Listening to Ozi F Teddy’s song Freedom of Speech, and I no longer think, “the kids are gonna be ok.” He’s right. We are struggling. In the last five weeks, at least 10 people I know personally, have passed away, under the age of 45 years. We are becoming the lost generation. So many infants, toddlers, pre-teens and teenagers are orphaned. This will be the greatest population of widows, widowers and the broken hearted. We keep saying that we just have to get through to the other side, but what good is it, if we don’t all make it there together?!
Get over the profanity in the lyrics (because the whole nation treated that Tinto song like a national anthem) and pay close enough attention to the cry. In the address of August 13, the President said we are all affected by the pandemic, suggesting that the ways it affects us, are the same ways it affects him. He illustrated this by saying all of us know a loved one who has lost their lives fighting COVID-19. Although it might be true that we have all lost at least one relative to COVID-19, I decline the suggestion that the President, decision-maker, leader of the State of Emergency head of the whole country, and I, or my grandmother’s brother in rural Botswana, are on the same page. We are not. Perhaps if we start to see that, it will be easier to then locate us, in the dog’s stomach we are in, in the present moment. The people are right, re mo ncheng!
Although for some time now, I have avoided linking COVID-19 to government - out of fear that I may overly politicise the struggles of Batswana, and I wasn’t clear how I felt about that – I am coming to the realisation that unless we hold duty bearers accountable for how much we have suffered at their hands and under their leadership, they will continue as if nothing has happened. The reality is that even if you do speak out, in the way that Ozi has, it may not even matter. I am a firm believer though that silence is acquiescence. That is to say, if you remain silent in the face of oppression, you are strongly communicating to the oppressor that they are doing the right thing and they are on the right track. I would like to believe though, that we all know that is not the case. So Ozi, in our collective silences, became our voice.
The address made by the President is an outdated message. We needed it in July when there were over 400 deaths in a month. The roll-out plan of vaccines should have been critically and strategically considered. So many people expose themselves to the COVID-19, daily, who, in accordance with the roll-out plan cannot be vaccinated yet. Shop attendants at supermarkets should have been amongst the first to be vaxxed. Instead of trying to exhaust age-groups, the government should have engaged the private sector and just implemented a mass vaccination. We would, most of us, have been vaccinated by now. Ozi is right about most of what he says. The one thing I will take exception to is the misogynistic line about the girl. That is completely misplaced and absolutely unacceptable. Not all the other commentary though.
Batswana who are critical about Ozi’s song, criticising it for being harsh and crass are currently behaving like that WhatsApp group where nobody shares anything that makes real sense, and if you speak against or question it, they gaslight you and try to make you feel like you’re completely delusional, and like you are imagining things. You know the one where outdated fowards are treated with greater reverence than real life check-ins and you know everyone in it doesn’t really like each other because they talk about each other all the time, yet they feign peace.
The one which is really an emotionally abusive environment with an undercurrent of internalised oppression, and where misogyny, toxic masculinity and pervasive patriarchy are the order of the day – and as a feminist or even just a person with alternative views, it feels like it’s a set up for you; because really, how long can you last without saying a word?! Many of us know the group. It’s the one where if you try even set a boundary, toys are thrown out of cots with everyone saying everything that is not relevant to the matter at hand, and then after all of that they all say, “let’s pray together!” as if you imagined that entire collective tantrum. Like we are all imagining that the failure of government to respond timeously to this virus, has a lot more to do with their failure to manage funds and relationships.
The expected diplomacy is baffling. The tone policing is completely unnecessary.
Ozi is simply doing what artists are supposed to do. Imagine if we were all as brave. Imagine how we could have molded this whole situation into something we would have had greater chances of survival.
