David Junias

The impact of slogans and mantras is not well appreciated. It is, at most times, tremendously underrated in society. 

Mantras are seen as little “cute things” that leaders do for their sake. 

However, slogans and mantras used by leaders can be catalysts for promoting unity and sometimes even as a tool for charming voters to win the majority of political votes.

Mantras and slogans are also used to create the right amount of comradery needed among members of the particular political party, acting as a glue of enshrining every member of the political party or group to the main purpose of the group. 

Just with a simple chant of the slogan, it can be more impactful than one can imagine. 

In history, slogans and mantras have been used to mobilise national patriotism and unite fronts fighting for a common purpose, such as colonial independence and rebuilding decaying nations. 

In Germany, after the treaty of Versailles, which was signed in 1919 – the peace treaty, related to establishing the conditions of peace with Germany, and imposed major sanctions on Germany. 

The Treaty of Versaille’s conditions on Germany included the disarmament of Germany, payment of large reparations to the allies, demilitarisation of the Rhineland, and Germany having to lose its colonies, including Namibia. 

The treaty of Versailles heavily made Germany a weaker country and less feared by its foes at the time. 

However, with the rise of Adolf Hitler and his mantra to “make Germany great again”, the slogan mobilised a united front in Germany at the time, aimed at returning Germany to its former greatness. 

Even though Adolf Hitler was notoriously ruthless in his deeds of making Germany great again, he was still able to indeed make Germany great again by strengthening Germany’s army, economy and a sense of pride for the Germans at the time. 

As a result, Germany became great once more, a feared nation by its foes.

In addition, a similar slogan was used by Donald Trump in his successful 2016 presidential campaign. 

His slogan was to “make America great again”, popularly known as MAGA.

People have a tendency of joining mantras that speaks to them and their values, as well as to their identity. 

People are mostly patriotic about their identity as well as patriotic towards their nation’s identification. 

Mantras, which closely relate to the people, tend to draw much interest from the people and unite them to fight with a common purpose that is enshrined in the slogan or mantra. 

In Mozambique, the FRELIMO movement had a rallying cry: ‘A luta continua’, which united the fronts of the people in Mozambique to end the colonial rule of Portugal in 1975.

‘A luta continua’ was first coined by the first FRELIMO president Dr Edwardo Chivambo Modlane until his assassination in 1969. 

His successor Samora Machel continued with the slogan that continued to unite fronts of the Mozambique people. 

This shows the uniting power that is enshrined in the slogan ‘A luta continua’, which still lives on in Namibia, familiarised mostly within the ruling party of Namibia. 

Political slogans in Namibia

Slogans identified with political parties can be used as tests of the party’s capability. 

Weaker slogans can already discourage unity and support from society in the first place. 

For example, the political slogans used in the 2019 presidential elections.

Some of them, when you considerately assess the message enshrined in them, they weren’t uniting at all. 

Slogans such as ‘Namibia is all we have; we must and can save it; Namibia is not for sale’ does not carry material in uniting fronts. 

It sets a misleading context to deceivable audiences and followers, who are mostly the youth. 

Youths can be easily deceived by such slogans. 

Judging the slogan under criticism raises concerns as to how Namibians can sell their country? 

I embrace the slogans used by the current president of Namibia, such as the ‘Namibian house’, ‘No one should feel left out’, ‘War on poverty and Harambee’. 

These slogans carry a uniting substance.

The writer refers to the president’s mantras as “little cute” because they are most spoken softly in society, without necessarily sensing the power such mantras carry. 

For example, ‘a Namibian house’ is an inclusive terminology, carrying higher substances of unity and collectively mobilising the fight against common causes such as poverty, which affects every Namibian as a ‘Namibian house’ per se. 

Society may lament that slogans and mantras are not significant. 

Just as I have observed society sometimes lamenting that peace and stability are not significant. 

Significant things in the case might include employment, economic growth and poverty eradication. 

Let’s embrace uniting mantras and let them live on. 

* David Junias holds an honours degree in business management from the Namibia University of Science and Technology.