BOOK: CHICKENS IN THE BUS: MORE THOUGHTS ON CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
AUTHOR: Prof. Joseph Mbele
GENRE: CREATIVE NON-FICTION
Chickens in the Bus is a sequel to Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences. It recapitulates and gives additional insight into the major topics of its prequel. Some of the new topics addressed herein are ‘Spare the Rod, Spoil the child’ and ‘Culture and Business Between Africans and Americans.’
This book expressly critiques cultural imperialism. In nearly every chapter, the author vividly illustrates how the western culture deems itself superior to other cultures, and how that does so little in helping establish inter-cultural understanding. The book gives practical suggestions on how to handle cultural clashes. For instance, in the chapter ‘Cultural Difference in the Global Village’, there is an account of how the author defused a misunderstanding between the American people and Somali immigrants in Faribault, Minnesota. What seemed like imminent danger to the locals turned out to be nothing. Cultural shock is common but sometimes its solution lies in amicable dialogue between parties involved or the intervention of a mediator. That simple act could bridge the gap between the two cultures, thereby establishing understanding.
One subject that was not explained at length in ‘Africans and Americans’ was given more depth in ‘Chickens in the Bus’. Sometimes it seems African-Americans assume they are the same as Africans. This is evident in some social spaces where they clash with Africans, when Africans assert that Afro-Americans practice cultural appropriation when they write about Africa as if they were Africans. While the former may call Africa home, because of their roots as it were, it could never be overemphasized that their experiences out there may have altered the nature of their Africanness, hence the difference between them and African-Africans. It is a subject that is well-explored in this book.
My favourite chapter is ‘Chickens in the Bus.’ The day I stumbled upon the book, I laughed at the title. It reminded me of a few encounters I have had with chickens on the bus. One particular occasion came to mind. The day I registered for voting in 2020, I did it at Turn Pike. Then I jumped on a bus to head to Lusaka. I had a class to attend at the University of Zambia.
As the bus sped on, I felt something tickle my calf. We were a little too squeezed so I assumed it’s just another passenger. I moved my legs without checking. It wasn’t long before the tickle came again. All I needed to do was peep below my seat to see that there was a goat and chickens there. My heart almost popped out of my head from terror. I lifted my feet at once, screaming, ‘Goat! Chickens!
The bus must have come from Mazabuka or beyond. There is no missing a villager when you see them and I think I was the only passenger from town on the bus. Some passengers were amused and others, you could see the offence they took. The lady sitting next to me literally rolled her eyes as she asked me if I was afraid of chickens.
See, I love goat meat and chicken, especially village chicken itself but no, I am not unafraid of them when they are alive and licking or pecking my calf on the bus.
‘I am terrified,’ I told the lady.
‘You don’t eat chicken?’
‘I do,’ I said, lifting my legs even higher. I placed my laptop bag where my feet should have been and placed my feet on it.
I sat that way for the rest of the trip and God knows it was very uncomfortable. I have seen chickens on buses but none of them had been so close nor had any pecked on me until that day so it left an impression on me. To find a book with this title piqued my curiosity, especially that it was written by a Tanzanian.
‘Even in Tanzania chickens are carried on passenger buses?’ I thought to myself. ‘Are goats too?’
It instantly became a must-read book and I was happy to receive it all the way from the United States, mailed to me by the author himself. I am happy I read it and I love it.
However, I am not very comfortable with how in this particular book, the author spoke of Africans as if they are homogenous through and through. In its prequel, there was a disclaimer that Africa was not homogenous and he laboured to give specific examples for his arguments. When he spoke of perception of skin colour in the previous book, he brought it home to his home country, and his ethnic group in particular. However, in this book, he generalized it to the entirety of Africa and asserted that Africans are not alive to their skin colour or race until they come in contact with the western world. This is not the narrative of my country, at least from my perspective.
Many Zambians are very alive to their skin colour, body size and shape, race and the commonest; tribe. While in this booklet, Africa is depicted as this haven where we all live and let live, it is an overstatement to claim it’s all over the continent or at least not specify (again) the context. Skin-bleaching is a common issue in Zambia, especially among the very people who haven’t lived outside the country. Some politicians even ride on tribalism for political mileage. This is the case even in some other African countries, so to paint the entire Africa innocent on this matter feels a little like an exaggeration.
The quality of the paper used for the book is okay but its white pages tend to hurt the eyes. Off-white or brown would have done the book better justice.
All in all, ‘Chickens in the Bus’ and its prelude, “Africans and Americans’, are amazing books that are worth recommending first to institutions of learning where Culture is taught, like the University of Zambia itself, and also to people who wish to go abroad, whether it’s between Africa and America or elsewhere. I also recommend it to anybody who enjoys a good read as much as I do!
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Are you a Zambian writer or writer from any other African country and would like a review of your book? You can reach out to me.
