In the states I grew up in a consumer culture. U.S. Americans are taught from advertisements, peer expectations, and even by the way things are produced to buy and throw “away”, buy and throw “away”. Here in Malawi I see a very different culture. Things are bought, broken, fixed, sold, used again, ect.
We have a saying that goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. But In the States we don’t often see even broken things getting fixed, and I think it would also be helpful for us to think, “If it ain’t broke, don’t REPLACE it”
The other day I asked my refugee friend Kariza about the Yankees hat he was wearing. Being a Mets fan, I was wondering if he knew what the symbol on his hat meant and made conversation about how I used to live close to NYC. He did not know, but was interested to find out and then showed me the socks he was wearing which had pumpkins and black cats on them. He asked if I knew what they were for, and I confirmed that his socks were for Halloween, an American holiday. He apparently learned that that morning from my American teammate. He then laughed and said, “Africans don’t think about what things mean, they just wear them.” I don’t know if all Africans would agree with that. They certainly notice when anyone is wearing a Blantyre Bullets hat, but there is some truth and wisdom in that statement.
Before I moved to Malawi, my ignorant self used to think that the African people wearing American sport memorability in the pictures you see or the stories you hear, must have received them from a relief effort. In reality, Americans replace their wardrobe to keep up with fashions or winning teams, or whatever, and send the unwanted clothes to Africa. Then the Africans say, “Hey! Here are perfectly good clothes for a marked down price!” and the African textile industries suffer. See here Not relief efforts, just economics. In the used clothing store in Lilongwe you find shirts that say Texas and Jersey Girl.
Clothing is not the only thing that gets replaced long before its usefulness is ended. Think about how frequently you replace phones and computers, pillows and blankets, household items, ect. Think about the “trash” which is only waste when you fail to use it as a resource.
And where is “away?” When you throw something away it does not go to some black void that swallows our garbage. In the States, away is usually some out of site dump or inside the borders of a separate country. It is just like when I would hide things under the bed or sneak random stuff onto my sister’s side of the room when we cleaned.
An interesting insight into America’s impressive garbage production is presented in this little film called The Story of Stuff.
How can we be more resourceful and less wasteful with our resources? What can we learn from Africa’s resourcefulness?