African Timing?

Cherie, Inclusions 

I cannot even begin to count the amount of times I have said or heard someone else say, “Let’s tell people it will start at 17.00 because they’ll arrive at 18.00.” Even though the phrase ‘African Timing’ is constantly being used, we rarely discuss if it holds any truth. We sort of just accept it as a standard that Africans and essentially Black people tend to stick to. Our bad timing is as reliable as a Swiss watch (excuse the pun).

Last week I found myself in a committee meeting with what the cool kids these days might call, ‘woke individuals.’ We were discussing African Timing and I was told that historically, Africans have always been incredibly punctual and that the notion of ‘African Timing’ was created to give Black people a bad name and to give another reason to the rest of the world as to why Black people are the lesser ‘other.’

From this, I came up with a theory that explains why African timing must be a racially invented myth. We seem to forget that societally, black people care the most about how they present themselves to others. If a guest was ever treated anything less than royalty in a Black home, hell would freeze over. One could argue that the reason Slavery and Colonialism in Africa were so successful is that black people may have been a little too welcoming to the white man, but hey, that’s a story for another day. *Sips tea.  Ask any black person if they have ever left their mothers house unkempt and they will reply to you that looking ‘unkempt’ is not even an option in the house, let alone out of it. So if we have always cared about our presentation, why would this not extend to our time keeping. Surely if a person wants to present themselves as respectable they would never keep people waiting.

African timing is not an intrinsic part of black societies, it is a prejudice which fuels ideas that Africans live in backward societies, it is a stereotype that tries to justify racist beliefs that Black people are mentally underdeveloped compared to White people.

The worst part about this myth is that even though it is not an intrinsic part of our societies, it is a current feature of them. Sadly, we have chosen to accept this stereotype, chosen to endorse a myth that discredits us to the rest of the world, and to our undoubtedly punctual ancestors. We even use it as an excuse for what was and should still be regarded as pure disrespect.

So what’s the solution for erasing the myth? Simple, just keep time. Respect your culture by valuing how you carry yourself. #Dontwastetime2016, instead let’s take a page out of our ancestors’ book and keep time.