Appearance vs Content — Is it really white?
Last week I went with some of my Iraqi colleagues to the market of Tal Afar. Fresh produce is not sold in shops but rather by small vendors in a giant warehouse. After I good some fruits, vegetables and eggs, we went to the shop to get canned, bagged and frozen food. Pork is not sold here, but they do have processed ‘chicken’ sausages and stale looking bread rolls. I wasn’t really interested in either because neither of that looked appetising. However, my one colleague insisted that I would like it because the previous European colleague always bought it. I explained that I’m not English and would prefer to consume fresh bread and meat, even if it’s their local flatbread that has very little yeast and which I’ve learned to like. The shape of the food is perhaps not what I’m used to, but the ingredients are the same and will be more nourishing (and cheaper) than the processed food that they have somehow ‘Westernised’.
Chess aid
The church that I joined as a student was involved in many things. This included short term missions in Africa, cycling around South Africa, dance ministries, food parcel distribution, police encouragement, prayer marches and even chess aid. Being somewhat curious, I tended to get involved in everything, but just a little bit. However, I did become a regular with chess aid. I remember having chess clubs in the school, I attended so I thought this would be common in all schools. This was actually not the case in the non-white schools where chess was a foreign concept. It’s been proven that children who play chess does better at maths and science. We wanted all children to experience the wonders of chess, so we decided to support two primary schools in predominantly coloured communities. ‘Coloured’ was the term used by the Apartheid government to identify people who were mix race and/or from Khoi-San origin. This was basically everyone not identified as white, Asian or black.
Once a week, I would go to Cloeteville to teach chess after school to children in grade seven. These kids would choose to stay after school to learn and practice playing chess while the other kids would be playing outside. We even gave chess sets to the kids who were playing well so that they can practice at home. One day I asked one of the boys who received a chess set how he was getting on with it back home. I’m not sure if he was sad, embarrassed or both, but he explained that his chess set never made it to his home because one of the other boys took it from him.
Don’t try to be white?
I asked him to tell me what happened. So he told me how he left with his chess set after class towards home when one of the boys that were playing football went after him. He was told; ‘Moenie probeer wit wees nie’ (Afrikaans for ‘Don’t try to be white’) before the boy, who probably don’t even know how to play the game, took his chess set.
Getting bullied for playing chess or music in school was also common in the school I attended, especially if that coincided with not playing the manly sport of rugby. However, the difference is that you would be labelled as a ‘sissy’ (Afrikaans for non-assertive) or a nerd rather than trying to be part of another racial group. Interesting trivia is that chess has its origins in China about 200 BC and made its way to Europe via India only to land via me in Cloetesville primary. Football, on the other hand, with its origins in England, was not considered a white sport. Perhaps a history lesson on sports would have helped, or maybe not.
Open for learning
I’ve come across this obstacle in many countries. It’s great to have pride in your own culture, but to think that your culture can’t be enriched by another is relatively short-sighted. If I’m thinking that my culture and worldview is the right, best and purest one, then I will never be able to really listen to someone that sees things differently. Even here in Tal Afar, the tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims remain despite having had to stand together during the recent war on terror.
I recently asked the retired national Director of Early Childhood Development in South Africa what the biggest obstacle is to working together, and she said pride. Only with some humility will people be able to listen to each other, learn from one another and work together effectively. Our culture might shape us differently, but it’s the ingredient of what we have to offer others that’s good, bad or somewhere in between.
It’s often not very different amongst us Christians. Yes, we go to church and do everything in line with our Christian culture. We have the right form, but our attitude and action towards those that are different to us reveal whether or not we are really Christ-like. And you never know, God might just be speaking to you through the other person in the only way that He can.