imbasela

In Zambia there is something called imbasela which in bemba means free and it usually refers to a gift. For example: if you go to the market and ask how much a pyramid of 5 tomatoes cost, they will say 1000 kwacha and then you say ok I will buy one (that is if you don't want to bargain with them, generally i bargain to get the best deal and because it leads to friendly conversation but now that i've been here so long I know a few women at the market that I don't have to bargain with because they always give me a good price to start off with). After agreeing to buy the tomatoes and handing the woman one pin (1000 kwacha) she begins to put 5 tomatoes in a bag then picks up another tomato shows it to you, says imbasela and puts it in with the others. It's really a fabulous system, I'd say it's the one thing Zambia really has going for it. I mean sure some marketing schemes in america have tried similar approaches, such as creating a package of 4 razors with an additional one in a separate package attached to the first one. I guess it's supposed to make you feel like you're getting something extra for free. Or some shampoo bottles advertise that you now get 33% more in the bottle as if this were all free when really you pay more for it because it's now a bigger bottle. The strategy doesn't seem to work so well in America maybe just because everything is pre packaged. Whereas here you really feel like you are someone special and they are giving you something extra for free just because you are such a good customer and giving them such good business. Of course they factor the imbasela into their prices and because it's so common I've learned to expect it and sometimes I buy less because I know i will get a few extra imbasela items. And if they don't offer an imbasela it's perfectly acceptable to ask for one and even to request a particular item such as a lolipop for the imbasela (this works out well for me because they have delicious lolipops here that i used to buy occasionally but now i just wait til I go to Chalata for bread, powdered milk and other essential items then I request a lolipop as my "gift"). Honestly I walk away feeling wonderful after getting an extra gift whether its a lolipop or just another tomato.

I think I had my best imbasela experience last week as I was traveling from Serenje to Lusaka. About 100km south of Serenje is Kapiri Boma which has a petrol station with a fast food place. They sell all kinds of things, but they have a delicious schwerma. Our driver asked us to go in and buy him a coke and he gave us 30000 k saying we could get ourselves one also. (Zambians are so friendly and not only do they often give us free rides around the country but many times they will buy us drinks or even lunch on the way). We decided that he had been so friendly and was already giving us a free ride so we bought him a coke with our own money as a gift and we also ordered 2 cokes and 2 schwermas for ourselves. I paid the chasier, took the cokes and waited in a separate line for the food. Somehow they must have been confused that we ordered 3 drinks and only 2 schwermas and they packaged up an extra schwerma. We took the food to go for lunch when we reached Lusaka so we didn't even notice until later. Of course this was not an intentional imbasela but still it was pretty exciting to get an extra one.