Growing up in Africa, you learn to serve visitors the best. There will always be a chicken to slaughter for visitors, and the best portions for them to eat. They will also sleep on the best bed, with best beddings that nobody else in the family sleeps on them. These are usually called ‘visitors’ beddings’, or visitors’ glass’, ‘cups’ ‘plates’, or ‘spoons’, etc…. And these would usually be the most expensive, and of the best quality afforded by the host family. Nobody touches them, unless there is a visitor.

In addition, visitors would displace children and sleep in their rooms or beds, or sit on their chairs while they move to the floor. For example, when an uncle visits, boys would sleep in the living room, while he sleeps in their room. He will thus get a clean mosquito net while others have none. Likewise, if a female visitor comes, she would enjoy the girls’ room while they move to squat elsewhere. Generally, the love Africans have for their visitors is beyond self. They offer them the best until they leave…. And when bidding farewell, hosts would always insist that another visit is paid soon.

Seemingly, female visitors have a shorter lived ‘Royal-like status’ because tradition demands that they quickly join other female members and help with chores. Else she is labelled lazy and too undisciplined for a husband. So for now let us focus on male visitors….

Apparently, the same culture demands that visitors go to their hosts never empty handed. That they must carry some gifts, mostly food stuff. Be it chicken, yams, bananas, rice, maize, etc. Anything is fine, as long as you don’t go empty handed. Nowadays, visitors from the city would bring clothes, soap, jewelry, or other ‘urban stuff’. Actually, most men would often carry cash which they give out just before departure. Therefore, in Africa, visitors are generally enjoyed and the host family would go an extra mile to serve the best meals during the entire visit. Essentially, this is the same for every visitor, and everyone expects the same treatment when visiting. This makes the treatment mutual and win win…..

On the other hand, the visitor is not expected to stay for too long.., else he or she becomes a nuisance. Overstaying brings confusion on how a visitor should be treated, and it makes one lose his or her ‘royal visitor status’.

Now, my question is, are we expected to extend this perspective and habit even to our economic and political visitors? Must we give them the best land, best tax holidays, and best political support for the them to mine, farm and go?… Must we slaughter our wild animals, slash our forests to give them land and space to do business? Must we give them all the oil, gas, and mineral plots?… then leave leftovers and offals to the locals? Must we?

And must we displace our poor farmers and Pastoralists just to give foreigners land and the best they need to invest?… Must we risk our children to sleep in living rooms without mosquito nets while we protect visitors?…

And what do they give in return? What is local content? Do we know? Are we sure it is what we should do?.. We love visitors, but let it be a win-win visitation.

Shamelessly, every capital city in Africa has places specially created for the rich. These places are mostly frequented by our ‘elites’ and ‘visitors’. Prices are hiked, and services are colorfully made to soothe the mind, and give a false feeling of escape from the poverty stricken rural Africa.. into feeling ‘New York-ish’, ‘London-ish’ or ‘Milan-ish’…. And forget completely about kinsmen who still sleep on animal skins in rural Africa… Worse, these people suffer such indignity in these times of mattresses and bed sheets. Items made from cotton these same rural dwellers dutifully produce through hard work.

As we all know, life in these ‘micro-modern areas’ in our cities is very different. The way people wine and dine is different. And so are the cars they drive. The clothes they wear, the cigars they smoke, and even the perfumes they wear. The games they play and the women they hang out with are all different. It is a completely different world from that of rural Africa. Actually, in rural areas there is no water, no roads and no power, the nights are all dark and deserted-there is no life for the elite!. Rural dwellers have no luxury of testing Mexican or Chinese cuisines because these are reserved for the elite and their visitors, who see no life in rural areas. Worse, schools in rural areas, dispensaries, means of transportation, toilets, and entertainment facilities, etc., are in pathetic conditions.

And shamelessly, most local investors keep on investing most of their coins in urban areas, scrambling to service visitors, and the elites. That, they build five star hotels for visitors coming for meetings (i.e. hotels that locals hardly afford to sleep in). Most money is used to build nice restaurants, where a kilo of rice is sold at a price 20 times what the rural producer receives as farm gate price. Nobody cares to know if the poor producers are alive for the next rainy season. We just know they will survive somehow. We take them for granted…. And just like an old mango tree, we care not to weed, spray or water it… But we wait for mangoes anyway.

The elite also create social habits that require excessive spending on exaggerated ambiance just to look elegant and modern, but never make an effort to push and ensure there are equally good services in rural areas. Burials and weddings of the elites are extravagant and despicable. These are carried out while shamelessly asking rural relatives to engage in spending what they could have used to solve very important problems in their lives. One would wonder, why bury a US$2000 coffin while it could be more than enough to repair a village well?

In short, elites have normalized the huge difference that exists between the life in urban and in rural areas, until we don’t feel ashamed anymore.

Honestly, it is our duty to close this overwhelming gap between rural and urban life. We must be ashamed of ourselves!…

VeraFM