By Charles Leyman Kachitsa
Asked about Christmas festivities, one immediately if they are older go back to their childhood years as that’s the era the period it was all ignorantly exciting. I can not speak for the youth of today, but to us Christmas was something aligned with eating special food and drinks you could otherwise only dream of the rest of the year. Without any burden or responsibilities as children, we expected these food plus drinks including now and again new clothing to materialise however that is done by parents or guardians.
In this sense, Christmas meant ‘rice and chicken’ which would only be eaten on that one day throughout the year, in such combination with a bottle of Fanta that was either shared between two or three but taken full bottle individually only heaven knows after whatever miracle made that happen. Although on any normal days sharing of meals between households was something showing a mark of kindness or generosity or ‘Christianness’, this was something forbidden on Christmas day meals. On this and only on this day, each family was left to have their own which in a way depending on the richness of the food and quantity, climaxed in showing how hard or not the bread winner of the family has faired during that particular year.
For children there would also be the other part days before Christmas which now because our eyes are open, we may call ‘internal tourism.’ This I don’t know what it depended on but could have been rotational, involved bus rides on the famed Stagecoach buses visiting the tea plantations areas of Thyolo or Mulanje. Some other years it could be a Christmas train ride on a same day return journey to Balaka or Bvumbwe. With either, the bus or train ride, it was accompanied by an avalanche of Christmas carols in the cabin (s). Such were the childhood joys of the Christmas period albeit to say without understanding it’s full significance, not sure even if most adults understood it especially when one realised as they grew up that to most it meant a period of binge alcohol intake.
The quotes for this week are from a book written by a career diplomat given responsibility in what in our modern days is or was the centre of commerce and trade for so long especially the city he took station in. Interesting how he describes ‘Britishness’ which I believe is saying get a copy of the book and read it in its entirety perhaps your Christmases will take on a new meaning. I am sure that the selected quotations below from the book will enlighten you to one or two life lessons. Read and enjoy:
THE LAST POST – A MEMOIR OF A HIGH COMMISSIONER IN LONDON by Kena Mphonda
“One would hardly see a minister gracing a national day for an African country, and I was perplexed that the Africa Minister, Harriett Baldwin, spoke on behalf of her government on November 12, 2018, during the national day reception for Angola. This only pointed to the interest of the British in the minerals in Angola, not to the exclusion of oil. She had visited Angola in April earlier the same year. ——- Andrew Stephenson, who succeeded Baldwin, visited Angola as well in January 2020. This would be more characteristic of sub-Saharan Africa rather than North Africa. If you went slightly beyond the functions, it would be visits to Africa by the PM, Foreign Secretary, and a Minister for Africa that would tell the story as to where the strategic interest of the UK learned.”
“Looking back to the 1960s, the British started to look into civil rights issues, especially coming at the helm of the passage of the American Civil Rights Act of 1964 and voting Act of 1965, and I look at this issue with the FCO lens. Noteworthy is the fact that it was only in 1973 that Eleanor Emery became the first female to head a British diplomatic mission. Then come 2018, the first black female British career diplomat to be appointed a High Commissioner. She went to Botswana for the assignment. In 1987, Veronica Sunderland became the first married woman to be appointed as Ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire. Malawi had the first female British High Commissioner in 2017.”
“A British citizen criticised a picture in a daily local newspaper showing a woman in a village for ‘throwing’ herself at the feet of a senior politician. In essence, the woman laid flat on the ground on her belly. This was a traditional way of expressing gratitude following the politician’s support for a cause. The person did not appreciate such a gesture and thought it was out of the way. The issue brought an avalanche of reactions from a lot of Malawians, most of whom questioned how anyone could question the Malawian culture. Indeed, the British would have their own way to show gratitude. Examples or contrasts were given relating to the Queen where, when persons are knighted, they kneel before her, and she places a bayonet on the recipient’s shoulder. Of course, there are a lot of things that can be picked as illustrations, but the bottom line comes to what is it that is Malawian culture, and, ………., what is it I picked up as Britishness.”
“Outside politics, it became increasingly difficult to really discern who is a British Citizen, especially from a casual perspective when you go to public places such as restaurants, hotels, and bars. The accent that you would get would be as varied as it could get, stemming from a Nigerian to an Italian to Japanese. One very interesting case was that of my office neighbourhood restaurant, Rugby Tavern, where there was one British bartender, one Brazilian bartender and another bartender who never at any point greeted me, much as I frequented the place. Yet one day he smilingly greeted a dog; simply unbelievable. Of course that is not Britishness.”