Page 122 - A People Called Afrika

A PEOPLE CALLED AFRIKA

by America’s largest advertising and propaganda medium i.e.
Hollywood movies, as being essential for life, led to an increase
in consumerism, more so amongst the Afrikan middle class.

Banks, financial institutions and shylocks alike swooped in
to take full advantage of the aspirations and desires of this
group that had a ‘steady’ income and a craving for a lifestyle
that would make them look a certain way and before we knew
it, mortgages, car loans, business loans and even loans for
items such as smart phones and household furnishings be-
came pretty standard features in today’s Afrika. Credit cards
also became status symbols for those who wanted to show
that they had ‘arrived’, which served up hefty interest rates
that often crippled the holders of these cards and even cost
them the items they had purchased. With the loans came
peripheral services such as insurance for loans, so that if
the person who took the loan died, his or her family would
not have to suffer the burden of repayment which had been
happening with disturbing frequency. Anything to keep the
culture of borrowing alive and well, all the while creating a
falsehood in terms of the true standard of living of Afrikans.

We have had occasion to speak to several landlords in Kenya,
all of whom share the same story: there is a loan that they have
taken that needs to be repaid and therefore their rental in-
come is not really theirs but the bank’s or that of some other fi-
nancial institution or shylock. But the neighborhoods that they
live in and the cars that they drive and the way in which their
homes are furnished all tell an entirely different story. Truth
be told, there are those who have the most humble of jobs in
various companies such as messengers or cleaners, who are ac-
tually more cash and asset rich than their colleagues who hold

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