BOTSWANA, A LAND WHERE DEMOCRACY THRIVES
I was intrigued to see you in attendance at King Mswati’s grand spectacle – if not wasteful – Ruby Jubilee. Your presence gave credence to the belief that in Africa elite comradery supersedes values.
A lot of people tend to overlook how unique your presidency is. Not only are you the first president to seamlessly unseat a so-called “liberation movement”, you are the first president of an ethnic minority in a predominantly Tswana country.
That kind of political maturity – of looking at leadership credentials beyond ethnicity – is very rare in our continent. Take a look at your hosts. Since independence the Prime Ministers of Eswatini have come from one clan, Dlamini…Dlamini…Dlamini.
In a country of roughly 60 villages and 1.3 million people, the scourge of ethnic supremacy finds expression in a narrow and barbaric clannism. This is preposterous! It means our country is stuck in the Middle Ages.
As the late Pan Africanist thinker Frantz Fanon once warned – we are degenerating towards “inbreeding.”
AFRICAN RENNAISSANCE 2.0
I have been following you a lot of late and have seen you preaching a new version of your fellow tribesman Thabo Mbeki’s “African Renaissance”.
Although not branded in the same box, you are adamant that Africa will one day “Rule the world… and that is a fact”.
These are very grandiose dreams, Duma. A continent that still has hold on to archaic beliefs of “Royal Dlamini supremacy” will one day rule the world?
One only has to look at how King Mswati treats his own subjects to see how this African Ruled World would look like.
AFRICA MUST FIRST RULE ITSELF
A country where a man can set aside E500 million to throw a lavish party while medicine shelves are empty in public hospitals.
A country where 65% of youth are unemployed, while the king and his pikaninies use state institutions as jumping castles. This is not a future I look forward to. And neither should you.
My humble plea to you, Mr. Boko, is that before you go around preaching about Africa’s renaissance, see to it that our timeless values of Ubuntu and Batho pele (People first) are resurrected and placed front and center of your sermons.
Africa does not need to rule the world. The people of Africa need only to rule themselves, and that is all we desire. Not to be ruled by kings and super clans, but to collectively determine our destiny.
Pula, Kgotsa, Nala, Botho, Batho!
