Culture Conundrum

I have a passionate love for many foreign cultures. I love the myths and sagas of Scandinavia. I love the food from many places around the world, particularly India. I enjoy music from all over. I am passionate, some might say obsessive, about beverages: all types of tea, espresso beverages, cappuccinos, real Chai, Turkish coffee, Artisan wine and beer [though I’m done with that now]. I really enjoy smoking hookah, especially at in hookah bar with middle eastern décor or in my home decorated like I am Indian. I think food is much more enjoyable when eaten with chopsticks. Poetry, paintings…. ART!

I must make a refrain here, because these things that I love are not, in fact, culture. They are part of culture, but they are only the very visible surface aspects. I’ve started to think of them as manifestations of culture. This opens up a huge can of worms in terms of what is culture? It is so innate in us that we can’t escape our own culture and if we can’t escape our own culture can we really understand what it is to be a part of another culture? I am living in Zambia for the summer. Do I know what it is to be Zambian? To think like a Zambian does? I am just trying to begin to understand how Zambian culture views things. Can we really experience other cultures when we travel? What is Canadian culture? As a Canadian does that not make all those things I mentioned above Canadian culture?
See what I mean? Can of worms! But that isn’t what I am trying to tackle in this post.

One thing I have personally struggled with in Zambia is that the culture here does not seem to have these things. I have tried and tried and tried to find Zambian art but to no avail. There isn’t art in Zambian homes. There isn’t art anywhere. The poetry I’ve heard is just about child-trafficking and HIV/AIDs. The music is mostly heavy beats that remind me of American Rap music. The food is largely based on nshima – which is like thick mashed potatoes made from maize [corn] flour which you grab small chunks of and make into sort of the shape of then end of a spoon and then use that to scoop up some “relish” which is any of the side dishes. There are virtually no books here. That isn’t true actually – there are tons of books. They are just all bibles. There isn’t even the traditional style of dress you find in West Africa.

I came to Zambia looking forward to discovering what Zambian art was, or even African art because I did not know much of it. I wanted to come and appreciate Zambian culture the same way I have been appreciating other cultures, through their manifestations. But I haven’t found any of it here. This may seem like a small matter… but I found it huge. It starts with puzzlement, and then like a painful whole in a tooth you keep poking at it. I started to search for this missing Zambian art. The biggest lead I had was the University. Of course that’s where the creative energies of Zambia would be focused… nope. No visual art whatsoever. It was driving me crazy. Right up the walls. How can 10 million people in Zambia, and likely other poor countries in Southern Africa, not produce any artwork?

But then I decided I couldn’t really blame them for this. I mean Zambians have gone from tribes in villages to colonial exploitation to independence [still largely in the villages], with independence largely bringing the pursuit of western lifestyle. As far as I know, there have never been any might civilizations in Southern Africa and it is those civilizations that produce a lot of the cultural manifestations I love. In fact, in anthropological terms, art work is an indicator of civilizations and societal wealth. When artifacts go from clay pots to intricately carved or painted pots [in other words, more effort is put into things than their practical purpose requires] it means that society is wealthy enough to support artists to do that work. If everyone is poor no one is going to pay for something artistic. And that is where the nickel drops.

A revelation occurs, that in hindsight seems so obvious. In EWB we call them “a-ha!” moments. A-HA! Of course the arts have never flourished here… they have never had a chance…. Zambia is too poor! Things start to fit together now. The curio markets which I felt indignant about, the markets where they sell “African” carvings of zebras and giraffes and carved masks that have nothing to do with Zambia but its what tourists want to buy. Those markets are full of art, the art for the only market there is… tourists. With most of the country living on less than a dollar a day, who are you going to sell your art to? It is not that Zambians don’t have any creative energies in them, they have never had the opportunity to unleash them!

A whole vast new perspective stretches out before me, but it goes much much further than this. I guess you could say the nickel keeps dropping…

There is 10 million people in Zambia and not much art is happening. That’s 10 million people that could be making enormous contributions to the world of art. What poetry and visual art, what music and literature could be coming out of these people. They are of a whole different culture [now I mean real culture, not just the surface stuff]. How much more would there contribution be simply because little has come out of Zambia before. But it doesn’t stop there. Science, engineering, medicine, politics. All these things are moving forwards without the innovations of this group of people because they are too busy trying to overcome poverty! Maybe one of the minds that are extinguished by the AIDS pandemic - or taken down by a meager illness because famine and malnutrition has left their body defenseless – maybe in one of those minds was the cure for cancer. The cure for HIV/AIDS! Suddenly the vast expanse of individuals whose lives are little more than desperate struggles to survive and offer their children better lives than they had – a struggle against factors we have the power to help overcome – are not only a tragedy because these people have the same right as you and I to live a happy life full of opportunity, but because those minds are millions of points of light from which contributions in every field of human endeavor could have sprung! Holy sweet mother of pearl. What are we losing because so much of the world is poor? What illnesses or diseases have affected your family that might have been cured? What art – whether food, visual art, music, etc. – is not enriching your life. What whole new systems of organizing society that we never thought of are being lost forever like so many lives. Out this enormous frustration with Zambia has blossomed a whole new sense of urgency about development. Is it not ironic that while being concerned for the lives of others in Africa seemed like the big picture, the BIG picture – of humanity as a whole – comes from realizing what its costing us to keep much of the world poor!

Perhaps they should be into account in our opportunity cost decisions.