Prophecy of the Born-Frees

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.