EWB Day Special: A Short Story of Beer and Integration in Zambia

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Today, March 1st, is EWB Day. EWB chapter members all across Canada will be pulling off fantastic feats of outreach to promote this year's EWB Day theme: Be Change. Please go to playyourpart.ca to show your support and learn more about it.

In commemoration of EWB Day, here is a short story about beer and integration in Zambia.





"Chibuku Shake Shake: The One that Gives You Respect."

That's the tagline to my favourite TV commercial. It's for a locally brewed Zambian beer. The premise of the commercial is that real men drink Shake Shake. Men of respect drink Shake Shake. And even if you're not a man of respect, pretend that you are - by drinking Shake Shake.

I must admit it, though - it took me almost eight months to try the local brew. Shameful for a Newfie, I know. But frankly, it didn't take me long to realize that drinking Shake Shake wasn't as glamorous as the commercial made it out to be (imagine that!)

But I sure did want me some respect. In fact, when I explain to people why I think it is important to integrate into the local culture, it's one of the four reasons I often cite. Briefly, they are: gain respect, gain understanding, make friends, break down stereotypes about westerners (aka muzungus).

And then, only recently after almost eight months overseas, it finally happened. My day of chibuku awakening came. I was visiting my friend Chilongo in a compound called Mutendere in Lusaka, Zambia's capital. He was showing me around the area and we ended up at his favourite local pub. He bought a carton of Shake Shake and had two glasses. I couldn't refuse, right? That would have been rude. It would have been like...de-integrating.

I don't know exactly how chibuku is made, but I know it has something to do with fermented corn. There are actually little chunks of corn in it that make it kind of lumpy. It comes in containers that are sort of like one litre milk cartons, only they have a slit in the top to allow air to escape as it continues to ferment in the box, meaning that it gets stronger the longer you wait to drink it.

It wasn't half bad. It wasn't good. But it wasn't bad.

Chilongo's friends started to gather, each one wondering what in the world a muzungu was doing in Mutendere drinking chibuku. For many of them it was the first time they'd seen a muzungu drinking the local brew. They were shocked. Chilongo thought they were being foolish.

"You people, when you see a white man you think he must be an angel or something," he said to them. "He's just one of us. We're all people."

It was then that I realized that my chibuku adventure was actually a pretty decent act of integration. I made a bunch of new friends, I was able to contradict some preconceptions about muzungus, and I think maybe the Shake Shake commercials were right - I was definitely feeling a gained respect.

Drinking beer isn't going to do much about misconceptions of Africa in Canada, but I've no doubt that there are some great activities going on back home today that will do just that and a whole lot more. Happy EWB Day!!

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