Thanks to a friends recommendation and a birthday gift from my lovely parents,
I started reading "African Friends and Money Matters" by David Maranz.
Money affects all areas of life.
The way we handle money can point out the way we think about life.
So this book is basically a list of observations from a westerner about how many Africans use money.
Even though I am only in chapter two, I feel like I have already learned valuable lessons.
A key derivative from the observations thus far is the contradicting value-system.
Africans are generous and compassionate,
the implications of this in society are almost incomprehensible to my Westerner thinking of boundaries, privacy, budgeting and financial responsibility.
Yet, I can't help but wonder if our system, that is based on "sound decision-making" and progress, couldn't learn a thing or two from this system of individual-sacrifice and limited hoarding.
Africans are generous, so generous that most Westerners would use the phrase "generous to a fault". This is lived out in every area of life, so much so, that if someone has a "surplus", i.e. they budget, save and meet their needs, then they are considered greedy, because they must have ignored their needy family and friends.
How then can I, a Westerner, who is inherently going to be judged as wealthy because of my skin-color, enter a system of generosity and actually make friends?
We shall see.
There will be undoubtedly more observations from this book.
Hopefully it doesn't loose your interest.
