Africa Time

Certain information in this education just falls through the cracks - the same cracks created by the many language barriers. The difference between millimeters, centimeters, and meters for instance. Concepts of time & distance. Things many of us (privileged) take for granted because our parents know and because we grew up in a car/mass transit culture. I grew up asking - how far is it til we get there? - the answer would be 5 more miles….and then I would ask, but how much longer? -and the answer would be 15 more minutes. And so my perception of time, space, and distance grew.

Klasie was telling me of a student he gave a lift one day. When they arrived at the school, the child did not get out of the car. Klasie said, “well, come along,” but as it turns out the little guy did not know how to get out of the car.. He has never ridden inside of a car before. It is typical here on the farms, that the workers (and their children) get around on tractors, the backs of trucks, on bikes and on foot. These people have not learned to measure in kilometers, but rather in footsteps.

This difference between white culture & black culture, the lower economic rung and the higher becomes apparent in the way time is valued and measured. The white culture here is very European and functions on an hourly/minute-by-minute basis. Whereas the black or African culture has a completely different concept of speed and time. And thus you get “Africa Time.”