SPYL Won’t Silence Free Spirits Of Africa

An Open Letter to Swapo Youth League Dear Mr Elijah Ngurare I AM ashamed.

I am ashamed for my motherland which once stood begging at the door of the international community when its people were suppressed by apartheid, and now repays the solidarity it received by harbouring a murderer of his own nation. I am ashamed for our President who does not have the moral fibre to stand up for the powerless and who instead chooses to play his predecessor’s (broken) fiddle.I am ashamed for Swapo, who forgot what they fought for.I am ashamed for you, who are too blinded by racism to see the obvious reality in Zimbabwe.Even worse, you try to sell your hatred of whites as ‘African solidarity’.I am ashamed for those who believe you.I am ashamed for each and every policeman who stood between the protestors and the Zimbabwe High Commission, protecting a common criminal and thief.Does your meagre salary really make up for what you know is wrong? I am ashamed for all of us who had the means to join the demonstration against the Mugabe visit and did not do so.Please understand that this particular boat is worth rocking until it sinks.Mugabe will not be the president of Zimbabwe forever.The lies and theft and murder will stop, with or without us, as all bad things do sooner or later, but by quietly going about our business while our immediate neighbours die of hunger and choke on corruption is, to say the least, spineless.These are not the actions of a proud, grown-up, independent nation.On the other hand, sir, there were plenty of people who did not swallow your lies and who exercised their right to freedom of expression.They were not ‘domesticated Africans, as you termed them.These were the true free spirits of Africa and I am glad you haven’t managed to silence them.You never will.Arthur Gotz WindhoekI am ashamed for our President who does not have the moral fibre to stand up for the powerless and who instead chooses to play his predecessor’s (broken) fiddle.I am ashamed for Swapo, who forgot what they fought for.I am ashamed for you, who are too blinded by racism to see the obvious reality in Zimbabwe.Even worse, you try to sell your hatred of whites as ‘African solidarity’.I am ashamed for those who believe you.I am ashamed for each and every policeman who stood between the protestors and the Zimbabwe High Commission, protecting a common criminal and thief.Does your meagre salary really make up for what you know is wrong? I am ashamed for all of us who had the means to join the demonstration against the Mugabe visit and did not do so.Please understand that this particular boat is worth rocking until it sinks.Mugabe will not be the president of Zimbabwe forever.The lies and theft and murder will stop, with or without us, as all bad things do sooner or later, but by quietly going about our business while our immediate neighbours die of hunger and choke on corruption is, to say the least, spineless.These are not the actions of a proud, grown-up, independent nation.On the other hand, sir, there were plenty of people who did not swallow your lies and who exercised their right to freedom of expression.They were not ‘domesticated Africans, as you termed them.These were the true free spirits of Africa and I am glad you haven’t managed to silence them.You never will.Arthur Gotz Windhoek