Vera Kamtukule, Malawi’s Minister of Tourism, on Wednesday called on Africans to drop their preference for western goods and take pride in their products.
Kamtukule made the call during the maiden PYNE-NESG Africa conference, with the theme “Tourism in Africa: Catalyst for accelerated economic empowerment”.
She said it was disheartening that Africans perceived western products as original while they jettisoned their products.
She noted that African products, culture and all must be deliberately upheld to pave way for economic growth in the region.
“It has become a problem that everything that is foreign becomes original to us, we need to be authentic. We must all stop dilluting the authenticity of Africanism.
“We need to celebrate who we are, how we look, how we cook our food, how we dress; we need to inculcate the culture of celebrating ourselves.
“This is the only way to maintain our identity and make progress just as we have been before colonisation,” she said.
The minister advised Africans to also desist from predatory marketing whereby certain African countries are stigmatised by some others.
She said this would only continue to create division which is not neccesary at this stage of African development.
“We must get rid of predatory marketing, we must stop condemning ourselves to make progress, we can collaborate, learn from one another to improve on all fronts,” she said.