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Cultural Norms or Excuses for Lateness? Understanding African Time
My experience with African Time and five tips to drop the lateness habit.
Anyone can be late once in a while. I do. What about you? That is not what this story is about. I mean perpetual lateness called African Time practice in the Western world.
Culturally, African Time differs from the West, but time matters when Africans live there.
I attended an event the other day, and African Times came face-to-face with me. The event was to start at 5 pm. I entered the ballroom at 4:47 and met one person. I turned to my partner and said, “African Time.”
“They may start at 6 pm,” he advised. At about 5:45, a few people strolled in, and many arrived at 5:55, and the event coordinator distributed the program. The program I got stated the event started at 5:30. The invitation card on my phone stated the start time was 5. Here you go, African Time for you.
As we waited, I remembered to practice small talk with a stranger on my left-hand side; she shared, “I don’t do African time. I was born in Nigeria, returned to India as a teen, and now I live here. I’ve been living in this community for a long time. We’re family, and we understand African culture. That’s the reason we came at the right time. I…
