"Exterminate all the Brutes"

*(White people think… Black people think…)

We all dont really like to think in cliches, but somethime it is not so easy.
How shell we be able to read pictures from places we never had the chance to smell, never were able to listen to the noise it does? Our brain automaticly puts together a picture, a meaning made out of this little pieces we get on the other edge.

Munthu in Chichewa means human beeing. Because we, Alex and me, have white skin, we can not be Munthu, we are Azungu. (Azungu=Ghost, today used for white person).
That only people with black skin are Munthu, might sound somehow strange. Our Chichewateacher did explain it to us like this:
The word Munthu originates from the time bevore any white guy stept on the african continent. According to this, a human beeing was a beeing with black skin, walking on two feets.
Suddenly a white guy apeard, they where very surprised, they thougth this must be a ghost, an Azungu.
So, Munthu means human beeing, but without the white ones. You got it? 🙂

Somehow i thougth this issue of the skins color is not a big one anymore. Im very surprised, about myself and my surrounding, that it is still a big one. Not necessarily in a discriminating way to each other, its more something you can’t hide, you will always see.
For us one of the fact is, that everithing is a little bit more expensive. Tomatos, Onions, Bananas, what ever you want. If the seller goes much to much over the normal price, (cause we slowly do know the possible prices) we say: “com’ on, this is Azungu price!!, give me Okuda price..”
So basicly. In the venes of a white guy, ther must flow gold instud uf blood, or even platin.
In the other way, if we think honestly about it, are this strange pictures we have about Okuda. The picture from this wilde wilde human beeing, eating things like grasshoppers, ants and snakes, that probably lives on a tree, who is poor and without education.

So i started to draw this kind of pictures. The first ones you can see below.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 06:31 PM and is filed under digital divide, Malawi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.