A culture-less generation.

Women from Zambezi demonstrate the art of pounding Maize.
Photo: George Sanzila

UPON an interesting conversation I had with one of the elders in the Zambezi Region, it became evident the elderly have lost confidence in today’s youth.

More so because we have drifted away from what ought to be our guiding light – culture.

He asserted that the confusion with young people today is that they have fully embraced a modern culture, of which they know nothing about.

That has culminated in the many social problems they face today – domestic violence, unemployment, poverty, rape, crime, disease and hunger.

Sadly enough, they tend to drag the elderly into their mishaps by involving parents in matters whose origins they know nothing about.

Culture is supposed to be hereditary.

It is who we are. It defines our identity and respect for one another. That simple fact has been forgotten by the youth who will jump at every opportunity to be more western than the westerners themselves.

Our culture and customs are what sustained our forefathers. It created a sanctuary for peace and co-existence unlike the present day. Losing such values is tantamount to losing yourself.

In as much as the youth scramble to urban centres in search of better education and jobs, there is a greater need to tap into the fountain of indigenous knowledge.

The few elderly people with the knowledge are not passing it on to the youth the reason being that the youth seem not to be interested or are not eager to learn and often shy away from embracing this useful wealth of wisdom. They shun their roots in the process.

Indigenous knowledge is key to our quality of life as well as our future survival as people. In Zambezi Region where I hail from, many of the youths fail to perform menial jobs as basic as pounding maize, cultivating fields and catching fish.

Yet the tasks provide the much needed food for the family. Popular culture seems to have taken its toll and it’s a worrying phenomenon.

Nutritious traditional riverine foods such as water-lilies (isoto) can only prepared by a few skilled cooks and only sold at special places at exorbitant price.

Even though the youth seem to have a growing appetite for traditional cuisine, they do not care to learn how to prepare it.

Some cite doing so is backward. Many youths without jobs go hungry in villages everyday while rivers and forests are just metres away.

This has in turn prompted the influx of foreigners who possess the skills or are eager to survive and are often employed by us. In the Zambezi Region for example, Lake Liambezi has been a hot bed for foreign fishermen because young people simply do not possess the skills to catch fish.

The paradox is that we tend to complain of the plunder of our resources when we have created an environment that allows such a situation to flourish.

We have only ourselves to blame for the exploitation of our resources by foreign nationals because we lack the knowledge and zeal to exploit them ourselves. We are becoming our own victims.

Twenty years down the line, we would be a people that have not only lost its natural resources but also a people with no cultural value, the very foundation of humanity.

Perhaps what is more worrying is the fact that the generation with the knowledge is slowly fading away.

Strategies ought to be improved by the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture to ensure the restoration of our cultural values and customs, lest we become a cultureless society.