For Botswana, that day happens once every five years. So it was that on October 30, 2024, we, the qualifying citizens of this country, were voters willing to sit in a queue for up to two hours, quietly bearing the late spring heat, while chatting about nothingness or lost in our inner thoughts. Eventually we would cast our vote as if we were casting aside our uncertainty about ourselves and others. That vote, made by marking an “X” on a half-page sheet of paper which is later counted as closely as if it were a crook’s money, is a small reduction of the aspirations that a voter really intends to convey as their hope for this country.
The average age of the citizens in Botswana is that of a youth. Official figures show that 70% of the population is aged 10 - 35. This is the demographic that largely should constitute the biggest voting bloc although the elections’ agency does not ask nor provide information on the age of voters. In other words, unless a significant percentage of this demographic votes for a candidate and their party, that candidate and party may conceivably not succeed in the elections. When the results of this election were announced, and the opposition were triumphant through its commanding victory while the ruling party was vanquished through a crushing defeat, what is certain is that this was unprecedented. What may be less certain but is highly plausible and thus probable is that the results of the elections reflected both an active participation of the youth in the voting and a desire for change - a change of administration, a change of direction, and a change of perception. This country's voting youth did not make that change happen alone. But I believe that they were central in keeping alive the possibility and wisdom of a change of government and of the ruling party. I also believe that they were key to helping us, the old folks, to be free to think how right we could be about the capabilities of others to lead us, to us accepting how wrong we have been about the capabilities of some.
In one sense, as usual, we, the voters, were driven by many angels and demons. Yet, few of them were as potent as the belief, probably shared by many on both sides of our politics (the ruling and opposition parties), that the youth could lead the charge for a demand that the voters’ apparent fury at our leaders must be addressed. As I peer into this matter more, I can't help but wonder if in their unwitting role, the youth of this country not only led the ordinary people of this country to take a stand against complacency and hubris but also managed to persuade their older compatriots to be less suspicious of change.
Which leaves the elite (powerful individuals, wealthy citizens, connected parents and influential intellectuals) - the ones who always benefit whatever the administration. This group has usually often looked down upon the opposition. They have seen it as a rag tag team, as pastiche merchants too prone to adopt what was currently trendy, too much taken with populism, and insufficiently rigorous in statecraft to be taken seriously. The fact that after running this country for 58 years, the ruling party marched itself into a dead end (by the look of things) may convince the elite of the historical error of their perception. Of course that fact does not, of itself, validate the opposition. But it does entitle the opposition to be given a chance.
Anecdotally, whenever the youth have taken an active interest in some civic duty (such as voting) - whenever they have seen that duty as more than a chore - this has been because they have sought for its essence (or “lebensgefühl” in German.) And it could be true that the best description of that essence, is an aspirational description. This is a description that makes that essence resonate with those who may not have shared in it previously. It is also a description that shows its relation to the lives of both the youth and their parents. Then a civic duty and its expression and application will bear a close resemblance to that youth. Intuitively, what follows will be the anticipated support of their parents or a borrowing of the acts of the youth.
Perhaps at the polls our youth symbolized our yearning for change and for consequential relief at a time of domestic hardship and global instability. Perhaps there our youth became our handmaidens because through them we saw the optimism of the future. Perhaps by voting differently from the past our youth were the best demographic of our population to ignite, hold and promote an idea of the insufficiency of our past administration. Perhaps...Despite all this uncertainty, what is clear to me is what I may want to call the confidence of youth. When you are young, confidence is typically there in your life all the time. You wake up each morning and look at yourself in the mirror and are certain that factually, you are more attractive, stronger and interesting than everybody else in your household. You may then leave home with a swagger or hip-swing in your stride. When you are on to something as our youth evidently were on that voting day, then your confidence could hardly be more timely, more watershed and more significant. That does not make you a prophet. But it does grant you an enduring legacy since any judgment on Botswana inextricably is going to be a judgment on the votes of October 2024.
Hope begins by offering magical help and promise to anxious and struggling citizens of this country. It culminates by giving them a unity of belief and assurance that are essential to our individual welfare, statehood and culture. It should end by reinstating us to a shared destiny, to decency and to the consideration of others. As we familiarize ourselves with the votes of change, and as we reckon with our current circumstances, may we keep this hope as our lodestar. May it be the one that affirms a new set of expectations and aspirations that lead us back to ourselves as a nation on the move.
*Radipati is a regular Mmegi contributor
