The Government of Botswana must ask and listen to its Public Relations
people about this thing called Public Opinion because, it seems to me, the
government just does not care about it.and that is potentially dangerous
because Public Opinion does not like being ignored.
Some quarters have explained Public Opinion as “the aggregate of individual
attitudes or beliefs” while others define it as “the complex collection of
opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views”.
Public Opinion is difficult to control because while it may be influenced by
many factors, it boils down to what an individual thinks about an issue.
Even after a person has sifted through all available information and after
observing what might be unfolding, they have to make a decision based on how
they feel about an issue.
Public Opinion is powerful because it is the sum total of a view taken on an
issue by many individuals at the same time.
Elections, which are the backbone of all democracies the world over, are an
attempt to adopt and legitimise Public Opinion and that is why some African
governments go to great lengths to interfere with the individual rights of
people through intimidation, bugging telephones, violence, arrests and other
evils.
Disgruntlement and turmoil can always be expected whenever authority or
government goes against Public Opinion.
It is not accidental that Botswana has always been touted as a beacon of
democracy in Africa where governments have a propensity for barbarism and
think little about the lives of their own citizens.
Thus, the people of Botswana are justified when they complain about their
government being dictatorial and all because they have not lived under a
real dictatorship. After all, Botswana has not yet lived in Africa although
it has been making steady progress towards becoming an African country like
any other.
I am very disturbed by the way Botswana is treating the First People of the
Kgalagadi.
Botswana should be floating with a sense of pride for it has a real
connection with human ancestry because its very own citizens are recognised
as “one of fourteen known extant ‘ancestral population clusters’ from which
all known modern humans descended”.
That is awesome, indeed, yet even today, Botswana cares little about these
people to the extent that there is not a single word acceptable enough to be
used to refer to them – all are derogatory. The monikers, from Basarwa,
Bushmen, to the San are all offensive yet “these people” are, literally, the
real Southern African Development Community by virtue of them being one yet
they straddle southern Africa from Angola, Zambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe,
Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland and Botswana.
No country in SADC has an acceptable official term for the First People of
the Kgalagadi.
At around 55, 000, Botswana has the largest population of the First People
of the Kgalagadi with Namibia coming second but with less than half of that
of Botswana.
But unlike Botswana, Namibia’s First People are not sitting on mineral
deposits or inhabit hundreds and hundreds of miles of game rich spans of
land.
So all eyes are on Botswana and Public Opinion does not like what it sees.
One thing about Public Opinion is that it almost always roots for the
underdog against the bully and, thanks to Survival International, Botswana
is taking a terrible beating.
Botswana, almost twice the land size of Zimbabwe, has a population only the
size of Zimbabwe’s capital. Although it is unforgivable that it is named
after one of its many tribes, Botswana’s nationhood revolves around an
ethos of talking things over and avoiding confrontation at all costs as the
culture of the kgotla meetings used to dictate.
Political violence is hardly heard of and, last time I checked, no one had
been murdered because of political rivalry. Opposition parties, although
somewhat mediocre and lacking discernible vision, do exist albeit on the
receiving end of a strong-armed and top-heavy ruling party.
Botswana’s lifestyle and atmosphere are relaxed and not rushed, affording
people to always think before they act. People in Botswana respect each
other a great deal and that refines individual behaviour, cumulating into a
traditionally tolerant code of behaviour unseen elsewhere on the continent.
All in all, Botswana has got it together but cannot afford to deteriorate
into being just another African country. Botswana cannot afford to ill-treat
any of its citizens.
The issue of the First People of the Kgalagadi is as important as Botswana
itself and the government cannot afford to antagonise the international
community over such an issue.
Everywhere we look, we see people fighting for their rights. Some are
persistent in seeking negotiation to resolve national issues. Some take the
now outdated philosophical route of non-violence while others simply pick up
arms and fight for their freedom.
Botswana cannot afford conflict within itself because it does not have the
capacity to deal with the fallout simply because neither the people nor the
government have a history of violence to achieve their goals.
It might be easy to strike the match but putting out the fire is another
matter.
It is an obligation for Botswana to treat the First People of the Kgalagadi
with the respect they deserve.like all other citizens. The government should
listen more and talk less. Governments do not exist to push people around
but to be pushed around because governments are servants of the people.
It is the government that should be protecting the First People of the
Kgalagadi from Big Business in and outside Botswana instead of ganging up on
a small tribe and displace them.
The government of Botswana can learn a lot from South American governments,
notably Brazil and Peru, who have “uncontacted tribes” in their countries in
the Amazon. Instead of forcing them out “to modernise them” and make room
for logging companies, these governments have cordoned off the areas and do
not allow outsiders entry into those areas in the forests to avoid
introducing new diseases to them. The governments themselves limit their
contacts with them but ensure that they get the basics of necessities.
They are doing okay; it is the tribes’ standards that matter not what
someone else thinks is good for them.
It is painful to think about New Xade because its birth was the death of
history.
It is very sad do to think about what continues to happen in the Central
Kgalagadi Game Reserve.
I do not want to think about what is happening at Ranyane because it is
confirmation of greed and selfish intentions.
Nowhere in the world is there a government with a mandate to withhold water
from its own citizens for whatever reason. But Botswana, where ‘pula’ is
the slogan of choice, does just that.
The heart of the matter is that big people are big because they treat little
people like big people. The government of Botswana and, indeed, those of
Africa, must respect the existence of marginalized minority ethnic groups in
their countries.
No one should even be marginalised.
Just because certain tribes have less populations than that of others does
not mean that members of such tribes are of less importance to the nation or
deserve less respect.
It is patronising to treat certain groups of our communities in a less
humane manner because they form 5% or just 10% of the population.
An individual’s worth in the nation is not pegged by what percentage of the
entire population his tribe is.
Botswana must never hope to overtake Public Opinion on this issue; new
thinking is required.
Come on Botswana, you can do better than this.or else just don’t talk about
botho anymore.
