Of Dog And Man
THE dog has, for time immemorial, been known as the “man’s best friend”. This is well and good in the sense that this canine creature has been the most salutary domesticated animal to mankind as a companion for security purposes.
Dear reader, close your eyes and ask yourself why a man should be considered to be cleverer than a dog if some of us commit such barbaric and heinous acts that neither a dog nor a snake does? As far as I can remember, I have never seen or heard about a male dog that attacks a female dog, viciously for that matter, unless jestfully as it seeks erotic favours. Or otherwise that dog is rabid – and we all know where we keep rabid dogs!
Why have the moral fibres been denuded so badly by us Namibian men that we deem it imperative to end the lives of women who were very close to our hearts at some point or the other? What would cause a right-minded man to strangle a school girl passing through a river bed?
Could it be that we possibly need to establish temper-management schools in our country in which we could be taught how to talk rather than fight to solve our differences with our women?
Or is it that our upbringing was so bad that we were not provided with adequate parental guidance to realise that women are like our mothers, sisters, aunties or cousins who need to be treated with utmost tender, love and care?
Could it be that the sort of retribution that is meted out on offenders by our justice system does not act as deterrent enough to keep our hands off these defenceless women?
Is it possible that those in the know as well as law enforcement officers may have ignored imminent warnings of some people’s murderous intentions?
I personally beg to differ with anyone who coined the expression ‘Passion Killing’ because there is nothing passionate about killing a woman.
In a country with such a small population, any life lost is one too many, especially for selfish reasons. When a man is in love with a woman and he decides to give her a present of any type, he does it because of love and it shall never be taken as a loan but a grant. A woman should therefore not be held to ransom for a gift she was freely given, whether she asked for it or not. No material item is worth a woman’s life, even after she has jilted you.
As for those sick-minded men who defile minors, they need Jesus, because even a male dog would never do that.
So the message to both boys and fellow men is that: Before you do anything that might hurt a woman, think twice and ask yourself if a male dog would do a similar thing to a female dog. This world would be a better and safer place for our sisters and daughters to live in without murderers!
Stephen T Mwanza
Opuwo