Saturday 16 March 2013

I Love My Fatherland

When I started writing this book in 2009, it began as a way of collecting my various commentaries on diverse subjects within Namibia. As I started putting them together, a theme started emerging and I remembered back to the first day of Independence in 1990 when I raised the Namibia flag for the first time over our capital Windhoek. I swore to myself that day: that I would do everything from my side to make this the best country to live in. This has led me to look at what is the Oath of Allegiance for Namibia. The only one I have found is the one prescribed for foreign nationals wishing to become Namibians in the Namibian Citizenship Act.

Thus I have formulated my own:
I…………, ID Number …….., presently residing ……… in the……… District of the …… Region, do hereby declare on oath that I will be faithful to the Republic of Namibia, observe its laws, promote all that which will advance it and oppose all that may harm it.
So Help Me God.

The singing of the National Anthem and the above oath has given me a lot of strength each morning as I prepared this second edition, and I hope I will continue to sing the anthem in the morning and re-affirm my oath as often as is necessary.

I noted that in this process I sing to my motherland, but have no mention of fatherland. As a matter of biology, this is my fathers-land and South Africa is my mothers-land.

This got me thinking: I should sing to my motherland and work for a better fatherland. It has always been part of our human culture that a father has been out to work, while the mother works at home. Perhaps in Namibia, we have become a motherland and our people have forgotten we have a fatherland and that father expects you to work.

Namibia our Fatherland, we must have the right to work. Our fathers must be able to provide for their children. Our children must know that there is an aim for their efforts at school: It is to get a meaningful work that will contribute to the well-being of Namibia and all who reside in it.

I want this in our Constitution, and while we are at it, there are a couple more things….