When you have nothing
You learn to appreciate every little thing
The media has been notoriously known for portraying Africa in a negative light by consistently showing the impoverished parts of it. We don’t want to see them in the media, we want to see the city lights, the beauty of nature and the big 5 that we proudly host on this continent. Sometimes however we do need to look closer at the impoverished parts that make up our society.
I walk these streets every week in different townships or ‘informal’ settlements and I wonder how the people survive. Throughout the week there are kids who should be in some sort of preschool roaming the streets, playing and in a shocking incident I witnessed them indulging in psychoactive substances. I wish I had not seen that to be even writing about it, my heart broke when I saw a little girl who can’t be more than 7 holding a beer bottle and taking a drink. I looked around, there were many adults around but not a single person batted an eyelid. I stayed longer than I should have, rooted to the spot not knowing what to do. What could I do in such a situation? Would I face retaliation if I took the bottle away? what do I do in such a situation? I had to do something yet couldn’t.
It’s something that’s not talked about enough: substance misuse and abuse. We don’t talk about it as falling under mental health disorders in black communities here, it is legal afterall. It is also very prevalent beyond what is normal in underprivileged communities. I have started talking to a few people, I always get offered something to drink (alcohol) which I always decline and they call me difficult. I come from a family where alcohol misuse and abuse is rampant, I was raised by an alcoholic. I will always remember being a little girl and having to be the adult because the adult was not doing what they were supposed to do due to being hung over or drunk. But that is not something we talk about.
Anyways back to the point of the story, I have started talking to a few people and one of the questions I ask is why are you drinking? Their answer is always mostly a shrug and a why not or a because it’s Monday (as if though that is supposed to mean something). I put myself into their shoes, alcohol is so prevalent because it is an escape from reality. The reality that life is harder than it should be. I walk these streets and I see sewerage flowing almost everywhere, I see municipal cars going up and down these roads but the problem doesn’t get solved and I wonder what exactly the city council is doing for these communities. I have been in the more affluent neighbourhoods of this city and let there be a little issue, a pipe burst, there is sewerage flowing, and the city council guys are on it in a matter of hours. By the next day it will be as if the issue never existed in the first place.
I see sewerage flowing in these streets and I think about how some might argue about how shacks have grown to a point they can’t control and it’s putting a strain on the sewerage systems but they don’t ask why. Decent housing prices are atrocious even for those who have stable income what more for single income households in an underprivileged community.
Many people take for granted having clean streets, a house they don’t constantly worry about being burnt to the ground, electricity, running water, proper sanitation.
Many of the people in these communities have neither. They live in houses illegally connected to the main electricity poles with high risk of fires being started. They live in houses with no room to include proper bathrooms, so they use a portable toilet outside that is shared by 5 other shacks. They live in houses with no running water, they use a communal tap usually found by clinics or other popular community hubs.
This is the side of Africa we want to hide, the parts of ourselves we don’t want to be seen, yet is so prevalent with such a thin line dividing the well to do and those with nothing. By thin I literally mean a road can separate two vastly different neighbourhoods.
One never learns to appreciate the little things they take for granted when you are living and looking at life from a point of privilege. One can never know just how much of an achievement it is for someone coming from an impoverished community to get an education and eventually obtain a degree, to live in a house with running water and a decent bathroom, to not have to worry about their house burning down, to walk out your door and not be jumping over flowing sewerage.
When you have nothing or have had nothing, you learn to appreciate the little things.
I wrote an article a while back about how my house burnt down and I could see the stars clearly for the first time. If you haven’t read it you can check it out here. I am at an almost similar stage in life again but this time I’ve learnt to appreciate even the smallest of things. A roof over my head, food in my tummy, somewhere warm and safe to lay my head at night. Even when I want to complain about not having a stable income job that could change my life and my mom’s, I still am grateful for the fact that I can work as a contractor or a freelancer and still be earning just enough to get by. I am learning to be grateful for everyday and journaling or writing about it as I go. This is just one of the musings I had this past week thinking about where I’ve been and where I am now, the different neighbourhoods I have had to navigate and be in attune to, the people I have met and their varying realities and how that relates to my journey.
