Independence is not to eat and dance
By Victor Angula /
Twenty-one March of every year will forever be a day synonymous with Namibia. This is a day on the modern Calendar on which the Republic of Namibia was born. This is a big day, for a nation was born, born into the world of free and independent nations.
This is a big thing for those people who are called citizens of Namibia. It’s a big day because Namibia is their home and a place where they belong – for good or for worse.
Indeed the birth of Namibia was a painful one. So much blood had to flow in the process of making this new nation to become a reality.
Since Namibia was born 33 years ago and became an independent, sovereign nation, the “independence day” has therefore attracted crowds of people from all walks of life celebrating the event of independence by eating, dancing and making speeches (or listening to speeches).
And then at the end of the day they go back home to a life of poverty and suffering. Or for the few, they go back home to living in luxury at the expense of everyone else.
Hardly anyone talks about the fact that the day is supposed to be a day to sit down and reflect on whether day by day, month by month, year by year the desire of Namibian citizens for discovery, release and maximisation of their potential is being realised.
Because this is the purpose of independence. So many people died for a nation that is independent of foreign powers and foreign domination but one where its citizens are governing themselves, making their own laws and determining their own destiny.
Nobody asks what is the meaning of ‘independence’? Are we independent? If most of our food is coming from outside our borders, are we independent? If we are unable to handle the problem of unemployment, are we really independent?
If more than 90% of all good land is still in the hands of the former colonisers (foreign land owners and the local whites) are we really independent? If the majority of the people of this country are living a hand-to-mouth life (many of them living in ghettos) are we independent?
If we are independent, we are independent from what or from who? If white Namibians are also supposed to celebrate this independence, they would be saying they are celebrating because they are independent from what?
If we don’t seem to have full responsibility to move forward as a country, then how do we claim that we are independent?
If those who died for this independence were to come back to life and look at how we have handled this independence for the last 33 years, would they be happy and proud of our performance?
I don’t know the answers to such questions. But what I do know is that we supposed to pause on this 21st March day and find answers to such questions instead of using the day just to sing, dance, and eat.
– Victor Angula is the editor of Omutumwa News Online.
