A land of patches
By The Author [When My Mind is Liberated]
Namibia is well known for its “lapies” constitution which was put together at a factory called “Constituent Assembly” chaired by the currently in glory presidency.
A colourful constitution that caught the eyes of economic vultures who were ready to deflower her; just like the colourful Jacket of Joseph from the Big Book.
However, our colourful story does not follow a similar premise as that of Joseph.
Our constitution was patched together from legislations from far and near, articles copied from life of exile and from the political blue prints of the terrorist little book and the colonial offspring as well as global expectations.
Hence, a world renowned constitution that contained the key ingredients of “democracy”: a system unknown to the liberators and the colonial sympathisers. These were the first signs of a change in the dynamics of the liberation promises; from people’s liberation to individual empowerment.
The “lapies” constitution was up for interpretation as soon as all players from both sides of the former struggle were put in place through the necessary processes. Very soon, many individuals retained their “godly” statuses and were “right” all the time even when they were wrong.
The economic prosperities affected their memories and they could just remember in “patches” pieces from the colonial history and their unselfish heroic deeds during the struggle. These “lapies” formed the basis and the only benchmark for economic reforms and the “compensations” started in earnest.
The metamorphosis happened over a short political time of 10 years before the strings keeping the “lapies” together started unravelling; the political powers forgot that growth means taking the necessary steps to made adjustments and changes to remain relevant to a reality outside the growth of political influence.
Instead, they ate so much of the economy, knowing that they will be cocooned very soon.
Unfortunately, they out-grew the cocoon and exposed their greed and unsettling demeanour towards the rest of the people. As such they failed to mature and move on or to leave the natural process to take its toll.
Like a well-fed dinosaur chasing its tail and eating its own excretion, they circulated themselves and continued eating their own lies, mending the “lapies” mentality with obsolete liberation stories and attempted to infect the rest of the hungry nation with selective memory and political lullaby.
They continued blaming the colonial powers for their corrupt ways and means, slice and dice, to deplete the economy with phrases like “they had their time, now is our time”. With “our time” obviously meaning the group from Tanganyika and not the people from South West Africa/Namibia – the many people left to fend for themselves just to be forgotten in the patched history stories and books.
The erosion of plundering and greed has finally befallen the economy of Namibia; we have timely joined the rest of the “dark continent” where political leaders are the evangelical angels spreading false messages of soon-to-come economic salvation to the rest of the sleeping masses.
The road to economic salvation is filled with so many potholes, that everything has come to a standstill while the political messiahs contract themselves to construct and repair the potholes they created over the past 30 years.
We were born during the Apartheid Era; these kids are born in a Purged Era. They are long dead before they are conceived.
* The Author is a Namibian commentator of contemporary society who is on a mission to liberate his/her mind.
