ExodusMagMay2020

Why am I an African drinking
Chinese tea?
gifts, which included the different make ups of our
bodies, adopted according to our natural habitations.
Our natural environment compliments our natural
being. Everything from food to herbs that we would
ever 'naturally' need was provisioned for us.
Most of what we need to succeed as Africans is in our
knowledge systems, concepts and products and that is
what distinguishes us from the rest of the world.
Surprisingly, those same knowledge systems, concepts
and products are on a fast decline and no one seems to
notice or care rather. Everyone wants to identify with
the west and recently the east, which is not a problem
by the way in terms of learning and understanding
other cultures, but let it not make us abandon the good
that comes from Africa.
Not all of our indigenous knowledge systems, ideas and
concepts are bad as we have been made to believe. In
as much as not all imported systems, ideas and
concepts are good in the African context. We need to
strike a balance. Which brings me to my question,
which is the title of this article, “Why would I, an
African, drink Chinese tea?” Well they have told me of
all sorts of benefits the tea comes with, I mean some of
my friends. Some even joined these Chinese tea selling
clubs/networks. The question that has always come to
my mind is, do we not have our own African herbs with
all these benefits or even better suited to us, they are
telling us about? I remember growing up in Zimbabwe
and whenever I had flu as a kid, my mum would crush
what is known in Shona as gavakava and make me
drink it, and the flu would be gone in a day. Ndorani is
another example of a well-known herb, which is a
bitter herb usually put in water or porridge. It is red in
colour and used to treat illnesses such as hypertension.
Now today I have to walk into a pharmacy and buy a
box of Chinese tea for my flu, seriously? Do we not
have African entrepreneurs out there that can process
and package our own African tea? Is this not the
reason why today we now have diseases that were
previously not common amongst black Africans,
cancer for example? Not to mean that the Chinese
tea causes these diseases, but most imported artificial
(GMO) products have been proven to cause cancer.
Let's give an example of something closer to home for
most male black Africans; Aphrodisiacs, it is common
knowledge amongst black men that African roots and
herbs are the best for sexual enhancement and/or
dysfunction treatment. Nothing can beat that
amongst African men, but surprisingly the biggest sex
drug in the world is Viagra, imagine? We can go on
giving examples but the point I am driving at is that if
we are not giving out value in terms of African
products and services to the world, taking advantage
of our uniqueness that God blessed us with, we might
continue to blame and suffer.
Developing these unique products and services and
transforming them into businesses and industry is one
way to change Africa’s fortunes. Let us have
manufacturing plants unique to Africa, services unique
to Africa that we can export to the rest of the world.
It has been said so many times that Africa is endowed
with natural resources and for the most part, that
meant minerals and agriculture, and yes it is, but that’s
not what I want to dwell on in this article, not to say
it’s not important, but that there are a lot more
articles that cover the subject, and this discussion
hopes to compliment the knowledge and advise on
may 2020 | EQUIPPING OF THE SAINTS exoduscm | 27