When I was at university, my Journalism professor asked me if I would be returning to Africa or if I intended to stay in the United States. I told him that I was on my way back to Africa “to help in the development of our newly independent Zimbabwe”. He genuinely wished me well then asked me a question, bringing up a topic that still haunts me to this day. As a matter of fact, if I had paid a little more attention to the depths of his enquiry, I would not have spent nine years as a refugee in Botswana and end up in exile back in the United States where that seemingly innocent question was put to me decades ago.
The professor asked if I was okay to obtain a degree which would afford me only one employer in my country. I was so full of myself and was intoxicated with the euphoria of Zimbabwe’s independence that I did not think beyond being a television reporter, trench coat and all. What my professor meant was that the media (newspapers, radio and television) was then owned and run by respective African governments, like elsewhere in the so-called “Third World countries”.
He was aware that few countries had private media houses because African governments controlled what people saw, read and listened to. It is still like that although private media houses have managed to bulldoze their way into the market. Where that happened, the private media outlets are vilified by governments and are always at the mercy of those running the country. I was the Chief Sub Editor of the Sunday Standard for almost as long as I lived in Botswana. There was always an undercurrent of suspicion and grudging co-existence with the government and with my editors always appearing in court for “crimes” they committed in years past. I myself had a close shave with the law and was, ironically, saved from disaster by my editor, who, just last week, was himself once again hauled into detention and before the courts. Outsa Mokone and many others have been in and out of court where the government prosecuted them for doing their job. I was a refugee in Botswana for almost a decade because of the same reasons, back-dated to Zimbabwe.
These are hazards of journalism because controlling information is tantamount to controlling the people and there is nothing politicians love better than controlling the people. It is what makes them go into politics. To control the people. And that is an evil objective, but an objective that all African presidents aspire to. It is always the case with cowardly, underperforming governments and dictatorships; the first people they blame are always the media. Tyrannical and dictatorial presidents and government ministers always blame the media for their failures because information is a valuable commodity. No African government wants a well-informed populace.
Information keeps both predators and prey of the wild alive. We have heard that whoever controls information controls the people. This is why weak and unpopular governments always rush to muzzle and blame the media. These morons want their successes to be trumpeted while their failures are expected to be downplayed or not mentioned at all. The media is always viewed with suspicion by government and is always harassed for informing people about what is happening in their midst. I am intrigued by the First Amendment to the US Constitution which simply states that: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble…” There is a very good reason why the Americans put up a law that prohibits their own law makers from making any laws that touch on the freedom of the press. The heart of the matter is that the arrest and harassment of journalists such as we saw last week against Outsa Mokone and the obnoxious raid on the offices of the Sunday Standard was a cowardly move that only those who commit crimes against the nation can perpetrate.
If crimes were committed, that is the role of the law which, we are led to believe, should be a fair arbitrator. Laws protect the people from the government and from each other. Laws are not there necessarily to protect the government from the people. This event, coming so soon after the mysterious and still unexplained death of opposition kingpin, Gomolemo Motswaledi, is a milestone on a dangerous political bend in the politics of Botswana. The frequency of the unwanted; the seriousness of the happenings; the arrogance of those in power. Ingredients in a powder keg that will explode very soon. My point is that governments must leave the media alone. Curtailing and attempting to control the media is a cowardly thing to do yet African governments, including Botswana, spend millions of dollars on equipment to eavesdrop on people’s conversations, interfere with their emails, broadcasting and printing slanted news for consumption by trusting citizens.
This is only done by underachievers who have something to hide. It must be of concern to the citizens of Botswana and, indeed, to all of us in Africa, that Botswana is adopting deplorable behavior that it once criticized in tyrants like Robert Mugabe. I used to believe that President Khama’s silence on big national issues was because he knew what to do when his opportunity to lead comes. Now I can see that the man is simply empty and has nothing to say because he just does not understand most of the things that are going on around him. When crimes against the constitution are being committed in the name of any president and that president keeps quiet then he is just as guilty as any other criminal on the streets. The freedom and the constitution of any nation should not be written on toilet paper in a president’s lavatory where he can tear off a piece of the constitution as his need arises.
What is going on in my Botswana? Why is the country that I respected so much behaving like this? It is unfortunate when a government makes it illegal for its citizens to complain when they feel wronged. A father does not behave that way. Botswana is a geographically vast country with a tiny population made up of happy people who are more concerned about traditional values, caring for their families and respecting those around them. Batswana are not made to be paupers or beggars; they have that self-propelling pride in themselves. It would be sad to see their own government destroy the very essence of their nation, something colonialists failed to do.
Botswana’s values and traditions have endured on a continent saturated with misery, genocide, hunger, disease and all ills we can think of. Would it not be a shame for Botswana to be tipped over the cliff by the son of the man who created the modern Botswana? I hope cool heads will prevail so we see a reversal of these obnoxious developments in a country in which so many citizens than ever before have started to have doubts. And the only shame worse than losing faith in one’s country is when it is caused by your own president. We can yap all we want and collect millions of accolades from foreigners but there is no democracy that can thrive in the absence of a free media.
