Kae Matundu-
Tjiparuro
How actually does Namibia mirror herself and should mirror herself as a country?
One cannot help but pose the question. This question is prompted by the shocking realisation that according to the New African magazine’s December edition, featuring the most influential Africans for 2014, the Land of the Brave had no single representative in terms of any influential persona be it in politics and public service, business and economy, civil society and activism, religion and tradition, science and academia, media, arts and culture and sport.
I am sure that during the year in question we have had many of our fellow countrywomen and men excelling in many different spheres of their respective endeavours as enumerated above, be it in politics and public service, business and economy, civil society and activism, religion and tradition, science and academia, media, arts and culture and sport.
Needless to say towards the end of last year our various media houses were abuzz with reviews of highlights of the year with one or the other personas standing out for their remarkableness in one respect or another. Only to realise that as far as Africa is concerned, the Land of the Brave does not seem to have produced any persona of note last year, even the bad ones if the country could not produce any good ones.
Because the most influential in this regard, according to this magazine, did not only entail positivity but also negativity. Still not a single Namibian reached this list of honourables, let alone dishonourables, beaten in this regard by some unimaginable neighbouring countries with the media in the developed world making us believe that not any good shall ever emerge from such for a long time until, heaven knows, what happens. Our neighbouring countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) like Angola, South Africa, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, seem to have received some mixtures of positive and negative accolades in terms of influential personas in their midst in 2014.
But not Namibia, whether positive or negative? Does it mean Namibian is not part of the African continent? Or too a marginal and negligible part of the continent?
Your guess is as good as anyone’s. But in view of the self praises that we have been showering on ourselves with endless “job well dones”, it is not only strange but worrisome and disturbing that those we may have been showering with such recognition could not make the continental mark. This is irrespective of the fact that such marks only relates to domestic achievements.
This may be an eye-opener to the yardstick we may have been using in measuring such achievements. If altogether such achievements are not worth mentioning.
But as the Land of the Brave is about to embark on another epoch of its post-colonial and post-Independence journey, the New African’s synopsis of most influential Africans may just be what the doctor may have been ordering as a mirror for the Land of the Brave in terms of its own achievements, and what her people may have been achieving severally and commonly. It is a pointer that it is not enough that any achievement is notable domestically only but that for such to be objective and above meaningless self praises and self adulations, that the whole African continent, let alone the sub-region, takes note of, shares in it and its glory.
Thus, as we embark upon the next stage in what many an observer, and many a citizen are hoping and are forecasting to be an evolutionary at worst, and at best a revolutionary, epoch of our socio-economic and politico-cultural and religious dispensation, it behoves all of us in our various aspects of our endeavours, politics and public service, business and economy, civil society and activism, religion and tradition, science and academia, media, arts and culture and sport, according to our respective abilities and powers, to put hand to the plough. This is in a manner so that our achievements are there for all and sundry to see and appreciate but do not remain visible and tangible to us only domestically.
I for one cannot and do not believe that there is no single woman and man in the Land of the Brave who could not have made the “Most Influential Africans of 2014” list.
Of course, they are there as everyone would know and appreciate. But it takes more than self adulation, more than a sense of imagination and a cult culture of achievement for even Namibian itself and the African continent at large to produce men and women who are in a league of their own domestically, let alone a league of their own on the African continent. This should be the buzzword for the President-Elect and his impending Cabinet, our new parliamenttarians, governors, civil society, the media and all and sundry!