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African Resilience

May 8th, 2010

It never ceases to amaze me when many people are amazed at the resilience of the African people. Considering the harsh environment especially in the recent times that Africans have to live through, think Zimbabwe, you have to be resilient and persistent to survive. Stories like BBC News - Zimbabwe's forgotten children, struggling to survive and Op-Ed Columnist - Young Superheroes in a Hut - NYTimes.com express surprise at this survival instinct.

Sometimes when you describe the fact that in many African countries do not have any social net to catch you before you ‘starve’, you see the expression of a kind of fear in many European eyes. Many of those who travel to Africa for holidays only seem to notice the ‘beggars’ and poverty and fail to see the human spirit at its best. For those of us who grew up in Africa, the scenes from the excellent ‘Welcome To Lagos’ series that played recently on BBC 2 where not surprising. Sam Wollaston in his article described it in this way ‘The stars of this world do not wallow in self-revelation, but are ordinary, resourceful people who get by’.

If you have not watched the series, you missed a treat. Unfortunately, they appear to have removed it from iPlayer but you can catch it on youtube. In the meantime, an introduction....

[First published on my NotTheNews blog on specified date]