The tyranny of Aiyambo yaKalunga and the Kangaroo Justice
By Shivute Kaapanda [Think Tank Africa]
The most alien element in the reality of human life is the ability to invent fiction.
Fiction has historically been used to reward and punish people at different levels of social hierarchies such as education, leadership, war, law, religion and economics.
A layman’s definition of fiction would be something that exists as a result of social construction but not actually, e.g. law, democracy, religion and justice. These are all social concepts that humanity has historically invented with the primary aim to control and regulate human relationships with nature and within themselves.
Of course a disorderly society is such a mess; people need to be regulated and controlled through rewards and punishments hence the concept of hell and heaven in the sphere of Christianity.
We all need to come to terms with a reality of fiction since humanity cannot live without fiction.
Humans invent fiction and fiction controls humans. But who is in charge of regulating this fiction? Is it the political leaders or something underground our feet? Or is it God? Again these are fictitious questions one may ask.
Historically and globally the invention of law and justice is a fictional phenomenon which human beings tend to use and abuse at the expense of others and get away with it. Like Americans discovering oil in an African country, they can do anything to get the oil and call it legal because legality is defined according to their fiction of law, which is the kangaroo justice.
A kangaroo justice is the type of justice whereby a kangaroo is a judge and the jury. In the court of law whereby a goat is the accused, the lion is the judge and the hyena is the prosecutor and the jackals are in the gallery, is a Kangaroo Court.
A Kangaroo court is a deliberate court with deliberate interests to achieve a deliberate outcome.
In discussing the model of “Kangaroo justice” further, I borrow the rhetorical Oshiwambo concept of “Aiyambo yaKalunga” from the former Outapi constituency councilor Tate Fillemon Shikwambi as radically narrated in one of his social media eulogies: “Oimaliwa yOshilongo Namibia oyili momapunda yooAiyambo yaKalunga”, meaning the money for the unfinished capital projects in Namibia are in the stomachs of the “Aiyambo yaKalungas”.
In the Kangaroo justice system the Aiyambo yaKalungas are the seen and unseen forces which influence the outcome of the Kangaroo courts to be typically Kangaroo so as to uphold the values and beliefs of the Kangaroo philosophy.
In politics the Aiyambo yaKalunga are the dirty politicians who prioritize their obesity over the people, those who see every tender opportunity as personal opportunity; the political zombies who became overnight millionaires through exploiting the poor.
In religion the Aiyambo yaKalungas are the pastors and lethal bishops who see every verse as an opportunity to make money from the congregants while preaching mysterious and wrong orthodox, drinking wine in church as the blood of Jesus while condemning the same wine sold at shebeens across the street.
The Aiyambo yaKalunga are the driving forces in the religion space, political space, law and economics. White people have been the Aiyambo yaKalunga over the black people and their economy for centuries.
In law, since law is seen to be an independent space, Aiyambo yaKalunga are mostly those who deal with cases of law most especially when they have deliberate interests and would want to use state power to achieve personal interests and upward mobility such as positions and ranks.
Imagine a case of an activist who faces political charges by politicians who are friends to the Kangaroo court. The outcome of the court will be obviously Kangaroo justice.
The mondus operandus of Kangaroo justice is that the more you demonstrate your intelligence and knowledge of facts to the Kangaroo court the harsher punishment you will get; this is even worse in departmental courts in Namibia.
Lastly to demonstrate the Kangaroo justice and the tyranny of Aiyambo yaKalunga let’s take a Fillipino case of a “Rat in the Kangaroo Court”. On the morning of December 26 a Fillipino patriot was once figuratively referred to as a ‘trapped rat’ which appeared in the Kangaroo court inside the military building; he was tried before a seven member bench of military court marshals most of whom were Spanish, with Lt. Col. Togorese acting as its president.
To appeal to the emotions of the Spanish judges patriot Alcocer went on as far as dramatically mentioning the Spanish soldiers who had died in the Fillipino traitorous revolt and discriminately describing Rizal a “typical Oriental” who had assumed to rise from a lower social scale in order to attain powers and positions that could never be his. At the end Alcocer petitioned a death sentence for Rizal, and on December 28 Governor-General Polavieja signed a court decision and decreed that Joze Rizal be executed by a firing squad.
As the debate comes, the Kangaroo justice and the phenomenon of Aiyambo yaKalunga is very intentional and therefore lethal but the revolution will always be championed by fearless men and women with the highest spirits and energies fuelled by a five-pointed red star of rebellion, resilience and determination to overturn and liquidate the lethal systems as centuries pass.
– Shivute Kaapanda is a fearless Namibian activist and author from Eyanda village.He authored a book titled “The Conscious Republic”. He can be reached at: iskaapanda@gmail.com
