Could the black woman be a successful CEO and the white woman her poor intern? Yes, but that’s not what the text & context are telling us. On a BigTech website, the person holding the tech is the narrator. By default. That’s not only a reasonable inference; it’s literally the story being told.

Scroll down the website more, and there are photos of more Africans. This time they are helpless amidst a big sea in a small boat … and presumably ‘unbanked.’

Because how else can one signal the need for empowerment other than conjuring up stereotypes about Africans?

The two black men on the boat are working hard. The Captain is steering & avoiding the waves. The Sailor is trying to balance in uneven seas.

“If only we had Libra to buy a bigger boat,” they’re probably thinking.

Or maybe they dream of ‘development’ so they can leave the perilous sea and go to work in a glistening office park, like the one behind them on the website.

So when they’re back at port, they go to Libra.org in search of empowerment and whoa ohhh, here’s what they find:

“Nahodha, unaongea Kirusi?” asks the Sailor.

That’s Swahili for “Captain, do you speak Russian?”

“Lugha yetu iko wapi? Hiyo ni aibu.” the Captain responded, trying to muster a laugh, so as to reassure the sailor.

The Captain then looked out deep at the sea, and scanned the giant tankers on the misty line of horizon. He repeated the line again, this time in English:

“Where’s our language? That’s shameful.”

He wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular. The Sailor had gone home by that point.

But the Captain couldn’t stop shaking his head in disbelief.

He thought back to early lessons that his parents and elders had taught him.

One proverb kept coming back, over and over:

“Mkosefu wa mali si maskini.” (Not having money does not mean being poor.)

It seemed anachronistic at first. But the more the Captain played with English translations, the more relevant it became.

Libra.org Homepage (October 24, 2019)

The Captain went to bed conflicted and sad. While he was thrilled to see people of color represented on a BigTech website, there was something off about this website.