With death having become so ubiquitous these days; living in Botswana, you are most likely to attend one or two funerals a month. These could be funerals of people you know: neighbours, friends, friends’ relatives or your own relatives.
Recently these sombre ceremonies have been rudely taken over by politicians of all sorts of political persuasions who use the hospitality of the bereaved family to dispense all sorts of messages from information about dysfunctional boreholes, problems with water reticulation, testing for HIV/Aids, testing for sugar diabetes, attending kgotla meetings, the building of new roads to encouraging villagers to go and plough their fields and reminders about village speed limits.
Come on! When Batswana come together at a funeral, when they sing Tsietsi tsa letsoalo,and Tsamaya sentle tsala or Bonang, ho hlahile marung and Rea u boka, Morena; when they say Morena o ne a neile mme Morena o tsere a go bakwe leina la Morena, they do so to encourage, to strengthen, to bring hope to a family torn by deep grief; a family which needs great comfort and support; an emotionally fragile family.
They gather together to say you loss is ours as well. They come together in the words of Paul to weep with those who weep. They gather to acknowledge and express that an individual’s loss is a communal loss. They come together to shed a tear, to share a hug, to sing together, to cry together and to say we as a community have also lost one of our own. Sadly these moments of great pain are repeatedly being hijacked by MPs and councillors as noticeboards of a plethora of messages.
The family does not need their moment of great sadness to be hijacked by politicians who have announcements to make. Indeed the messages dispensed by the politicians may be important to the community. But certainly there needs to be a different platform to make such public announcements.
The MPs could use Radio Botswana to broadcast their messages. They could use billboards or call press conferences. Why choose a funeral to spread a message which is irrelevant to the events of the day? These messages are an insult to a grieving family.
Let me pontificate: what politicians should do when invited to speak at a funeral is give encouragement, express their heartfelt sympathy and articulate a sense of loss to the family, the kgotla, the village and the country. They should stay clear of irrelevant announcements concerning dysfunctional boreholes and stay on the mood of the day. That would honour the departed and console the family.
An argument in their favour might be that, funerals are the only places where politicians find a decent crowd to address. Such an excuse is certainly reflective of the ability of the politicians to pull a crowd. But we must acknowledge that politicians do not speak only at funerals. They are invited to weddings and anniversaries and many address party rallies. What I have found most interesting is that when politicians are invited to speak at some weddings or anniversaries they try very much to behave appropriately. At such events when they are given a chance to speak, they speak well of their hosts and wish them well. They avoid making uncalled for announcements. The question therefore arises: Why would politicians treat weddings and anniversary celebrations with dignity and then indignify a sombre funeral ceremony? Why are funerals treated with such disdain by politicians while weddings are treated differently? Why are politicians so inconsiderate at funerals? Ke eng mapolotiki a sa sisibale a tlotla dintsho tsa batho?
But why are politicians invited to speak at almost every funeral in a village, when generally they are not invited to speak at every wedding, with the exception of a few? Certainly funerals are just as private, if not more, as weddings. I doubt when the bereaved invite a politician to a funeral, they are saying come and give us village announcements. I imagine they invite them out of respect with the hope that they will also reciprocate and show respect to their solemn ceremony. The truth is that the politicians add very little value to these ceremonies and perhaps it is about time that members of the public removed them from funeral programs. When politicians attend funerals, the benefit that accrues to them is clear. They gain free publicity at the expense of individual misery. Crudely put funeral attendance and speaking at funerals helps make them visible and appear good before voters. The least they could do is at least pretend to be sorry for individual death and avoid being politicians and administrative for a while.
I must admit that there are MPs and councillors who speak at funerals about village developments and school results largely because they are merely following a pattern they copied from other politicians. They assume that village news updates at funerals are a normal subject which a politician must address. And yet the subject is as common and appropriate as men peeing on a fence in Botswana. Someone must say: this is disgusting, go elsewhere! There is a need to reconsider the participation of politicians in funerals. What do we need them for? Politicians also need to reconsider their role and act appropriately in funerals and show respect to a family that is going through a difficult time. Certainly politicians’ role is greater than giving announcements. At a funeral, they should show leadership and grief and encourage a family to stay strong at a period that is exceedingly challenging. To give an update of village developments at a funeral is not only callous on the side of a politician, it is also terribly opportunistic.
