Zoo Park Love

When I hear a woman yelling at Zoo Park, I figure botsotsos are doing what botsotsos do.

It’s payday weekend. The Otjomuise Live Arts Festival has brought fresh blood to the bustling heart of the city. The performances make for some useful distraction and botsotsos will generally dala what they must.

As I tighten my grip on my handbag and take a look around, I realise the scene is more marriage proposal than mugging. And the scream is one of excitement.

There’s a man on bended knee. The woman he’s asked to be his wife covers her face in a mixture of shock and delight and the art festival crowd breaks into cheers of well-wishing and applause. As the moment begins to dawn on the future bride, the photographer, who was casually taking the couple’s photos, realises it’s his time to shine.

This is no ordinary Zoo Park shoot.

These are not your average passersby. They weren’t relentlessly harassed into a glaring, midday photo session that will live on a random memory card for all eternity and then some. Oh, no. These are serious lovebirds. The rarest of a dying breed whose proposal will not be secret or secluded, rather a tender moment for all to see.

While Paris has the Eiffel Tower and Venice has its gondolas, Windhoek, God bless it, has Zoo Park.

As someone who has visited the green space primarily during protests, I don’t generally associate the park with love.

Sure, I’ve walked by and envied the sleeping men sprawled out on the grass and marveled at such gender-based freedom. I’ve definitely tried my luck at eating lunch in the park’s great outdoors, only to be run out of town through a mix of men (shooting their shot), opportunists (casing the joint) and children (tragically, begging).

Whenever I’ve ventured deep into the common, past the dried-up pond, beyond the war memorial and right of the amphitheatre, love has been the last thing on my mind. Instead I’ve turned around swiftly after startling small huddles of young men, each looking at me curiously, wondering if I’m lost, in search of something mind-altering or just stupid.

Given Zoo Park’s general, somewhat sketchy ambience, it’s no wonder that the sound of a woman yelling has me clutching at my valuables. But, like everyone else in the vicinity, I’m pleasantly surprised.

Alongside the botsotsos, the begging children, the festivalgoers and the picnickers, love is in bloom and it is beautiful.

It halts us all.

We break into big, silly grins and we turn to it like flowers following the sun.

As the gender wars rage on and the headlines remind us just how brutal relationships can sometimes be, it feels like a privilege to witness the promise of love. For a moment, despite the love we’ve seen lost or that we’ve lost ourselves, we believe in it again. We see love near its start, and we hope for the very best.

The woman, lovely in a body-hugging brown dress, says “yes!”

Yes to the man. Yes to love and yes to the beginning of something we all hope will be wonderful.

As family and friends rush to embrace the couple, we all slowly turn away.

The show is officially over and it’s a glorious day.

– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com

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