Zambia and the BIG words we use by Kampamba Shula

Zambia having being colonized by the British led to Zambia obviously becoming an English speaking country. Zambians on average speak very good English however this ability to use big English words has proven a stumbling block in Zambians actually addressing some of its challenges.

For example, it is not uncommon to hear reports saying Zambia must “diversify” from mining to agriculture or statements like Zambia must enhance “diversification” from mining to agriculture. To diversify or diversification is on average a big English word. If we are to break this down in simple terms we would say to “diversify” is to do something different from what you are currently doing. The question we must ask then is, what mining do Zambians really do? Which big mines in Zambia are owned by Zambians aside from the minority stake owned by government? Why do people say Zambia must diversify from mining to agriculture when in truth most of our people are farmers already in agriculture. May the reason be because we have chosen to use the big word “diversification” instead of using a simple word many people would understand?

Zambia has for a long time struggled with what is called the problem of corruption. Why do we assume that everyone in Zambia actually knows what the word “corruption” means? If this doesn’t make sense to the reader please consider the translation of the word “corruption” in a local language of your choice. Then consider if this local language translation has a positive or negative connotation.

Considering in truth that many people do not really understand the word corruption beyond simple “bribery”, Why do we have an institution in Zambia called the Anti-Corruption Commission?. In mathematics two negatives make a positive. The words "Anti-Corruption" is supposed to be two negatives making a positive except corruption is not negative when translated in a local language. There is a difference when you call the Zambia police force the Zambia police service. There is a difference when you call the Zambia prisons service the Zambia corrections service. Same reason ZRA must be called the Zambia revenue service not Zambia revenue authority.

Quite recently Zambia declared Gold a "strategic asset". There is no standard definition of a strategic asset and no one knows what it means but it gets the crowd going. Sometimes in Zambian we use big words unnecessarily.

Until we begin to realize that the words we choose to use limit the parameters of our solutions we will be going around in circles. As Einstein said "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them"