At 20: We Need To Restore The Emotive Heart Of The Republic

By: Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari

BURUNDI is a country were almost every person you meet has lost brothers, sisters, parents, friends and relatives as a result of the brutal ethnic war that spanned over ten years.

It is the country of Adolphe Nibigana, a young Tutsi man who fled his country to ultimately end up in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon.
It is also the country of Christian Sinibagiye, a young Hutu man who had to flee and live for ten years under difficult conditions in more than five countries in the sub-region.
Bizarrely, both Adolphe and Christian, just like many of the patriotic Burundians, speak about their experiences with an occasional smile and this is a potent reminder about their contagious humanity. Burundi is officially the world’s fourth poorest country, yet one of patriotic and optimistic people.
Both Adolphe and Christian would insist that they have the most beautiful and polite women, the best coffee, tea, fruits and landscape and so on.
Like many Burundians, they tell me that the Burundi they are now busy building is one where many don’t talk about their ethnic origin. They would always ask, either with suspicion or a plain laugh, as to why I want to know their ethnic group. But on the whole, they admit that it is really no longer important, they are now just brothers and sisters.
Twenty years ago we started our own process of constructing a noble future for this country with the right leadership in the right place and at the right time.
The acceptance speech of the founding president, Sam Nujoma, showed in so many ways a heightened sense of awareness about the burden of history and the future that was placed on the shoulders of the liberation leadership. For many of us, it was an inspirational moment and we saw the groundwork for a brighter and more confident country.
However, the tale of Burundi, how and why it went through such brutality, including my interaction with nationals, made me realise that as Namibians after twenty years of freedom, we are now more divided than we care or dare to admit. The past ten years have been particularly revealing with a clear degradation of politics.
Those who hold the levers of official power, the University, the Unions, have now conjured up a range of enemies, including foreign governments, the independent media, non-governmental organisations and any person who speaks independently of what officialdom would want.
We now see malice in every disagreement, conspiracies and agendas in every criticism aimed at Government and the ruling party. As such we pay a lot of lip service and talk selectively about ‘holding hands’ and the need for unity.
These phrases and statements now ring hollow as we have now started to refer to different types of Namibians. The first class of Namibians is those who hold Swapo membership cards or are supporters of the party in power. The second level is an underclass and would undoubtedly refer to those Namibians who are not supporters of the ruling party, including those seen as not loyal to the party in power.
To be safe from the insults of the arrogance of power that has engulfed the republic, one needs to stay clear of any comments or anything that suggests an independent mind.
We have forgotten that in order to consolidate our democracy and unity of purpose we need to have an informed and vigilant polity supported by a free press.
We need to have a strong, incorruptible, non-partisan and competent bureaucracy, including an independent legislature. In addition, we need to have a fearless judiciary with integrity. We committed ourselves twenty years ago to these!
However, individuals who display independence in these sectors are seen as mercenaries and are called all sorts of names.
When leaders in power or those with important offices start to refer to their own cadres as hibernators and traitors, they are certainly not that distant from calling them cockroaches, just like the political leaders of Burundi who started to refer to each other as such before the Hutus and Tutsis took machetes to decimate one another.
Our liberation struggle was about crafting a united country and people, and not the exacerbation of factionalism and divisions on the basis of political affiliation and tribe.
In a week’s time, we are celebrating our 20th Independence anniversary and it is an opportunity to reflect on the past while crafting a more noble future.
In order to construct a better future, Namibians and particularly the leadership should think about restoring the emotive heart of the Republic.
 
* Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in political science at the University of Paris- Panthéon Sorbonne, France.

---