We always consider history to be stagnant and stalejust because we are looking at things that happened a long time ago; things that were sealed by history itself.
History is the dried and dehydrated seed that appears dead while alive until moisture activates its instincts.
Thus, the worst of oppressors in Botswana are as much part of its history as the Three Dikgosi are.
Zimbabwe erected the Heroes Acre at which supposedly illustrious sons and daughters of Zimbabwe are buried in recognition of their efforts to serve and liberate Zimbabwe.
Alas, most of the people at that shrine will never make it into Zimbabwe’s history books.
History is factual; take it or leave it.
Because of its ability to haunt the living, history, like that maize seed that comes back from the dead and answers to the moisture and its obviously hospitable surroundings, provides us with a life while it lies in hibernation.
History laughs at us because it is wiser. We cannot ignore its admonishing presence.
It infuriatingly always leaves us to take it or leave it.
History has no glare; we need no sun visors. There is nothing back there butclear evidence of what continues to this day as a crippling legacy of political prostitution, vagueness and indecisiveness.
The things that are happening in opposition parties in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, Zambia and South Africa, among others, cannot be of any benefit to the people.
I am amused when I look at how many political parties were born out of Kenneth Kaunda’s United National Independence Party.
I am further astounded to see the number of political parties that sprung out of Zambia’s Movement for Multi-Party Democracy.
Like in other parts of the region, Botswana’s opposition political parties do not seem to ideologically differ from their ruling parties and from other opposition parties.
The Botswana National Front, which I believe was formed as a reaction to the 1965 electoral success of the Botswana Democratic Party, claims that its ideology is social democracy while the Botswana Congress party, which came out of the bowels of the BNF, claims that it is a social-democratic political party.
And look at political parties in Malawi!
In South Africa, the Congress of the People (COPE) calls the ANC ‘daddy’ with another son of the ANC accusing its father of being stingy enough to make them call themselves Economic Freedom Fighters.
But I think Zimbabwe is the worst culprit when it comes to bastard political parties that lie to people about fighting for a difference claiming to be different.
Those who gained independence before us did us a lot of damage because we looked up to them in the hope of liberating ourselves like they had just done.
How many children and grandchildren did the Zimbabwe African People’s Union have? The Zimbabwe African National Union itself gave birth to its own little mites and the biggest grandchild of that party now has itself more kids and grandchildren of its own.
I am scandalized by the on-going court battles among former allies in Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change. Regardless of who is right or wrong; regardless of who wins these court cases, the outcome guarantees that Zimbabweans are the losers.
We are being deprived of leadership because our politicians cannot sit down and,together, map an agenda for the nation, just like all other African leaders are not doing across the continent.
Today, in Zimbabwe, exist the MDC-T (Morgan Tsvangirai), the MDC-N (Welshman Ncube), the MDC-M (Arthur Mutambara), the MDC-99 (Job Sikhala) and the MDC Renewal Team (Tendai Biti).
God have mercy!
We remain pawns in this stupid gamein which our politicians move from one party to another in the total absence of any ideology that people can understand and accept.
Like my late father said, we can travel at the speed of sound and travel into space on satellites whose abilities we will never comprehend, but in the end, because of our history as people, we will land right back here and walk on our two feet.
Our world has suffered and continues to suffer.
Zimbabwe has suffered more and has had its limbs broken, its sons, daughters, fathers and mothers killed by their own.
But the nation soldiers on, just like we should. History warned us about these developments.
When history merges with the present, then it is absolute confirmation that we are on the wrong path. Because, you see, history does not want to repeat itself. History never wants an encore of itself.Most times, we elevate history only to justify our mistakes.
History must not and should not merge with the present. History does not want us to copy it; history wants us to improve on it so that tomorrow we are also the history that inspires our future generations.
That is why they make better cars today than they did in 1920.
History is a teacher who has lived the life;while the present is a student keen on learning how to live that life better.
The heart of the matter is thatour history teaches us our future. Overtaking those realities of history is and must be an obligation.
The role of history is to give us a chance to open new and better chapters – not to follow in its old footsteps.
In life, parents work hard to ensure that their children are better than themselves in both education and social standing.
Such is the case even in politics, where past generations of politicians dare us to do better than they did.
We still do not know how to differ and stay together.
We still view those with an opposing viewpoint as enemies.
We get personal and kill each other over issues we should sit down and negotiate over.
We form new political parties whenever we have differences with our allies as if those differences alone are the pillar of the nationalphilosophy.
We do not follow, adopt or create believable philosophies or doctrines anymore but we claim to refine what others did in the past to serve their times.
We bottle ourselves up in descriptions we care little about.
I am a leftist.
You are left of center.
He is a moderate.
He is a right winger.
That one is right of center.
Oh, no, look at that extremist!
Why can’t we just be ourselves and negotiate with each other on issues that are of meaning to our nations while we make the most of those areas in which we have common ground.
I would have liked to see a maturity among our politicians; a maturity that takes advantage of our positives while at the same time working harder and thinking deeper to smooth over where we differ.
While I agree that one cannot serve both their conscience and the nation well if one is made to adopt and implement “philosophies” they do not subscribe to, I am not amused by the failure of our leaders to exploit common ground.
They are more thunderous in opposition to each other but muted in areas they agree.
They emphasize their disagreements more than areas in which they agree.
But I say that the areas in which we agree are more important than those we disagree upon.
We do not have a culture of compromise for the sake of the nation; most decisions our politicians make are based on self-interest.
Botswana has a chance to avoid such pitfalls and I hope it does.
