would like to generalise.
#22 Jay Jay: “.. If Lusaka City Council benchmarks itself against say Cape Town..” Excellent point. As a matter of fact, Lusaka is a sister city to Los Angeles. There is a system and structure already in place, or a back-door, if you please, that the Mayor or Governor of Lusaka or whoever it is, who wants to learn from the way the city of Los Angeles does things could use. Even within the region, we have cities such as Gaborone in Botswana and Windhoek in Namibia that are far much cleaner and better managed than say Lusaka or Kitwe.
WE HONESTLY NEED TO INSTILL SELF DISCIPLIINE IN OURSELVES BY LEADING BY EXAMPLE I CAN BET K100 000 THAT 95PERCENT OF U CONTRIBUTING TO THE ABOVE ARTICLE HAVE SEEN A PERSON THROW RUBBISH CARLESSLY AND HAVE SIMPLY LOOKED AWAY! I CHALLENGE U ALL TO STAND UP FOR CLEANLINESS AND SORT OUT SUCH PEOPLE !AND I HOPE WHOEVER WE VOTE INTO OFFICE ESPECIALLY MPs TO USE THE POWERS OF THE LOCAL GOVT TO CLEAN UP BIZ PLACES FOR EXAMPLE IN KAMWALA
Perhaps instead of the controversial ‘degree clause’ in our constitution, we should have ‘well travelled’ clause! LOL
The people who are keeping Zambia backward are the ones who have never crossed the border and so when they see a pit latrine, to them that is enough development! Umwana ushyenda atasha banyina.
By the way, this is very good and the contributions are progressive. For a change we are not calling people names!
What we’ ve lacked in Zed are education driven politicians. ’cause of no investment in edu, no funding in research, lack of incentives in innovation all point to lack of seriousness in investing in education. We’d easily make a push bike by REVERSE ENGINEERING. We can dismantle a bike to the bare bolts & nuts, invent various tools to make those parts. Education requires huge investments but the dividends are worth it. USA recognises foreign students and immigrants and is looking for a deliberate policy to retain the most talented to help build a prosperous USA (Obama 2011). We should be talking about at LEAST one uni in every province after almost a century after independence. We have been short-changed by filthy selfish self-centred myopic brain-dead numb-skull politicians.
Continued…… That’s why we RIP (Rest in Piss) in all cities and towns in Zed. Do you really need forex to maintain a clean environment, green grass, clean streets, clean public toilets, well maintained drainage systems? How many years has Kanyama been flooding annually? Where are civil engineers? Why is town planning? Town planning is the life line for orderliness, road networks, railway, water supply lines, electricity, telephone, drainage systems + sewer systems, the list is endless. God help us to help ourselves – we need both foresight and hindsight.
The K200 billion wasted on NCC could have gone a long way in providing bog lolls in all public loos. Do we need to imitate hygiene? The MMD policies on many things dealing with environment are lacking, just look at the way RB is commissioning companies without licences from environmental agencies. We had recycling companies in the UNIP era, like Zambezi paper, Norgroup for plastics the MMD closed them down in the pretence of privatisation. KK was to advanced for these MMD morons, they did not know that recycling was big business. People were paid to take the waste for recycling and it was employment indirectly. I miss my clean Chingola town…..gone!Â
# 22, Jay jay
You are on target , Benchmarkig is wants is needed in Zambia.
this is a great opportunity for anyone in zambia to start a rubbish collection business. i saw a recent documentary on the increased levels of rubbish in one town and what did one concerned citizen do? he constanly asked the government to do something about when they didnt he did it himself now he is a milllionaire!! and i agree the government should look into council tax like here in england.
I dont get it? All your comments here make sense. My question is who has the zing to actaully follow through and do it? Is it me? You? or maybe the Government? For example Benchmark? Why dont you do it! All we need is one sucess story and it is a domino effect! Stop the forum comments and start doing something about your own words. If someone offers a solution , dont just hate on it- you must be able to offer a better 1 and then follow through with it yourself-that way we will respect you as a person of action. Change is in the air Ladies and Gentlemen and this Revolution that is coming will shake the very foundation of our country. Forget the Government, this is about me and you and the fake names we hide behind in these forums. Half of us on here aint even back home. TG. EDUCATION
What happened to Chingola as the cleanest town in Zed?
What is the people in Chingola only moan about their city when they having one-two at weekend and come Monday they’ve forgotten…if you held those politicians to account you’d see a difference
I LOVE ZAMBIAAAA
Dear Charles.
How refreshing to see your article on immitation. They are so many basic things we use every day: Soap, toilet Tissue, Tooth Paste, Tooth brush, Pots, Fridge, Cooker, etc including copper pipes! The technology for these and many others including cars already exists. We need an environment in Zambia where we can immitate making these things and excel. We have been mining Copper for more than 100 years in the copperbelt and other parts in Zambia. Tell 10 products we make out of the copper we every day export. We need to IMMITATE AND EXCEL. Big cities like New york or London produce large quantities of rubbish every day, but you do not see it pile up into mountains at road corners! Why can we not immitate the systems they have established for garbage collection and sanitation?