"The begining of anything will determine how the end is going to look like" - this sentence is a popular saying amongst African folks. The next few paragraphs is going to shed more light on the way Africans think when it comes to a new beginning, or a new thing, or a new day. I'll particularly emphasize the way we Africans relate to a "new day", and the phrase is not relating to an adage or a proverb, it's actually pointing to an actaul day of the week (Monday).
A new beginning is often known to be the start of something different, prior to the one that existed. A new thing should be an improvement of the old one, i.e, new features, improved qualities, super modifications, better performance etc. So, a new day arises as a result of the end of a former day, some cultures see a new day as a moment, or time frame, or a period. But this blog will refer a new day to be the one of the days of the week.
Monday is believed to be the first "working" day of the week in most countries throughout the world, although there are some places that are an exception to this belief. African countries are no exception to this, even long before civilization came into play in Africa, Monday has been the main push to start work. You see parents urging their young ones to rise early to work, such as the image below.
A popular tribe in west Africa, Nigeria - (The Yorubas) specifically called Monday; "Ôjó Àjé" meaning "the day of wealth" or "the day of profit". So, does it mean the other days of the week are not days to make wealth or profits?, of course not, but it's believed that the outcome of the remaining working days; Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday, is/are determined by the work you put-in to on Monday. For example, you arrange a meeting with a client on a Monday, and conclude with delivering the result of the agreement on or before the stipulated time frame. Little wonder most organisations or companies in Africa tend to fix their official meetings to Mondays, - they see this day as a fresh start, after resting well during the weekend, sure it seems to be a fresh start!
Further more, Mondays are said to be a day you avoid involving yourself in an unproductive gathering, or trouble, a popular African music icon of late memory once specifically recorded a full ten(10) minutes long track on this subject matter!
Fela kuti (as he's popular known as) used his musical art to influence his community to get to work on Mondays, he further said in his native language "Èkó ô ni gba igba kú gba lo jor Monday" which means Lagos will not take nonsense on a Monday morning.
We tend to experience great vehicle traffic on this day, duely because of the bulk meetings that most companies or Organisations fix,and the belief that working on Mondays shows how hardworking you are.
Source
In conclusion, I hope we Africans tend to reshape our perception about work, embrace the remote working option (as this reduces stress due to congested traffic), and finally, non-Africans visiting any African country try as much as possible to avoid arriving on this congested working day (Monday).
Thanks for your time😁 I hope this was helpful🤔 and please stay tuned as I bring in more write ups from various interesting aspects about life😉
