Prophecy of
the Born-Frees
Andrew
Kathindi
One day,
there is going to only be a generation of voters who have not witnessed the
heroics of SWAPO during the liberation struggle. They won’t have lived through an
era when the current ministers and politicians were merely commanders and war
leaders solely motivated by a unified desire to see their country liberated
from oppressors. This new generation will judge and thus vote purely based on
what they have seen from their leaders from 1990 onwards.
I say all
that because I think people need to realise that there is currently another
generation alive that lived through all that. Our grandmas and grandpas in the north
lived through the war, they witnessed the bloodshed, they picked up arms with
SWAPO who rallied them. And even though times were bitter, there was a genuine
cause to not only fight for, but unite a people. To them, SWAPO were like the
Avengers; superheroes who swept in to save the day when an alien invasion
almost obliterated everything. And it doesn’t matter what those same heroes do
after that, loyalty has been permanently burnt onto their hearts like an
imprint.
Maybe it’s
something to do with age; maybe it’s the factor of actually living through that
time, singing the songs, living through liberation, but whatever the case,
nothing will ever change for them. They might mumble amongst themselves a
little about their discontentment, displeasure about water facilities, health
care or the pension funds, but even just the thought of voting for a different
political party is not only gross sin to them; it is blasphemy of the highest
order.
And
faithfully vote they will. In their homes they sing songs about exile and
crushing the enemy and in the booth they’ll check the same box over and over.
People say the elections get rigged or this and that, but honestly, voters like
this just exist in great numbers. And for as long as victory is as good as
guaranteed in every election for the ruling party, the probability of slacking
becomes ever higher. And this is about a good number of politicians whose minds
have already been swayed by the lure of wealth.
But as much
as we love and respect them, these loyal, war surviving voters won’t be around
forever. There’s going to arise a time when recollection of exile will only be
found in the annals of history because no one alive will have lived it. No
single person will be eligible for a veteran’s cheque because there won’t be a
single veteran left. This isn’t a dystopia I’m painting, it’s simply reality.
It’s going to happen, and in that time, if SWAPO is still in charge, rallying
people up with songs about getting the country back isn’t going to cut it
because..err..we have it now. They’d have to actually do stuff to keep voters,
and the bare minimum isn’t going to work. They’d have to raise the quality of
education, health, not stuff their pockets while neglecting the poor, you know,
generic things like that.
