PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has called for big African economies to take the lead in ensuring increased trade among African countries.
He said Africans should cooperate not only economically but culturally.
Speaking during a farewell meeting with outgoing Egyptian ambassador to Zambia, Ahmed Mostafa at State House yesterday morning, President Lungu said cooperation between Zambia and Egypt in agriculture is remarkable.
“Egypt has done well in agriculture despite largely depending on the Nile River for water supply. This week I talked about water harvesting, and Egypt is an example of a country that knows how to harvest water, ” he said.
And the Head of State also said Africans need to know more about their continent than adopting cultures that are way different from theirs.
President Lungu said currently the trend is that African people know more about non-African cultures than they do about their own cultures.
“As Africans, we get influenced by non-Africans and not by fellow Africans.We need to learn more about ourselves. When we were young at school, we were asked by our teachers to read books such as ‘Africa learns about Europe’ and when another one was written called ‘Europe learns about Africa’ I am not sure if it was as popular, so we must tell our success stories as Africans,” he said.
The President said he is happy that relations between Zambia and Egypt continue to grow stronger.
He further wished the ambassador well and sent a message of goodwill to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and the Egyptian people.
And Mr Mostafa has wished President Lungu and the Zambian people all the success in developing Zambia.
“l am impressed with the development going on in Zambia and I am also grateful for the support given to me by your Government,” Mr Mostafa said.
Mr Mostafa said he was surprised that there was not much difference between some Egyptian and Zambian cultural norms.
He further added that the social media trends being witnessed in Zambia, especially among the young people are similar to what is happening in Egypt.
“Social media is a double edged sword, it can be good as well as bad,” he said.
This is according to a statement made available to Mwebantu by Special Assistant to the President for press and public relations Isaac Chipampe.
