Colonization Was A Lie

Colonization was a lie. We were told that although we were born and raised in Africa, England was our ‘mother country’. Parents longed for England.

That is why they hoped we would go to there one day, to see the Queen. Overseas is called ‘phesheya’ in Zulu, a great honour indeed, to have a child educated across the oceans.

The child finally took the plane, and landed in a British university. She was shocked that white people delivered milk in the morning, cleaned her room, were cooks in the canteen, were window cleaners and swept city streets like in the movie Secrets and Lies, directed by Mike Leigh.

The problem was communication. The child whose language Zulu was labeled barbaric, could not understand what all those cleaners were saying. They did not use proper grammar and intonation.

To the child from Africa, they were not educated. She later learned that white people who did those menial jobs were working class, which was difficult to comprehend because we are born to work, toil, so that we can eat.

African students from Senegal and Haute-Volta went to France, to the Sorbonne to be precise. They spoke ‘better’ French because that is how they were conditioned, throw your African language in the thrash and learn civilized languages like French. But how come cleaners and cooks who worked in the prestigious Sorbonne University spoke gibberish French?

Colonization was a lie and it’s still a lie because a black professor in an Armani suit, entering an elevator is automatically a drug dealer and an armed robber. Call the gendarmeire. 

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.