Every day is a battle on our African continent
Author, Stella Riunga Rop.
What you need to know:
- “You made it!” because for sure every time we turn up at work or school or a function we have wrestled against the odds—and emerged triumphant.
In all honesty, it is difficult for an African to be punctual. Nature, traffic, the complexities of human interactions … they all seem to eternally combine forces to fight against our chances of being on time for important engagements.
Take, for example, the aftermath of heavy rains. A tree falls down in the middle of the night right across a major road and by early morning, no one has arrived to take it away. Unfortunately, in this part of the world we have not learnt how to tame elephants and use them like donkeys, so of course, traffic builds up and as a result—you are late.
On the morning of an important interview, you wake up three hours earlier than usual, get to your bus stop and board a vehicle to your destination, only for the conductor and driver to get into a heated argument with one of the passengers over a difference in fare prices.
As a result, the taxi comes to a stop so the three of them can fight it out properly by the roadside and you arrive at your interview sweating and panting, perhaps with five seconds to spare if you are very lucky. At a family wedding, you are the bride’s designated driver, and it starts to rain just as you are turning the corner to pick her and her entourage. And by the way, the road to the bride’s place is a dirt one that turns into a slippery expanse of mud whenever it so much as drizzles.
As you turn on the wipers and set your jaw grimly in determination, you can be sure that this will be the kind of wedding where the bride arrives two hours late, and you will have to push the car out of the mud—on the one day you did not carry your gumboots! So let us not judge each other too harshly, brethren. Instead of “You are late again!” how about something encouraging like “You made it!” because for sure every time we turn up at work or school or a function we have wrestled against the odds—and emerged triumphant.
