In a world that is heavily stricken with a mental health crisis, it is worth sitting back, relaxing and reflecting on where we could have gone wrong as a country.  Often when we talk about mental health, we seem to focus on how to deal with the symptoms rather than looking at sustainable and systematic ways to at least reduce its incidence.

One thing is very clear as a blue sky that, since Namibia became independent, something has been fundamentally destroying the fabric of our society at a termite’s pace.  We became more focused on the cosmetic part of life while neglecting the most fundamental psychological and spiritual aspects of life.

Of course, one cannot disagree that education is the key, but if the education is not holistic in its approach, disaster is inevitable.  To have a curriculum that ignores or does not emphasize the spiritual aspects of humankind is to completely neglect the well-being of the psyche of a society.  It should, however, be noted that the spiritual aspect is not necessarily religious only, but also about the creative part of human life.  For if we also believe that we are created in the image of the creator, then we are creators too. Therefore, to ignore the creative part of us is to fundamentally set off on the wrong foot and shall eventually bear the consequences of our actions in a variety of ways.

It is also worth mentioning that mental health cannot be resolved with one magic bullet but requires a multi-disciplinary approach. 

The fact that we have tried our best, but the situation never gets better, is because we have not admitted that trying to resolve it without emphasizing the importance of arts in our lives has led us to failure. 

It is also in realizing this failure that we must swallow our pride and, in some way, take accountability for the toll the mental health crisis is taking on our society.

In order to address the mental health crisis, once and for all, we must admit what some may have said before that artists are the creators of heaven. Art, be it music, paintings, or crafts, is what feeds the spiritual part of life.  Therefore, even to make art a non-promotional subject is to despise and show disdain for a fundamental aspect of our lives – it sends a message that it is not so important, and does not require any serious attention whatsoever. 

This is where we must admit that education has failed us miserably. It is therefore important that there must be a serious discourse on this matter as soon as yesterday. In order to seriously address the mental health crisis, we must recalibrate our education system in such a way that it is a “living system” that is adaptable enough to address present challenges, while preventing future ones at the same time.

*Uncommon Sense is published in the New Era with contributions from Karlos Naimwhaka. YouTube channel: Karlos Lokos

– karlsimbumusic@gmail.com