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wo weeks ago, we had a meeting with the
chamber of BookTroverts (a book club I am part of). The meeting was scheduled
for 2pm, but we could not start till around few minutes to 3pm. For the three
of us who were early, we got talking on time, timing and the concept of African
time. We did asked several questions, cited some relevant instances and raised
quite a number of issues that need answering and can form a major societal
discourse.
Have you ever asked yourself who
invented African time and popularized it? I mean who in his right sense would
propound such a concept? Who were its early apostles? Who were those
responsible for passing the culture of African time from one generation to
another even to our generation? Because there is such thing as Africa time,
does that mean Africans have their time separately or more than 24 hours in a
day? Truth is I can go on and on asking several questions on African time and I
bet you, there won’t be justifiable universally accepted responses to them.
Personally, I don’t easily get angry.
Well, not because I am don’ get angry but because I have had my fair share of the
ills anger brings in the past. However, right now, nothing sets me off and makes
me angry like not keeping to time. I have disciplined myself significantly when
it comes to time and how I use it to relate with others. Well I don’t mean to
sound strict or over principled, but I have learned that time is life and
whosoever shares his time with you has shared an important part of his life
with you.
A Bit of History
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ime is one of the greatest and
indestructible gifts and treasure God has given to man. There is no specific
scholarly record about who invented time, we can only talk of the Egyptian use
of the horology technology to measure time as far back as 1500BC. Yes we can
talk about great minds who were philosophers, scientist and inventors who
during their lifetime discovered and added one or two truths about the concept
of time, but they themselves were time bound. Hence, no matter how your maser
the study of time, it will still fail you because your life is measured in
time.
Some Naked Facts
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ime is so powerful that it can be your
master, yet it is so humble that you can make it your servant. Your attitudes
toward time and what you do with time can make it work for you or against you.
Great men and women of old who lived their life within time and did great
exploits were diligent with time because they made time serve them. Others procrastinated
and were careless and cared less about time, so they were constantly slaves to
time.
Our Bitter Reality
“Don’t worry I won’t be late, by the
way there is African time”. “I have an appointment by 2pm but I will only show
up by 3pm”. “Let me sleep some more before preparing for the event, by the way
they don’t always start on time”. Do any of these statements captured your
reality as it relates to time in any way? Have you been comfortable operating
with African time mentality? Have you over time in one way or the other been
helping sustain the African time culture? Well, I know only you can assess yourself
best when it comes to this.
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frican time has done us more harm than
good as it has eaten deep into the fibre of our daily activities. It is the reason behind why we always rush to
catch up with business meetings, lectures, dates and other important events in
our lives. It is pathetic how normal it is for people we look up to as leaders
to show up for events where they are the key players very late. So I ask: could
that be a contributing factor why we have not seen anything wrong with showing
up late for things ourselves? No, we can’t go on this way.
Something has to be done
What then should we do with the African
time culture? What then ought to be our attitude towards time and the concept
of African time? Is it acceptable to just work with the reality of this lie
known as African time or we can do something about it? Forgive me, this piece
might be a bit confrontational, but for what is worth, we all need some shaking
when it comes to this.
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nless we have seen how fundamentally
wrong African time culture is, we cannot rise up to the occasion of challenging
and changing it. The more we are
complacent with this matter, the more we passively endorse it and pass it down
to the next generation. The more we turn blind eye to the ills of African time
as if it doesn’t matter, the more it stares us in the face, enchanting us to be
its preys. When it comes to this, there is not sitting on the fence, you are
either in or out.
Worthy of emphasis therefore, because
there is such thing as African time, doesn’t mean that Africans have different
time, timing or clock. The fact that you chose to operate with the African time
culture doesn’t mean that you have 36 hours in a day. Time is one priceless
commodity humanity have in common regardless of race, religion and
socio-political status. We all have one stock in trade in life – time. Trade with
it wisely, it pays you well; do otherwise, it will still pay you the other way
round.
It was A. W. Tozer of blessed memory
who once said: “If God gives you a watch, are you honouring Him more by asking
Him what time it is or by simply consulting the watch?” You either watch your
time and use it well or watch it slip away from you second by second never to
be recovered again.
It Starts with You and Me
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ear Africans, this African time thing
is a lie, it is a trap and it is not good for us. Change starts with baby steps
and little inconveniences. When next you have an appointment, be there five
minutes early, it won’t kill you. Start showing up and being on time at least
you have nothing to lose. Make a deal with yourself henceforth not to be late
for anything again unless where you cannot truly help it.
The time has come for us to turn the
table around and set the right precedence for the next generation. It begins
with you and me. If there is any right time is now, there’s no other better
place but right here. If there is any right people it’s me and you, we need to
start right now and right here.
Thank You for reading
Be free to leave your comments
African time! Quite topical. It's like a night rain on this part of the world.
ReplyDeleteI feel is part of the systemic problem we have as a people where mismanagement of resources including time looks and feels normal. We hardly reward time in this part of the world and therefore our usage of time can't be any different from what it has been. If you were adequately paid for your time, you wouldn't africanise your time. Conversely, if you suffered severe consequence for that abuse of your time and especially that of others, you would have since been your own time keeper. Time conscious people rarely ask others of what time is it because they are their own time keepers.
African time is just a tips of the malfunctions that we are surrounded by as people. Just like African time, isn't it also painful to think of African leaders, African politics, African economy? I mean the use of "African" in virtually all context is awful and repugnant and that should concern us as a people. It's therefore time we redefined and reversed what anything African should stand for else we remain a reference for failure and collapse.
Thank you Break Forth.
True... It's sad how Africa is fast representing everything that's bad
DeleteGreat one brother... First, using Book-Troverts on the day that I unavoidably came late.... That was aweful fah. But then, this African Time thing is a worm that has gradually crept into our DNA.
ReplyDeleteYou would be surprised that the group of people who coined the phrase "African Time" aren't Africa. They actually ingrained the ideology in us. And so, it has affected our system badly. We need to change the narrative.
Much needed confrontational piece. I am trying to discipline myself in this area as I realized my latenesses is mostly due to complacency and nothing more.
ReplyDeleteHad to share a portion of this post.
ReplyDelete