African Time.

8th of January, 2022.

I'm yet to discover why it is called African time till today. Maybe, because Africa is known or perceived to be a continent full of unshaped, rough or other atrocities. Recently, I learnt that the people in diaspora think or imagine Africa as bush, forest or wilderness. I'd never blame anyone, because a place that is truly underdeveloped, with a high percentage of insecurities, poverty and so on, should be seen or truly perceived as a bush.

Here in my country or the continent at large, when something is not right or bad,  we attach our names to it or rather take possession of it, to reveal that yes, we own it. Merely hearing "African time'' is obvious and no need to tell anyone that it is for Africans. The reason it is generalized, is because, we as Africans are known for it. "African time" means lateness

African time has become so normal and gotten to a stage where there's no program that will hold, be it a religious one, a seminar, dinner, party etc, where it won't be indicated with capitals that,"No African Time". It is now so common, or let me put it like this that it has become the new normal. 

Even at work, where money is being earned, except in some highly prolific or a standard place of work that will not condone it. For instance, It's funny how a meeting or whatever gathering it might be for 8AM will never start until like 10AM. It's actually annoying and I guess everyone is guilty of this. There is nothing good as making it some minutes before or on the dot for a meeting.

This has even eaten deep into relationships. A friend of mine shared one of her relationship experiences with me. She said her boyfriend and her were supposed to go for a dinner date, they already agreed on the venue and time as well. My friend got to the venue before the agreed time, but the boyfriend got there after an hour 😭. This is extremely bad. 

The major thought I believe most people always have is that, they can't start exactly by the time or it is African time. My belief or opinion is that any kind of meeting scheduled for a particular time should start as planned. Whether people are around or not. This will help in reducing or totally erasing the supposed inevitable "African time". When people know that this particular organization or religious gathering starts exactly at their stipulated time, they will change and get used to it. In fact, they will be the one telling others about the system.

I never had any intention to write about this topic, until an incident occurred to me this week. So, this person and I had an agreement to meet somewhere, so that we can both go together because I do not know the place. The most annoying part was that it was the person that needed me to help out with something. In a nutshell, I legitimately stood up for 3 hours under a very intense harmattan, because it was in the morning and an environment I'm not familiar with. I cannot cry.🙂

Personally, I do not like going for any agreed upon program, meeting or gathering late, I like getting to the venue some minutes before. In fact, when I notice I'm already late, I'd rather not go anymore, because I'd be feeling unserious and bad. I have had many experiences of African time, but the inspiration to write about it came from a place of tarring for 3 hours in my recent encounter.

I love football. Amongst other things I have seen and read, since the day I started watching European football matches, maybe just one or two matches didn't start at the stated time. And the ones that didn't start at the planned time were due to unavoidable technical issues. I believe other continents do not joke with agreed time.

There's actually nothing in going as early as possible to a place, let people know you for it. It's a good thing and it tells a lot already about such persons even before engaging them. Even if it's glaring, others won't be there early, you go there early.

The day we start to go against "African time", we start to have professionalism, more profit, bigger trust and humanity.

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Thank you for reading!