Editor’s Note: Mwizenge S. Tembo was born and grew up among the Tumbuka people of eastern Zambia, and now teaches sociology at Bridgewater College, Bridgewater Virginia. On a recent sojourn in his home village in the Lundazi district of the rural eastern part of Zambia, an insight hit him—an insight that can be another key to understanding and peace between peoples and countries of the world. We offer Mwizenge’s sharing as the “Current Peacemaker” story.

Mwizenge S. Tembo, associate professor of sociology, Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, Va.

Why do they hate us? This burning question and its many variations has been asked numerous times since 9/11. There are continued terrorist incidents and threats directed at Americans. The nation has been wringing its collective hands in serious and honest soul searching. One of the most common choruses of response among U.S. citizens is that “we are generous and donate billions of dollars in food and other aid to foreign countries and others in need all over the world. Why should anyone have reason to hate us? They should be grateful.”

The answer suddenly hit me one night lying in my candle-lit African childhood village hut when I lived there recently for six weeks. Among the Tumbuka tribe there is a concept that both explains and provides answers as to why the Europeans and especially Americans are hated today: kukomola.

Every adult, child, and especially young brides and bridegrooms are taught not to commit kukomola because it is considered a vicious, cruel and particularly heartless practice. Typically, a woman of the house is cooking a meal in full view of everyone in the household. A tired, hot, thirsty and hungry stranger suddenly arrives as the meal is being served. Such a man among the Tumbuka is said to be in a state of kuzama which is a severe condition of starvation. The woman never invites the stranger to partake in the meal the family is enjoying. The starving stranger walks away distraught, never to forget and forever to narrate his horrible experience of kukomola by “that woman” at “that household.”

The answer suddenly hit me one night lying in my candle-lit African childhood village.

A man, woman or child commits kukomola whenever he or she deliberately denies another human being something that is a need, essential, or crucial for human survival, whether water, food, clothing or shelter. Kukomola is a special concept because it vividly depicts situations in which the denial or withholding of something essential is deliberate, open and unmistakably and obviously cruel on the part of the owner of the goods or a service. Flaunting wealth, material possession, and feasting amidst individuals who are in abject poverty, deprivation or starvation is regarded as particularly callous.

The concept can apply to individuals as well as to affairs between nations. Kukomola is a Tumbuka verb which is derived from a specific physical pain a person endures when they are accidentally scalded with boiling water. The resulting extremely painful peeling of the skin is known as kukomoka. The concept is not used lightly but refers only to extremely painful experiences that humans deliberately inflict on each other.

The solution to kukomola is to always share with someone who has less, has nothing, or is in need. In the food example, if the woman can absolutely not share the food for good reasons, she is then expected to find ingenious ways of having the family children eat the meal without the starving stranger knowing anything. In spite of the difficult situation, the woman would later be praised as very humane for averting the poor stranger from experiencing kukomola.

How rampant is kukomola? It is very common. There are 1.6 billion people living in poverty and disease everyday in the Third World. But Americans and the West, who constitute only 15 percent of the world’s six billion people, not only enjoy a rich and affluent lifestyle, but globalization ensures that this affluence is flaunted to the poor majority of the world through TV, tourism, electronic superhighways and other mass communication. That is why Americans are hated, because we commit kukomola or are the symbol of it to the rest of the world every day. The long range solution to ending terrorism it to eliminate kukomola and genuinely share what we have with the rest of the world.

The best strategy for achieving universal peace and tranquility is the spreading of love all over the world. Skeptics will laugh, but what choices do we have? Besides waging war, new strategies for truly eliminating terrorism will have to be designed involving a genuine humanitarian approach unprecedented in human history. Just as the late John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corp, President Bush should create "Operation Eliminate Kukomola.” Millions of ordinary adults and young people from different religions, ethnic groups and economic backgrounds should live in each other’s countries for at least one year in massive exchange programs.

Let’s eliminate the deep racial, ethnic, economic and religious divisions that plague the world, that inflict deep and painful experiences of kukomola.

Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph.D.

To visit Mwizenge’s personal page and find out more about Zambia and Africa, go to
www.bridgewater.edu/~mtembo/