A Lesson from Alois
I met him on the plane. It was a two hour ten minutes flight from Jo'burg South Africa to Ndola Zambia. I was not in the mood for conversation having been worn-out by the fourteen hours I had endured earlier aboard South African Airways from Hong Kong to Jo'burg. As my journey neared its conclusion, I had hoped to pass the two hours dozing while eagerly waiting to see the faces of the people I had left behind nearly a year earlier.
But there was something about him. His scraggy beard almost completely grey, he flipped through the pages of the on board flight magazine Sawubona. As the plane climbed to cruising altitude he finally spoke. "These things are heavy" he said using his hand to weigh the magazine. I also reached out and retrieved my copy from the under my seat and immediately was struck by how heavy the magazine was.
"Imagine how much weight they could save if they used lighter paper" he added to which I nodded my approval, still reluctant to speak. He was probably in his early fifties and judging from his relaxed demeanor had flown around quite a few times. Having a keen ear for accents, I could tell that his was not Zambian but either Zimbabwean or South African. He allayed my doubts by informing me that he was Zimbabwean and was still smarting from the US$ 700 he had parted away with to be on that plane. He asked me where I was going and whether it was for business or pleasure. I responded in as few word as I could that I was returning home from a year spent studying. It was then that he jolted me into taking him seriously. Upon telling him my name, he almost without thinking concluded that I was Tonga. My surprised look elicited an explanation from him. He told me he knew a lot about Zambia despite being Zimbabwean and had done a lot of consultancy work allover the country. He proceeded to tell me about places such as Mpika, Mufulira and even Namwala so intimately that I was really impressed.
In the minutes that ensued, I decided to engage Alois and we seamlessly discussed planes, politics and academics. I was having a hard time keeping up with him. In that period I learnt that he was an agricultural scientist, a Phd agricultural scientist with an interest in aviation and a dismissive lack of faith in African politics. We shared the latter conviction and spent quite some time deriding our politicians.
I decided to talk to Alois about my long held ambition of going into farming in the not too distant future. After all there is plenty of land in the village where I come from.
"What crops are you looking at?" asked Alois to which I blurted out maize almost involuntarily.
"Why maize?" persisted Alois and the answer to this one was not so straight forward. "Everyone plants maize don't they", I was thinking.
"you see" continued Alois noticing my hesitation, "you must have a good reason for planting what you do. It is not any type of soil that can support maize let alone livestock. You would be surprised if I told you that the majority of soils on which people plant maize are not even the best suited to support the crop" continued Alois.
This had me thinking. Often we do things without thinking and mostly only out of consideration for tradition. Often times, it turns out other courses of action are better than the already trodden road. History has always reserved a special place for those who choose to be different, not out of wanting to be en-vogue but to follow their heart's deepest yearnings and of course scientific evidence.
Now we cannot all afford a pedologist to test our soils before making a decision about what we plant. And it is true tradition can sometimes be a great reason for doing something. However those that have developed will tell you that sentiment is perhaps not the best of justifications for action. The World Bank, that economic behemoth has been for some time now singing about "evidence based" decision making. Obtaining from evidence a clear idea of what works and what doesn't. It seems a good way to allocate scarce resources as opposed to the whims and often warped personal logic of decision makers.
Alois was talking about soil science, he should know he is a consultant and was probably looking for business. But he knows what he was talking about. Sadly I lost his email address. Good thing I learnt something from him.
But there was something about him. His scraggy beard almost completely grey, he flipped through the pages of the on board flight magazine Sawubona. As the plane climbed to cruising altitude he finally spoke. "These things are heavy" he said using his hand to weigh the magazine. I also reached out and retrieved my copy from the under my seat and immediately was struck by how heavy the magazine was.
"Imagine how much weight they could save if they used lighter paper" he added to which I nodded my approval, still reluctant to speak. He was probably in his early fifties and judging from his relaxed demeanor had flown around quite a few times. Having a keen ear for accents, I could tell that his was not Zambian but either Zimbabwean or South African. He allayed my doubts by informing me that he was Zimbabwean and was still smarting from the US$ 700 he had parted away with to be on that plane. He asked me where I was going and whether it was for business or pleasure. I responded in as few word as I could that I was returning home from a year spent studying. It was then that he jolted me into taking him seriously. Upon telling him my name, he almost without thinking concluded that I was Tonga. My surprised look elicited an explanation from him. He told me he knew a lot about Zambia despite being Zimbabwean and had done a lot of consultancy work allover the country. He proceeded to tell me about places such as Mpika, Mufulira and even Namwala so intimately that I was really impressed.
In the minutes that ensued, I decided to engage Alois and we seamlessly discussed planes, politics and academics. I was having a hard time keeping up with him. In that period I learnt that he was an agricultural scientist, a Phd agricultural scientist with an interest in aviation and a dismissive lack of faith in African politics. We shared the latter conviction and spent quite some time deriding our politicians.
I decided to talk to Alois about my long held ambition of going into farming in the not too distant future. After all there is plenty of land in the village where I come from.
"What crops are you looking at?" asked Alois to which I blurted out maize almost involuntarily.
"Why maize?" persisted Alois and the answer to this one was not so straight forward. "Everyone plants maize don't they", I was thinking.
"you see" continued Alois noticing my hesitation, "you must have a good reason for planting what you do. It is not any type of soil that can support maize let alone livestock. You would be surprised if I told you that the majority of soils on which people plant maize are not even the best suited to support the crop" continued Alois.
This had me thinking. Often we do things without thinking and mostly only out of consideration for tradition. Often times, it turns out other courses of action are better than the already trodden road. History has always reserved a special place for those who choose to be different, not out of wanting to be en-vogue but to follow their heart's deepest yearnings and of course scientific evidence.
Now we cannot all afford a pedologist to test our soils before making a decision about what we plant. And it is true tradition can sometimes be a great reason for doing something. However those that have developed will tell you that sentiment is perhaps not the best of justifications for action. The World Bank, that economic behemoth has been for some time now singing about "evidence based" decision making. Obtaining from evidence a clear idea of what works and what doesn't. It seems a good way to allocate scarce resources as opposed to the whims and often warped personal logic of decision makers.
Alois was talking about soil science, he should know he is a consultant and was probably looking for business. But he knows what he was talking about. Sadly I lost his email address. Good thing I learnt something from him.
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