Misplaced Perceptions

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

The daily routines in the majority rural Eswatini are different from developed countries, where many thoughtless activities are often taken for granted. It is with little thought to turn on a faucet with a simple flick of a wrist to get the cold, running water at ease. However, in Eswatini, people fetch water from the community tap almost daily. Even when washing dishes, there is a sink outside where one must pour their own water to rinse. As there are no showers, one would boil hot water to bathe in a large bucket. One could wash their arms and chest area first, kneel to use the water in the bucket to rinse off, and continue washing the rest of their body.

In Eswatini, it is common for the girl child in the family to cook for all the members. Some families will cook with the handigas connected to the burner, while others will cook with the firewood. Even homesteads with electricity commonly use firewood to deter paying high electricity bill (One prepays by the electric unit). In my host family, my sisi will start around 5am to cook and clean dishes; she will finish around 7am to also get ready for school. After returning from school, she will wash her big pots from the morning covered in soot and cook dinner. Not to mention, she also needs to wash her uniform and collect the firewood before the sun goes down.

Dysphoria

Now, imagine you are a young teenager in Eswatini watching an American movie on your phone that someone bluetooth shared with you. While watching the movie, you see the family getting ready for dinner as the meat is almost done roasting in the oven, and the veggies are set aside warm on the stovetop. In the movie, you may notice that the children run upstairs to the second-floor of the house. Despite the heat of the summer, the kids are cooled off with the air-condition. Even if the children played outside and got muddy, they can come inside to use the bathroom and shower. Lastly, everyone seems to have multiple digital devices they turn off before rushing to the table: smartphone, laptop, TV, tablets, headsets, etc. The young teenager reflects on how life would be like in America or any developed country. Life just seems so much easier.

When this young teenager in Eswatini sees someone who is not their race, that person may call them an ‘umlungu.’ Umlungu means a ‘white’ person who has money and their life is seen as easy. Thus, the word umlungu is regardless of one’s skin color actually being white. * Money is associated with wealth, and the ease of life with laziness. The assumption is due to the lesser efforts and time put into the daily tasks in the US, then one must have nothing to do in their extra time and is seen as lazy.

Now, is this perception correct? No, however, I wanted to take the time to explain the meaning behind the label and stereotype. Again, these daily activities are very time consuming in Eswatini compared to developed countries that have accessible, affordable technologies that allow efficiency in completing these tasks. Because developed countries can cut down the time on daily chores, these societies can place their priorities elsewhere. As I may say, the US culture is a life of constant hustle and hurry in competition for time. However, culture is difficult to learn without experiencing it for oneself, thus, those who use the label umlungu do not have an accurate depiction.

Suspending our Biases

Like all labels, they put people in a box through judging a certain aspect of one’s life. A label is limiting to other traits a person possesses and alienates one’s experiences that go beyond that label. A label amounts a person to just that and nothing more.

And, does the world not have their own perceptions of Africa? Some may perceive people in Africa as lazy, not smart, or incapable. While looking at the average grades of students in the rural communities, such as 60% or lower, one may quickly assume students are lazy [to study] with no context. (Disclaimer: this label of lazy is not one from my own, rather a host national who thinks outsiders may see them as lazy.)

However, there are layers of contributing factors. Going back to the daily tasks in Eswatini, they are very time consuming. As previously mentioned with my sisi, a girl child wakes up at 5am to cook, the boy child fetches water before going to school, and both return home at around 3:30pm. Some students arrive home around 5 or 6pm due to the bus transportation wait and travel time, and/or some walking 30+ minutes home on foot. Students then handwash their school uniforms because they only have one or two pairs. Afterwards, they fetch firewood, collect water from the community taps, cook and wash their dishes. By the time they are done, it is 7-9pm. They are exhausted and the time and energy to study has shrunk. To then compound this cycle daily, it gets physically tiring on the body. Other factors contributing to school performance include the school environment, the grading and testing system, being taught in English versus their mother language at schools, the emphasis of education at home, a child’s socioemotional well-being, and more.

What if instead of labeling people, the world took time to listen to one another? Sure, not everyone can articulate and explain the different levels of systems that impact them. (Whether from a sociology or social work levels of systems approach looking at the individual and interpersonal level, community level, then institutional level; or whichever framework or lens one may use). However, everyone has their own stories and experiences that reveal something. I can listen to Emaswati share their daily lives and learn so much. For example, I have learned why seeking employment is so difficult when the people want to pursue a career so badly just like the rest of the world. I can see now why some African refugees I met in the past were so willing to work and overwork… because they were never given the opportunity before. Africans are so smart, creative, innovative, hard-working, and dedicated just like any person can be. Before WE the people are quick to judge, we must take time to slow down, listen, and understand a person or a group of people. This is my plea to the world.

I think the beauty of humans of all different backgrounds is that we share emotions. Despite the different circumstances and situations humans may face, we all feel to varying degrees: love, jealousy, joy, betrayal, apathy, despair, hope, and more. Of course, that does not give us the right to invalidate one another as each experience one beholds is not exactly like the other. However, I think through relating to one another, we can all share compassion…what the world desperately needs so that we are not up against each other. I see people living their lives individually, having to constantly have one’s guard up because of the constant comparison and judgement given to one another. But, are we not all struggling and are we not more alike than we think we are? Hence, it is a beauty for people to come together as a community.

Footnote

*The definition provided does have exceptions. Those from African countries like Mozambique or Nigeria are not called umlungus. However, a Black PCV can still be labled due to coming from the US and the assumption of wealth. Though they may be called umlungu a lot less, this can be a huge dysphoria for blacks as they are not of the privileged race in the States, thus feeling misplaced both in the US and in African countries.