Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
CALL it what you may, whether the euphemistic “passion killing” that has become common nomenclature in the media and society at large, or women slaughtering, killing, butchering, slaying.
Whatever descriptions we chose and shall continue to apply in describing these heinous acts of barbaric conduct and behaviour, it seems there has not been and will not show any signs of receding and subsiding.
On the contrary. Nor do any of the attempts to crush this conduct and behaviour seem to show any sign of dithering under the arm of justice whose myriad efforts seem not to be bearing the desired effect. This is aside from the unpalatable and sad fact that in some of these heinous crimes, the perpetrators have as yet to be apprehended. One can only call to mind the case of the late pupil of the David Bezuidenhout Secondary School, Maria Stoffel, whose culprits to this day, two or three years after their despicable act, which sent shock waves through the Namibian society, still remain at large and the tragedy visited upon the Stoffel family almost forgotten by society.
The only thing that seems to have been done regarding this tragedy is a bridge edifice, which with all the good intentions that it may have been built with, may to some be meaningless at best and worst nothing, but conjurer of the bad memories of the fate that befell and the ordeal that her family had been enduring since.
Most saddening is that these culprits may be roaming our environs and neighbourhoods, living like any other innocent and law-abiding citizens, or worse and most frightening still perpetrating some other similar crimes.
And best that society seems to do is condemnations and more condemnations. Buckets of sympathy and what else, but the reality is that every second, minute and hour of our daily existence, such crimes are visited by one or the other members of our society.
And with little signs of them declining, not to speak of those perpetrating them seeming in the least to be deterred or refraining from them, and society equally not seeming to take any drastic measures to rid itself of these evils, save for the condemnation and sympathy.
Opening the ninth session of the fifth Parliament of the Republic of Namibia last week, His Excellency Hifikepunye Pohamba, President of the Republic of Namibia could not have been more consequent in lamentation of these acts, and their perpetrators, men who have become “monsters.”
And his sense of alarm and sadness at the prevalent situation was unmistakable. “I believe that our society needs to carry out a deep introspection and reflection in order to get to the root cause of such evil and cruel deeds. We need to look at ourselves as a nation and identify the causes of such destructive behaviour that has no respect and no regard for human life,” said the President.
But is His Excellency perhaps not only joining the habitual chorus that seems to peter out only to be heard with the next spates of butchering? Is society to see real and meaningful measures against these heinous crimes, whether first and foremost in terms of deterring would-be perpetrators if not completely rehabilitating them, and if needs be banishing them to another planet where such crimes as much as they may not be tolerable are met with the same heartlessness they are committed with.
When are we to see reassuring and consequent actions when the apprehension of the perpetrators and their eventual prosecution become more than condemnations?
When are we to see a situation when homes and society and communities at large, are no more the slaughterhouses for women and children that they are currently but places of safety and security and fatherly love, care and warmth?
Yes, society cannot and has not been condoning such crimes but as much, is it not time that society asks itself whether it is just enough to condemn and that it needs more deeds than words.
As the President realizes, this “demands deliberate and concerted action by all of us including Government, churches, community-based organizations, community leaders, education authorities, traditional leaders and parents.”
Yes, indeed, but actually after how many slayings and butchering of women and children?
Is one life of a mother or child taken away by someone calling himself a father not just enough to jolt society into the requisite and appropriate action?
One cannot agree more with the National Council Women Caucus that indeed this national calamity calls for emergency measures.
Because there is no denying that the slayings have reached calamitous proportions with hardly a second, minute, hour or day passing pass without society visited by grisly accounts of the slaying of a woman, this in view of children.
Unconsciously but perhaps with good intentions of making the society aware of the gruesome realities our society is engulfed in and with the media seems to be part of visiting daily such gruesomeness on society.
To what extent it helps is not clear but as much there’s no denying the fact inadvertently some gruesomeness and trauma is being thrust upon society for better or worse.
Of course one cannot but also agree with those who are against the return of the death penalty. Because a society that starts to resort to answering death with death is surely a doomed society. Violence begets violence and if the State starts to answer death with death, then where would it all end?
We simply must go to the root of the problem. And His Excellency could not have been more spot on about inculcating in our children right from the beginning in our homes, the values of self-respect and respect for others.
Many as to the causes of these killings have made many postulations. One thing must be clear from the onset that they are but merely new manifestations of the domestic violence that has been all along and since times immemorial directed against women and girl children.
It is a manifestation of the unchanged power relations between men and women and children.
And as much a manifestation of our alienation as Africans from the ways of our mothers and fathers.
It simply underlines the fact that men still control the wealth within society, and now that women are starting to gain access to such, they are becoming a menace to men.
Thus, until this vicious chain is broken through a radical transformation on the socio-economic level, women shall continue to be the victims of domestic violence by men that they currently are.
Women who are edging towards overthrowing this oppressive power relations by achieving some measure of economic empowerment, as some women in our society have done through conscious legal instruments, shall also continue to be victims because men are still trapped in their delusional comfort zones.