Elizabeth Amagola
As I write this, my heart is bleeding for the children of Namibia. I am frightened and angry. Our society has lost its moral compass, and we are turning against our very own innocent children as if we are cannibals.
Just the other day, they reported a missing child in Karibib. The next day, body parts were discovered with no head, and later the head was found on its own. As a mother and grandmother, one thing that comes to my mind is the way the innocent child died. It is chilling to imagine how frightened the poor child was, in his last moments before he was murdered, probably begging for mercy and calling on his mother. Why would one murder an innocent soul, and even go to the extent of dismembering his body? Why? These are innocent little children who have no power or means to defend themselves. It is sickening and heartbreaking to live in such a society.
This is one of many cases of murdered and missing children in Namibia, some of which have not yet been resolved. The nation is still reeling in shock and disbelief at the disappearance of Mandela from Lüderitz. Yet, no one knows what happened to this innocent child? Remember the murder of Magdalena Stoffels, Avihe and other innocent souls from Windhoek. Moreover, a two-year-old boy was buried in a bag by his own father, allegedly while alive in the Oshikoto region two years ago, Tuhafeni, a 9-year-old boy, was buried under a tree in a mahangu field in the Omusati region early this year. The list goes on, yet some of these killers were never found, and are probably still walking the streets of our cities and towns, leaving such crimes unresolved. These killers are probably still walking freely and committing or contemplating committing similar crimes. This is in addition to so many countless cases of child rape. How many more children should die, and how many more should go missing without a trace? We are failing our children as a society.
As politicians, government institutions, corporate institutions and civil organisations, we know how to get to and where to find community members, how to conduct road shows and community meetings for election campaigns, or to sell our products and services as well as to tell the public how good we are when we need their money and support. Yet, we cannot do the same to sensitise the same crowd and get to the bottom of these crimes for the protection and safety of our children. Additionally, when a child is harmed or murdered, we are quick to blame each other. We are all guilty of failing this country’s children, and should all take the blame.
We know very well that so many social problems are affecting people in our society, yet we turn a blind eye to those critical ones which are likely to lead to people committing such heinous crimes. We hear of drug busts every day. Drug dealers roaming streets either on bail or given shorter sentences by our courts, or not even arrested because they should be caught red-handed, or else it is just rumoured.
In recent times, we hear that some law- enforcement officers are themselves clients of drug dealers, and therefore it is difficult to bring such crimes to the fore.
We hear of increasing cases of mental illness, and how public hospitals are struggling to cope. Yet, we are not getting to the root cause of such problems and the impact thereof, some of which are likely the cause of such crimes against children.
We hear of people engaging in ritual activities, allegedly going as far as committing heinous crimes to get rich, or for some other related reasons. Yet, no one is interested to investigate and establish the truth, and whether there are links to crimes against children and others.
We have institutions of higher learning with students doing research, people with PHDs in social sciences, yet there is no research to get to the root causes of these issues.
We fold our arms and wait for the situation to resolve itself, which unfortunately is not the case. It is very sad, scary and exhausting to imagine that we can no longer trust each other with children, not even with very close relatives because of what is happening around us. It is also very sad that we have become so individualistic that the old way of “a child is raised by the community” is gone because we feel unsafe within our families, community and society, where we are supposed to feel safer than anywhere else in the world.
Our children have become an endangered generation in their own society. We are humans eating humans. Not wild animals, but human beings, and this needs to stop. If we cannot protect them, who else do we think will do it? The manner, ways, means and resources we are using to get to people to ask them for votes and support, be it in politics, business or whatever, should be the same to be used to reach out to the same people for the protection and safety of our children. If not, we are all guilty of such heinous crimes, and we do not deserve to live and have children!
Lets’s do better as a nation!
*Elizabeth Amagola is a Deputy Director in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, and writes in her personal capacity.