Unlike many of the other freedom day holidays, this one is bitter sweet for me. I woke up asking myself are we really free? And my answer was rather Ambivalent. The personal freedoms are there for many – I can play Shirley Brown really loud in my house in the neighbourhood of my choice, I can go wherever I want to and marry whomever I damn well please. Yesterday I had to register a new company on the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) and unlike in 2004 when I first registered my company, the name was approved immediately online and the company was essentially registered on the spot, pending of course my submission of certain necessary paperwork. This is a complete opposite to where my business partner in Tanzania has to go through to get a trading certificate. It has been three months and yesterday he celebrated with me over the phone his milestone- because the processes in that sister country of ours are not as fast.
So it is very easy to bash ourselves and beat ourselves over the head and complain that nothing has changed- plenty has changed. And most of it in very fundamental ways.
But as grateful as I am for these freedoms, I cannot help but feel this sense of unease that says we might now be experiencing our freedoms in a decreasing rate. When one thinks about the crime levels in this country, it seems to me it is getting worse, not better. I therefore am not as free as I could be to walk wherever, whenever,without worrying that my car window will be bashed in or my cellphone will be snatched from me. Criminals are free! I sit with a sense that we are sitting in a ship that is being tossed around in the storms and the captain and crew are distracted by I don’t know what. I feel that somehow somewhere we lost our compass and we are getting assurances from the captain and crew that things are fine, either because they are not sure we need the compass at all, or that they are in a quiet panic. Either way this is not giving me a strong sense of comfort.
And this is not an invitation to bash the president, as is currently our hobby. I am sure he and his team are doing the best they can. My invitation is for the collective national introspection- “are we where we should be 21 years later? Am I, as part of the WE doing enough to accelerate this movement- in my corner, with what I have at my disposal?” When I read a newspaper article online (I don’t do that a lot these days because all I see is negative reporting, so I have redirected my attention to more positive endevours) my gut wrenches when I start reading the comments that follow that article: when I see the racism and the anger from all sides that is spewed under the guise of freedom of speech and under the cover of anonymity. When the king of the Zulus takes a platform and “asks” the foreigners to pack their bags and go, did he take the freedom of speech too far? How much freedom can the press have before this freedom is against the national agenda? Do I as an individual have a freedom to choose NOT to see a graphic image of a man being killed?
I feel this is the space we should be at in this country, where we are now having engaging conversations about our freedoms in how they accelerate national agenda. And right now I believe many of our freedoms are being exploited by the negative elements in our society with mischievous objectives. The exploitation of the poor, the exploitation of the constitution in policing, the exploitation of our labour laws, etc. As advanced as our constitution is, it also requires a mature society with controls in place, and right now I do not feel we have either the controls or the maturity to handle our freedoms. …and if you are the victim of your freedoms, are you really free?
The one biggest freedom I really wish we could all attain is the Freedom in the mind. I find that many of us are prisoners of our own thinking. Many Africans have gone through a lot of trauma in the 200 odd years of colonialism. Rage and shame have become the ruling emotions of a traumatised nation. And while many of us are still stuck in the position of rage and shame, it will be difficult for us to evolve to pride and abundance. Competition, jealousy, toxicity are the characteristics of the former states of mind; while collective purpose, consideration and service are characteristics we seek to take us to a free-r state of mind. So on this freedom day I encourage each citizen of this country and continent to introspect- acknowledge your anger, acknowledge your shortcomings, so that you can recognize your strengths, your beauty and your difference! You were not made to fit in, but to stand out – and to stand out, you need to share your uniqueness with the nation. Go on…Free yourself – I dare you ….
Happy Freedom Day!
The Museletter 
Leave a comment