No Sugar Please

Tea without sugar and milk? It's difficult for a 'civilized' person like myself. Salt, sugar and condensed milk are some of the ‘civilizing’ things Britain brought to the British Empire. There were no hospitals when His Royal Majesty’s Navy landed.

There are hundreds today thanks to a lot of things including salt, sugar and condensed milk. The World Health Organization does not highlight the health consequences of colonization, just the current ‘Africa is poor’ situation created by land dispossession and using colonies as markets for unhealthy British goods.

Back to the sugar challenge. I’m trying to take tea without sugar but years of conditioning make it hard. Maybe I should always remind myself that tea is a leaf. That’s why it’s easy to take chamomile, green tea, sorrel tea, lemon tea and rooibos without sugar. I’m an animal like deer and cattle therefore, I must eat leaves because they’re sugar and salt free.

One of colonization’s crimes was to change the diet of conquered nations in order to sell British products like flour, chocolates, candy and soup cubes that have more salt than the sea bed. We grew up wanting to be civilized. Much as we loved khulu (grandmother) we didn’t like her idea of snacks, natural food like corn, which was orange like the sun and sweet potatoes. We wanted lollipops, chocolates and biscuits. Up to this day, Nigerian producers still make movies about kids and biscuits.

Maybe I should forget English red and black tea and stick to herbal tea. No, the tea is from India, where locals lost their land to make way for British tea plantations. Tea, the export crop.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.