Happy Birthday, Let’s Talk

Namibia is celebrating its 35th birthday tomorrow, and I want to take some time to show my appreciation for the freedom and prosperity that was handed to me, thanks to the many sacrifices of those who lived and died for the cause.

I don’t think anyone alive on this land in 1900 or 1930 or 1970 could have ever pictured what the 20th century would look like for this nation, but there was an unwavering spirit that existed in all of them that has brought us to where we are now.

Colonial forces tried for long to suppress us for no good reason, but I think that goodness and humanity were always meant to triumph over the innate greed and evil-heartedness of most world leaders.

That is why even though things are not entirely good around the world, I have faith that the truth will always be intact, no matter how hard fascists try to reimagine the world in their image.

I must say we exist in a precarious time period as a nation.

Just 35 years in, we are still a baby in some ways; learning how to function, understanding our place in the global landscape, kicking off our training wheels.

We have also reached the part of ‘Animal Farm’ where the pigs have started walking on two legs and the rules plastered across the barn have been crossed out, amended and updated several times.

What I mean to say is that, even with our bellies full of gratitude for what our forefathers have done for us, we should not lose sight of what the goal has always been.

The way I see it, each generation of fighters took up arms and died not knowing if their country and their people would ever be fully emancipated, but hoping that the fight would continue until that happened.

Each iteration of the struggle was just a new version of the last, picking up the baton and continuing the good work. Just as we fought against the genocide, we fought against apartheid, and each time we achieved a little more.

Contrary to how we have all been acting lately, 21 March 1990 was not the end of this fight.

It was one more step in the process to true and lasting economic and social freedom for Africans of this land. I know we are a conglomerate of cultures, lumped together thanks to the illegitimate drawing of borders by our oppressors, but I would like to believe that we are all family now with a shared identity, struggle and dream of the future.

We can’t see the work that was done before our arrival and sit back and relax. Independence was not fought for so that we could have the little wealth that isn’t still in the settlers’ control concentrated in the hands of a few black people, while everyone else starves.

We can no longer blame our freedom fighters for not doing enough, for not snatching the economy out of the hands of our colonisers, for growing greedy in their cushy new, post-war lives. We have no more excuses.

It’s time for the fight to continue, and I know just how we can contribute to the cause in our own unique way.

What we need to do is arm our children with knowledge. Just as Namibian soldiers trained with the Soviets, we too need to take on a radical approach to arming our youth with education, access to basic amenities and facilities, and training in technology, humanities, languages, art, music, science and business – you name it.

I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent and well-read person, and I promise you that most of it is because of the primary school education I received.

Being exposed to as much information and culture from an early age gave me the ability to see the world and fight to conquer it. I may not be perfect and super successful, but the tools for that were handed to me from a young age where I was encouraged to read, to think critically, to question and to act.

Our next fight needs to be for the emancipation of the Namibian child by showing them they have far more options than they realise.

If governments weren’t notoriously and historically averse to having an educated populace, for fear of revolution, I think that the world would be a much better place with less suffering.

I think our citizens could have a real shot at participating in the global economy and earning real money.

So as I blow out all the candles on the cake, my wish for our beautiful nation with heaps of potential is that we start taking ourselves a little more seriously, that we focus on equipping our citizens with the best tools and the best shot at a prosperous future and that we express gratitude for what we have, without losing sight of the work that is still to be done.

– Anne Hambuda is a writer, social commentator and poet. Follow her online or email her at annehambuda@gmail.com for more.