My Impressions of Zambia
(These impressions are based only on my visit to Lusaka the
National Capital)
Zambia and Ghana are the only two African countries I have visited.
In my mind (perhaps unfairly) I was comparing the two although Accra is almost
7000 km away from Lusaka (almost as far as Mumbai!). Except that both are in
Africa there is nothing common! I guess the Pratham CAMaL material we are using
is the common link and the reason for me coming here and it justifies my
comparison.
We had always felt how similar Ghana and India were but when
I stepped out of the airport in Lusaka it was almost like getting out in
Bhopal, Raipur or Bhubaneswar. It was cool but not cold, lots of shades of green,
maze fields (instead of wheat or rice), friendly and polite people. Even the
parking lots are about the same size.
Cleanliness is what has really struck me about this capital
city. The roads, schools, public places, shopping arcades and most importantly
the public toilets are incredibly clean. The facilities at the conference fifteen
year old venue Kabalonga boys’ School - a government school were so clean and
well kept that I couldn’t believe they are a part of a public school. The roads
have signs saying ‘keep Lusaka clean’ and people seem to be following the instructions.
There aren’t many people walking on the road but the
strangers smile and ask ‘how are you’. Jogging is not popular among locals but they
accept foreigners craze for fitness and encourage you to run! I had several ‘Good
morning mama. Keep fit. Looking good’ calls from men and women of all ages!
They don’t understand Hindi but love Z Cinema. They don’t
know the names of actors but remember names of films. Almost everyone seems to
have seen and remembers Three Idiots and Chennai Express. The young cheerful waitress
I meet at breakfast always greets with a नमस्ते. I taught her कैसे हो? अच्छी हूँ on the first
day and she has picked it up very well with a resolve to add two sentences
daily so that she will have a good number when I leave next week.
Unfortunately, to my frustration I am not progressing as well with the
reciprocal lessons. She giggles when I pronounce all sentences in my horrible
accent but is too polite to tell me ‘forget Bemba (the language that half the
population uses), you stick to Hindi! Another young lady a teacher from a
remote district also made an unsuccessful attempt at making me sing a Nyanja
song. But in the process, I am learning some very interesting aspects of their
sing-song languages. All words in their language end with a vowel and ‘a’ is
the most common word ending. Another interesting thing is that they have no
consonant-vowel (CV) two-lettered words at all.
Kwacha and ngwee is the currency and one dollar gets less than
eight kwacha. Everything seems so expensive in Lusaka. The minimum they charge
for a taxi ride is twenty Kwacha and 200 minimum to the airport! A cup of
coffee is 30K and bread is minimum 40! Even communication is costly. Getting a
SIM is quick and easy but the talk time and data package for week starts at 100
K. I haven’t seen ngwee being used anywhere but out of curiosity asked the team
attending workshop if anyone was carrying smaller coins and they did. So I
guess it is not that uncommon. In 1964, when the country became independent they
introduced the new currency. The name Kwacha is derived from a Nyanja word which
loosely translates to ‘new dawn of freedom’ while ngwee means bright in the
same language.
Interestingly, I haven’t seen any statues or monuments anywhere. There is a lot of greenery and long stretches
of straight roads but no parks or recreational areas. There are no cultural
centers, music halls or theatres. From that point of view Lusaka is quite a ‘faceless’
society with no identification mark to this National capital. But I am still very impressed with this rainy,
clean city – and hope at some point of time I will be able to visit Zambezi
river and Victoria falls!
