It is sometimes a good thing to trace back the origin of the word in order to achieve a broader understanding and meaning of it. Some have struggled with the word curfew to an extent that they have called it caffeine while others call it café. Whatever the case may be, the curfew is here with us and has been extended for a whole month now taking us to the end of January.
I want to think that the president was ill advised to pronounce that the festive season curfew should commence at 19:00 hours. That should only apply in times of hostilities because that’s a wartime curfew. Otherwise it was a wise decision taking into account the fact that some citizens have no regard of the presence and the spread of corona virus.
The word curfew is originally a wartime term which means to cover fire. In fact it is derived from two French words, cuevre meaning cover and fue meaning fire (cuevrefeu). The curfew was initially a war effort. In each town a bell would ring to signal the commencement of a curfew and the residents would be required to cover all their fires. This was meant that when the invading forces arrive, they would not be able to identify where people were residing.
It was for the protection of the people that a curfew was in place. Meanwhile, it would be easy for the defenders of the town to notice the approaching enemy forces as they would come with lit torches for illumination. So a curfew started as a good thing for the protection of the citizen and even now it exists to protect us from the current scourge.
For many who do not understand, it is not the first time that Botswana has had a curfew. During the Rhodesian War, Francistown often experienced curfews as the town was hosting hundreds of refuges from what is now known as Zimbabwe. There were several incursions by the Rhodesian Special Operations Unit known as the Solous Scouts.
Going into the history of Francistown, one of the incidents that raised the curfew stakes was the bombing of the Mophane Club by Rhodesian Special Forces. So many people were maimed in this incident that happened at night. The raid on the residential home of the leadership of ZAPU was another highlighted incident that called for the raising of the stakes regarding the maintenance of curfew in Francistown.
If there is any place which has seen a lot of curfews in Botswana is Francistown. When this war emergency was ongoing, the Botswana Defence Force soldiers remained locked up in their barracks under almost permanent curfew. The soldiers were only allowed brief moments of shopping in the town centre and this was not always guaranteed.
The BDF had just been formed and the turnout for new soldiers was as high as four recruitment intakes within one year. Some families have emerged as a result of the curfews. So at the time the military establishment had more single soldiers than those married.
Because of the ever existing state of emergency in the town of Francistown and particularly in the barracks, an opportunity for young ladies to do laundry for the young soldiers arose and these were the only females allowed to enter the camp. Because of the stringent measures of the curfew and emergency, not even relatives were allowed in the camp. So these laundry women had a field day and a lot of them are now wives to those old soldiers who defended our northern frontier.
Soldiers by nature live under a curfew all their lives. If you happen to be in any one of the BDF camps in this country at 10 pm, you will certainly not miss the sounding of the trumpet and the bugle at that time. The call is known as the “Last Post.” This is sounded every night through the public address system. This sound by a single bugler signals the start of the curfew and that runs until 5am. Between those hours, no one is allowed to enter or t leave the camp.
Of course with the new leadership things have been relaxed and the bugle is only sounded for ceremonial reasons. But with the current COVID-19 emergency, the curfew in the camps has been reinstated. We may have notices that BDF soldiers are nowadays found wearing their battle dress uniform (BDUs), that is a signal that there is an emergency for the military.
The criticism of the president in establishing the curfew has been very high and to the point that even his bitter predecessor has railed against him. I seem to differ with almost every criticism levelled at the president but I would not want to play the part of his spokesperson.
What is happening in America right now points to lack of political leadership in a time of a national emergency. Epidemics often require political leadership and political will or otherwise if they are allowed to take the route of nature, they would decimate the population. And the manifestation of lack of political will in the US has placed them at the top of world statistics. The introduction of the curfew is specifically for our own benefit.
I have personally had issues with the imposition of a curfew at 7pm which even started before the sun could set. In my view the curfew should commence at 9pm. We are in the middle of a planting season and we have agricultural production severely disrupted by this early curfew as most of us are part-time farmers who have to commute between the fields and the urban locations.
A curfew has proven to be a healthy way of regulating our lives. There has not been any night break ins and general crime and loss of life has diminished. Even in the absence of an emergency, a curfew would be necessary in future to regulate crime in a period of festivities.
