Onomastic and Conceptual Pathologisation of African Culture as Creation and Perpetuation of African Poverty in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This chapter deploys Afrocentric reasoning to the problem of poverty in Africa. It argues that colonially motivated renaming of some elements of sustenance within African culture in Zimbabwe is partly responsible for the poverty experienced today. Names which pathologise African culture created poverty, and the continued perceptions of African culture as wild, savage, traditional and rural have excluded Africans and their systems from the fight against poverty. Exotic ecologies, materials and social structures are not well suited for Africa and cannot be the solutions to African poverty. Before colonial contact, African civilisations managed their resources such that the levels of poverty were lower than they are today, after colonial contact. African people utilised the environment and adapted it into a system of life that was sufficient for all members of the community. However, these systems were mutilated by colonialism, and African systems of production and value addition were “othered” and pathologised as savage ways. This led to the Africans abandoning their working systems for foreign ones which are expensive and not well suited for the African context.KeywordsRenamingAfrican culturePathologisationPovertyOthering