Africa:411

How many times do you pick up a phone and get local or state information. You don’t even give it a second thought? It goes like this.

Int: Your House Anywhere USA

A young man, 30 something, let’s call him Billy, walks briskly to the phone intending on calling the 411 operator to search for his best friend he hasn’t seen in over 40 years, but he thinks he knows the city he’s living in.

Billy dials 411 to get some information

411 Operator
Hello, state and city please

Billy
Yes, Muskogee, Oklahoma, Jed Green

411 Operator
Residence or Business?

Billy
Residence mam

411 Operator
Hold for the number please.

Billy
Thank you operator…I haven’t spoken to him in ov…

The operator punches the button to the automated reply as if she doesn’t care what reason he has to call his best friend


That scenario takes place all day and night in the USA not in Africa. As my friend Kit Karson is frustrated for not being able to do the above simple thing while in Africa. While in South Africa we are nine hours by car and forty-five minutes by plane from Mozambique, our final destination for the documentary. He’s absolutely fed up for not being able to really get an answer about something that seems so simple, information, the 411 (see mary j bilges first album…yeah, yeah)

What he’s not taking into account is that it’s not the United Sates of Africa; it’s Mozambique…a separate country all together with their own way of doing things. And as those of you know who have visited Africa and had any kind of interaction you must adapt to Africa time. Now is that code for, “There !@#$ is slow.” It could be depending on your attitude, your tone, whether they really understand you or not (cause they speak 11 languages, while we barley speak the one were supposed to), and are you just plain impatient or patient? If your not patient, you gonna have a hard time here and end up frustrated. Is it a reflection on my friend Kit, um, um, not at all because I understand his dilemma. Is it a bad reflection on Africa? No. Why?

Here’s why, they didn’t import people, then send them to the south to work, build up economic wealth which allowed the United States to form a constitution signed by a plethora of dignitaries and future presidents, then take that economic power built on the backs of these stolen people to allow more states to join the union. Africa didn’t then in divisive turmoil (civil war) over those slaves, not wanting that economic force to loose it’s grip and not allow other states to join the union free it’s slaves to be free in a society with forty acres and a mule (never got it), then turn around and wait until the 60’s to really set them legally free with laws and amendments like Brown vs. Board of Education, The Voting Rights law, and boycott after boycott, and blood spill after blood spill. No, Africa didn’t do that.

Africa was only colonized by every nation except us (because we built our colony with them), separated and not allowed to grow and build into one union under one content, then revolutionized country by country, land taken from non original owners who say there African, or Afrikaan, or forced others to learn a language because of colonization. All of these countries rich in minerals, rich in life, and rich in culture, changed and not given a chance to grow, changed, not allowed to learn, changed, not allowed to learn from each other to form a union (nor a 411 info line). So, what does this that have to do with 411. The information my friend was trying to get, or couldn’t get, was a bi-product of the degradation of this content on it’s simplest form. And maybe, just maybe they had the info to give him…and maybe they didn’t want to. The last time info was given, a country was taken, lives were changed, and my ancestors became African-Americans hitting the shores of Virginia, hitting the shores of New York on Wall Street, stand against the wall and be sold to people named Jefferson and Washington (yeah, look it up) Wall street, really, think about it. A wall, A street, slaves for sale…economic power symbol. Come on !!!.

I know how could a simple phone call evoke so much, and am I right in my writing, am I correct in my evaluation of an entire content and another country? I don’t know, you look it up I did my research, I have my footnotes, get your own and disprove it. Maybe you should dial 411. I am out to Mozambique, remember to be patient in Africa. ☺

Peace and Chicken Grease (shout out to KC in Little Rock) This ain’t no Revolution, it’s a Revelation, read the book in the Book of all Books.