Why the Zambian Man is Under Care and Maintenance …

There’s that tired scenario where a mine goes into “care and maintenance,” to indirectly ask a government to take it easy with planned tax hikes. It doesn’t mean the mine is closing. It simply keeps its assets in decent shape so everything doesn’t fall apart.

Today’s Zambian man has good reason to place himself under care and maintenance. He has witnessed male pillars of the community and possibly his own family put away like a broken down lawn mower when old age catches up and they’re no longer useful. 

He has seen how men sacrifice their productive years to provide, only for their grown children to relocate to somewhere in Europe or USA and invite their mother to live with them. 

He is witness to his grandfather, uncles, father or friends treated as a liability in diapers when age ravages his faculties, pension depletes and sphincter muscles no longer work.

The modern, young Zambian man has learned a gruesome lesson about how society rewards an old Zambian man. He is left to gather dust on a verandah and only remembered when it is convenient to do so.

So it shouldn’t surprise many that men these days have smartened up to the future that awaits them. That their sacrifices today will be seen as things that were expected of them anyway. What else was there to do? 

And this is why many men have stopped to take stock of how much is left in the tank. 

To the modern man, care and maintenance has become a priority. He’s looked around his friends, family and glanced as far into the future as he can and decides to take off his hard hat, boots and work suit.

He has realized that many men before him arrived at their destination with an empty tank. This is because along the way, he carried a niece for her university, a friend’s orphaned son, sometimes an entire lineage. 

But he arrived at his own destination with nothing to sustain him in his latter years.

So he is learning to preserve himself for himself. School or university fees and clothes for the children? Paid. Keeping the lights on. Present as a father, son, husband or uncle. Showing up for PTA meetings, family events. Smiling for staff photos and attending conferences.

He is now caring for and maintaining himself. Where the older Zambian man would take the shirt off his back to give it to a relative, today’s man is within his rights to buy another shirt for himself. Actually, even a pair of jeans to go with it.

The thing about putting yourself under care and maintenance is that you will frustrate and disappoint friends and family. But it preserves you for your future self. When the days become lonely, you will still be able to withdraw a K300 for a meal. Alone or with another male friend left on the shelf. 

Just some thoughts of the week.