When the network drops, men suffer the most.

[“Can you hear me now?” 

Everyone’s complaining about dropped calls, network congestion, poor signal strength and interference among a glut of issues. This seems to affect everybody but no more than it does the average Zambian man. ]

Over a lifetime, a man builds his own network. The childhood friends he grows up with in his neighbourhood, his schoolmates, those he meets in university or college, some come on board as he builds his career or business and ultimately he carries the names and faces of the men who help him navigate his place in life.

It’s a network that he can call on for other men to be godfathers to his children, business associates, someone to play a round of golf with, stand with him as his bride walks down the aisle, help him carry his father’s casket or stagger out of a bar with. 

While no man is an island, there will be moments where the waters around him are turbulent than they are pacific.

This is when a when a man experiences poor network connectivity. He can move around, try to reconnect or call again but simply cannot get any joy. And it won’t be the result of zero credit. He will also have all the contacts in his phone but every man must come to accept that like him, other men are also failing to get a strong signal in their own lives and can’t hear him.

This is when a man is outside coverage area.

Many of us are not willing to admit it but there are times when we have had poor signal strength from our own network. When nobody in the 50 WhatsApp groups we’re in responds to our request for donation of a certain blood type to a family member with failing health. 

Where we need just a K200 for fuel to take the kids to school and none of our friends come through. Not because they don’t have it. But because they, like us, are deep in the trenches of provision and protection of their own families. 

Occasions when we have had network congestion, looking at our friends, workmates, business associates, brothers, fathers, uncles and yet seeing nobody who can come through for us. Wondering why we have all these people around us and yet nobody to connect with. 

We struggle because our networks are generally poor and only connect at saying ‘hello’. Never really going beyond the football results, where to get genuine brake pads and talking about how tired we are with work and traffic.

When we talk about money issues, cracks in our marriage or relationships, struggle to get a job or business contracts, we hear ourselves asking “Can you hear me now?” to the man on the other side. 

And most times, he can hear but can’t help you. All because his experience solving a problem like the one you have is that when he tried all his contacts, he realized that when your network is poor, you can only call on yourself.