By Patrick Hilger
New Era recently ran a front-page article on Diyeve Anton Ditembero who tried to sell his eleven-year-old son for N$75 000.
It’s not the first time one hears about such things but the root cause seems much deeper. I might be wrong but I am sure even if I am only 50 percent to the truth it’s worth pondering.
First of all I want to congratulate New Era for putting up “Man arrested for trying to sell son,” on the front page as it is only the tip of the iceberg of our society’s illnesses.
But I want to start with another of my personal underlying hypothesis (worth investigating) why Africa was so ripe for slavery which existed all over the world but hit the jackpot on Sub-Saharan Africa as only a few Europeans were touching the fringes of the seashores in the early days of the 17th to the 19th centuries (and some Arab nations touching the shores of the desert Sahel borders before and during that time) managed to get their “living goods” from middlemen inside the continent selling people (if you can sell your son, surely raiding some neighbour not-related-tribe to be sold for some glass beads or old outdated rifles wasn’t an issue).
The traitors were and are among ourselves not outside … The man to his defence said, “He once heard people selling people so he just wanted to make some money as well.”
Another sad reality from reading this article is the negative power of the prevalent belief in witchcraft, sorcery etc. another curse of the African continent.
Witchcraft is more dangerous than smoking or using drugs because it destroys the mind of the believer.
Those societies who stopped believing in these illusions (mostly after the 17th century) playing tricks with the human mind, are now well-developed and enriched with scientists. Why don’t we have a national policy educating citizens in science and getting rid of these evil beliefs that stunt development. Nobody ever got rich because of sorcery of course except the sangomas who charge exorbitant fees for their dark craft.
Last but not the least of my and everybody’s priority concerns reading about the 18 children – should be the lack of family planning, as a lack of national and indeed AU policy, we must follow the Chinese example of one or two children per couple.
In China children are the most cherished and educated generation of the world today, followed by most Europeans and those in the USA who mostly limit the children to their financial capacities.
For the man selling his son I wish we could have a law for this crime letting him hang with his balls on a public washing line (he won’t need them any more having fathered 18 children condemned to a gloomy future). I applaud the magistrate for not granting him bail.
If we want to save this continent from going downhill.
Here are some sobering figures according to the UN 2014 report: More Sub-Saharan Africans are living in extreme poverty now than in 1990, the report found that Sub-Saharan Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world in its progress with population increase being the highest, making it worse. This article is the tip of the iceberg of irrational belief systems and values gone wrong.
• Patrick Hilger is a consultant in Rundu.