Yesterday I was driving through Old Soweto market, in Lusaka, with my ebullient taxi man. He’s always pointing things out to me, whether it’s telecom headquarters or the home of an ex-MP. We wound our way through spools of commerce — Soweto is an informal outdoor Wal-mart, organized by product type. The Plush Armchairs Section, followed by the Steel Doorframe Section, followed by more armchairs. Then Aluminum Pots Section, the secondhand clothes section, and finally the Foodstuffs Section. Women hugged the edge of the road with huge sacks of rice, and they were surrounded.
“This time everyone has to buy the rice, so much rice. And the chicken. Even you don’t take rice ever, even you don’t like the chicken, you have to be having it on Christmas,” my taxi man says.
I’ll spend Christmas in Rwanda, which I’ve done every other year for the last… counting makes me feel old. This time, I’m so fortunate to be hosted in the home of a dear friend — just like I was six years ago, when I landed a stranger, a newbie to Africa, a curious and confused early twentysomething in wonder at everything around me, and a friend of a friend welcomed me into his family’s home for a holiday meal.
So I have some sense of what Christmas is like here.
UNICEF, apparently, does not. In a bizarre ad spot, UNICEF’s Santa insists, “I don’t do poor countries.” The idea being UNICEF doesn’t — isn’t that nice? — so give them your holiday money instead! I don’t follow the logic of this little ad at all, which you can watch below. H/T View from the Cave, who told me about it on Twitter.
Meanwhile, I’d like to know DO do at Christmas time. As the South African satire site Hayibo reminds us, Africans actually do know it’s Christmas (so thanks ‘n all, Bob Geldorf, but can you please stop asking now?).
If you’re in any part of Africa, what does that the holiday like where you are?
The blog See Africa Differently gets the ball rolling, with tidbits on Christmas meals in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Madagascar. But I’d love to hear more stories — and not just about food. How do you spend the day? If you aren’t a church-goer, what do you do? If you’re not a Christian, what do you do? What’s the most important thing about the holiday for you?
Whether you’re African because you were born here, or, as Kwame Nkumrah has it, because Africa was born in you — if you’re of the soil or you started a stranger and now you can’t leave it behind, I’d love to hear how you’re spending the holiday.
Stay Merry. Ignore the UNICEF Santa:
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