READER LETTER | Black leaders fuel western culture

The African judge in the Eastern high court should have been guided by cultural knowledge before delivering judgment in an estate case involving two wives of a deceased man.

For the judge to award inheritance to the woman the deceased was living with before his 2023 suicide, instead of the one the man was separated from for more than 40 years, simply because he left no will, got my blood boiling.

It is disappointing that Western education can lead to learned Africans abandoning culture as a guide for their lives and decision-making. It does not end in the courts; African politicians refer to culture for votes. Ahead of elections, you see them take part in cultural celebrations and funding kings to help their electioneering. We’re going nowhere. Just see these politicians and MPs speak at rallies or argue in parliament on subject matters that are not inspired by cultural knowledge and African intellectualism.

Even worse, they groom their children for a Western mentality by making sure they go to schools where they will be taught by white teachers. The education delivered in English in those schools is not just mathematics and science; black children there also learn Western culture and mannerisms. 

Black leaders and their organisations, including Contralesa, must stop labelling whites as “racists” for political rhetoric. If our constitution were not so pro-Western, the judge in the deceased’s estate matter would have relied on culture to deliver a fair judgment.

M Machacha