Africa is as Africa does

5^th August 2011. If you read my Facebook status in the last 48 hours, you’d know that our container did not arrive yesterday as promised and I was pretty damn upset about it.

Without going into too many details, the customer service rep that we’d been working with from the Kenyan removal company has led us on a merry chase over the last month. In fact, her service has been despicable on every level – not returning calls, not providing promised updates and worst of all, she outright lied to us on more than one occasion. When she called on Wednesday evening, about 16 hours before our container was due to be delivered to say that it was still in the port in Mombasa and she couldn’t tell me when it would be with us in Nairobi – my very last thread of patience snapped.

After a series of emails to both the director of the local movers, Worldwide Movers Africa and Elliot – who packed us etc. in Johannesburg that were very cutting, we finally got some action and the director of the Kenyan company took over our case personally. As I write this, our container is in the Nairobi warehouse and scheduled to be delivered to us at 9.30am tomorrow. So 48 hours after we whinged, whined and squealed, our container is in the same town as us, and ready for delivery.

What really bothers me is that it took threats and harsh words to just get what we paid for. And worse, I’ve seen this attitude in a whole heap of the companies that we’ve had to deal with since we relocated. Kenya is such a beautiful place, bursting with potential – then this 3^rd world mentality kicks in where “African Time” is a viable excuse for shoddy service and poor delivery. I am African (despite the fact that to some, the colour of my skin precludes me my heritage) and would love nothing more than to see this continent thrive and find success with harmony. But sometimes it sure is hard to be proudly African when the continent lets itself down by living up to it’s difficult reputation.

A strong case in point is the horrific famine that is currently plaguing East Africa. After the horrors of the 80’s when over 1 million Ethiopians died of starvation – it is just unthinkable that we’ve let it happen again. But despite this, I’ve read numerous local reports saying that in Kenya there is no fear of famine, just a very serious drought that is resulting in starvation in certain areas. People dying because they have no food – how does that not constitute a famine? Why are we Africans so scared to tell the world that we’ve hit some trouble? Why do we need to sacrifice our people before we put our hands up and admit that we need some help? Why is there always budget allocated to arms and never to food? Why does corruption dog every area of every government on the continent? Until we find answers and solutions to these very deep-seated issues, it seems that the same cycles of exploitation, deprivation and poverty are doomed to repeat themselves.

I pray that the victims of the famine (or drought) are given the help they need before they become another dreadful statistic. I pray even more that our people and our continent can rise above the excuses, the past and the mediocrity that has settled on us and create a spectacular future.