Did you know that we have Namibian authored books in the market? It’s a rhetorical question. Sorry, if I bruised your ego by pointing out the obvious. I just can’t help but wonder why you haven’t tweeted about a Namibian authored book? What’s stopping you from posting about Namibian authors?
Why can’t we go from: “Pastor Obiako from Nigeria has a great book”, “Sports phenomena from South Africa has a deep story to tell” and “Financial guru from America hit the nail with her book” to: “Pastor //amgamoeb from Usakos has a great book”, “Sports phenomena based in Rundu has a deep story to tell” and “Financial guru from Mariental hit the nail with her book”?
Everyone is always so quick to seek inspiration from beyond our borders. Everything is always deeper and better from beyond our borders. I refuse to follow that narrative. For us to be cool, we need to make it cool. We need to make us cool. We can’t expect ours to be cool if we don’t make it cool ourselves. Who is supposed to make ours cool if we don’t do it ourselves?
I dream of an era where people around the world would admire and follow our cool. That won’t happen if we are ignorant about what we can do and what we have. We can write. We do have Namibian authored books in the market. So, why aren’t you supporting them?
One thing that I will never advocate for though is blind national loyalty at the expense of quality and truth. If something is manure, its manure. If something is well put together, it’s excellent. If it’s Namibian, BONUS!
So, if you come across a Namibian authored book that is manure, according to your standards, point it out. Folks on social media will probably call you all sorts of names because you dared to critique their favourite. It comes with the space, don’t get used to it…challenge it!
We need to move away from being robotic ‘yes’ minions, who hype mediocrity to be progressive; no, people should seek quality! So as much as I am on your case to support Namibian books, seek quality Namibian books. We will never reach world-class status with blind national robotic loyalty hyping mediocrity. Oh, and the last thing…when you do get a Namibian authored book, READ IT! Don’t just tweet about it. Don’t rely on what others said about the book.
Read it yourself. Experience it yourself and tweet amae. Let’s read ours!
Until the next loop, we say “GMTM”!
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