Letters From a Retired Miner

Greetings to all my friends who read this.

This week I was very happy when my grandson, Alex Bwembya Mwenda , came to visit me from Kitwe. We sat down and I asked him: “Tell me, how are you?”

“I am well, granddad” he replied, “Mum and dad are well. They sent you a message.”

Then he got his bag out. I was waiting for a letter. Instead, he got a computer.

“I will show you the message.”

“That is not good for me. My eyes are weak. That is why I cannot read anything on the phone your father sent me. I let Chishimba read my messages.”

“Don’t worry, granddad. On the computer you can read anything because you can make letters look as big as you want. Anyway, the message is not a letter. Look….”

Then he showed me a video of his father and mother. They were laughing and talking to me and to the people at the village. They mentioned bana Chishimba, Kangwa, Lukwesa, everybody in the family. I felt very good and very proud to get a video message. I called everybody in the neighbourhood to come and see my son with his family and his house in Kitwe. I even stopped watching the video. Instead, I was watching the faces of everybody. Everyone was smiling like a child.

Ngosa Kambwili  is my neighbour. His son, Lwando, is in Lusaka and his daughter, Chanda, is in Livingstone. Ngosa is always talking about the good jobs his children have. His daughter bought a big car. Last year she even came to visit us and to show the car to the village. I asked my grandson if he had any messages from them for their father. He said NO but he can find anyone who is on Facebook and Twitter.

My neighbor was very happy when we found the name of his son, Lwando, on Twitter. His photo looked like a chief.  I asked Bwembya to read to the whole village what Lwando said on Twitter. In every message from Lwando, we found insults. It was like his job to insult everyone; young people, elderly people, even government ministers.

There were so many insults in his messages that my neighbour stopped listening. He stood up and left us without saying one word. He was so ashamed because his son only knows how to insult people. 

Many Zambian Twitters were just writing insults to each other. I can’t even write here what they said because this is a place for families.

I want you my friends to know that our tradition is respecting each other. All parents are proud when we see our children respect old people like their own father and mother, and young people like their own brothers and sisters.

Another thing, if you want someone to change, you tell them in a way to make them look at your reasons. If you show them insults, they will close their mind. You will just be talking to yourself and showing the world that your parents did not teach you how to respect other human beings.

My grandson said the insults will remain on Facebook and Twitter for ever. That means their grandchildren will be reading and saying my grandfather or my grandmother was the one who was insulting everybody. What kind of world are we making for them? Do you want your children to be insulted and to use insults because they are copying you?

It is good that you don’t need postage stamps for Facebook and Twitter, and your message arrives fast. Quick respect, not quick insults.

When people respect each other and then they fight, someone may hear them shouting an insult. Then you know the situation is very bad. But if people talk to each other in insults, when things get very bad you find they kill each other.

 I was told that there is no Head Teacher for Twitter to stop insulting each other, but everyone can Tweet with respect. There is nothing wrong with our tradition of respect. It is very good for all people. Please, let us set a good example for our children. This is my request for today.

Thank you.

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Photo by Andrei Niemimäki

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