My colleague Tom arrived in Lagos with his pristinely polished oxfords. Two weeks later, I spotted him in the market wearing locally made sandals. “The roads between meetings taught me humility,” he laughed. “And my dress shoes taught me about Lagos potholes.”
The African proverb says, “When the music changes, so does the dance.” Nothing prepares you for how often the music changes here. Yes, your expatriate compound has backup generators and water tanks, but venture beyond those walls and you’ll need three things: power banks, patience, and a sense of humour.
In Nairobi, I learned that “mbele yetu” (our future) requires surrendering Western obsessions with punctuality. My Kenyan assistant gently explained that “we’ll finish this tomorrow” might mean next week, and that’s perfectly acceptable.
My first client dinner in Accra ended with me awkwardly refusing to eat fufu with my hands until my Ghanaian colleague whispered, “When you eat with your fingers, you also eat with your heart.” Best meal of my life.
“The chameleon changes colour to match the soil, but the heart remains the same.” You’ll adapt outwardly, but the real transformation happens within – where prejudice dissolves and perspective takes its place.
