Kae Matundu Tjiparuro
IT IS gratifying to see the nation in unison expressing its dismay and appalled by the barbaric murder of women and innocent children that seems to have been continuing unabated.
From the highest echelons of the society, the highest political office, being that of the President, Cabinet Ministers, politicians, traditional and ecumenical leaders and civil society in general, all seem vociferous in their condemnation of the heinous and brutal acts directed against women and children.
A manifestation of these heartless slayings of women and children is that already this year the number has reached an unprecedented 16 victims killed since January. This compelled Cabinet to have an extraordinary session recently where the matter rightly, and something which has been overdue, came under serious and meaningful radar. One of the attempts at a solution is the Day of National Prayer that was observed yesterday.
Likewise taking a civic society lead in this regard, combined Christian churches marched from the Pick n Pay Supermarket in Independence Avenue in Katutura to the UN Plaza where they held a press conference on Sunday, February 23.
The churches are calling on the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare to convene an indaba of all concerned and affected people to map the way to end “the societal malady”.
They are also calling for the introduction of religious education in schools. Incidentally one of the latest gruesome acts of slaying happened of all places at the Paulinium Theological College in Windhoek’s Pioneers Park residential area on Saturday afternoon, February 22 in which a woman succumbed to stab wounds inflicted by her so-called lover.
The churches further called for a day of prayer in unison with the Head of State, who has also been on record calling for a national day of prayer.
Yes, it is not unusual for especially the Church in this dark hour to turn to supernatural powers, in the search for redemption from these scourges that have befallen and are bedeviling our society.
But as dire as the situation may be, and certainly in need of some supernatural intervention, one needs to caution against desperation in approaching it. Desperation that may lead to compulsive actions and reactions without knowing what the target is.
Thus while one agrees that indeed the matter needs urgent attention, such an attention must be focused and targeted. And there can be no better targeting without first and foremost diagnosing the root causes of these slayings that are threatening our independence gains, and our fragile societal fabric.
One of the fundamental rights and freedoms as per our Constitution in Article Three of Chapter Three is the Protection of Life. “The right to life shall be respected and protected. No law may prescribe death as a competent sentence. No Court or Tribunal shall have the power to impose a sentence of death upon any person. No executions shall take place in Namibia.” As loud and clear as the Constitution is, unfortunately men have taken it upon themselves to take away innocent lives of women and children, and equally that of men as well, as statistics released recently by the police show men have actually also been slain in high and alarming numbers.
The taking of lives has obviously been going against the very grain of our constitutional provision, which guarantees the protection of life.
Much has been said, especially during and around February 9, when we observe the adoption of our Constitution, whether the Constitution is a living document.
Certainly in the face of the mass slaying of women, men and children the Constitution surely cannot be said to be a living document. It is only living on paper but not in real life in the face of the spate of killings and slayings that we continue to see.
Society also cannot lay blemish on the Constitution because whatever is enshrined in the Constitution, must be given expression and meaning by society itself. But not the kind society that we are currently experiencing manifesting itself in killings.
Thus, the question beckoning an answer is what has society practically been doing, and what is onwards prepared to do practically beyond praying against the continuing and unabated slayings and killing of its members?
And apart from decries and condemnation of slaying after slaying, killing after killing but decries and condemnation which dissipate between one killing and another, can society be said to have been purposefully consequent upon its decries and condemnations? But such consequent action must first and foremost be based on the sober realisation that what we are witnessing to date through the slaying and killing of women in our society are ultimate manifestations of a sick and decaying society. But what is and are these ailments that society is infested and infected with? Have we ever tried to get to the root cause of the ailments and/or have we hitherto just been treating the symptoms?
If we do not know what the causes of the ailments are, how can we know whether the prayers, stiffer bail conditions, religious education and everything that we may toy with, can provide a relief, or lasting remedy?
One is inclined towards Dr Mara Mberira’s postulation that the problem may lay at the individual psychological level. In the souls and psyches of members of our society individually as much as socio-economic factors may have as much impact on any individual’s psychological and soulful self.
One is also inclined to further ponder the question being posed by Dr Mberira as to what else, other than religious doses does the Church administer to its members to make them stable and fully-fledged members of their congregations, as well as responsible and fully integrated members of society at large? This is not only in a theoretical religious sense but also in a practical societal milieu so that they accept moral values and norms of the society as a whole, other than just the religious ones.
But the most interesting question that Dr Mberira is posing to the ecumenical fraternity, and society at large, is to what extent such instances cause their members to walk the talk of their moral convictions, religious and otherwise.
Because certainly these are an issue that cannot be left to prayers only and stiffer bail conditions but what morals and values society instill in its members, especially starting from a young age.