Why this ignominy

It has been knocked into my head that the future lies with our children. Therefore, as a young boy growing up in the rural areas, I always wished to see and live that future.

They told me that I was a future leader hence every time I said goodbye to yesterday and waited for today to pass as well, invariably I did so with much enthusiasm and anticipation coupled with confidence that tomorrow was where I belonged.

That is why as children we always looked forward to the future with broad smiles on our faces for we knew it belonged to us more than anyone else. To us, everything that happened in the future was a fact and that is why we always said ‘when I grow up I am going to buy a car.’

It was never a wish but a fact that when I am an adult I would be having all that I dreamt of. Now that I am an adult, I look back with pride and fulfillment that my parents and the society that I lived in allowed me to dream no matter how stupid the dream was. My parents and the society that raised me up knew dreams make us big while the future makes us want to live. Even nations dream and want to live because they know there is a future. As Batswana we came up with Vision 2016 because of the future that has been promised to us.

Not only is it philosophical but it is also a given that we are all born disabled and we need the “Other” to open the world to us. Imagine a child were to be born and thrown into the world without anyone to look after it!

Simply put, we are all born disabled hence we need the “Other” to be able to survive, dream and project ourselves as individuals in a world that we are, accidentally or otherwise, thrown in.

However, if this world seemingly rejects us and there is no “Other” to help us wade through the challenges we face as we try to make sense of everything, ours will be a doomed life. In other words the future that we always dream of, and the future that makes us want to live, will become just a mirage.

I am saying all this because in this issue we feature a young girl who is still dreaming about a future that for close to 20 years has, unfortunately, turned out to be nightmare after nightmare. When the world seemed to reject her when it took away her immediate “Other”, parents, she expected her relatives and society to fill that gap.

But lo and be behold! Tidimalo as we decided to call her, has been an object of progressive traumatisation because she has been rejected, physically and sexually abused and raped while pregnant.

Ultimately some people treated her as an outcast and taunted her because they considered her dirty. Like any other child, she had dreams and for close to 20 years she looked forward to tomorrow, but will she ever see that tomorrow she desires for?

I mean a tomorrow that is free of all prejudices, stereotyping and trauma! She is still waiting but thanks to Cathy who took her in. There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Cathy is truly living the Vision 2016 pillar that says ‘a compassionate, just and caring nation.’

Notwithstanding and since this month men will be celebrating Father’s Day, this is the time for introspection and to ask ourselves why this ignominy? Cathy and other mothers did their part last month when they celebrated Mother’s Day. It is now our turn!

Thomas Nkhoma (Print)