Come let us amend the National Anthem

The words we use everyday end up defining our realities. Although a very small organ in the body, the tongue is the most powerful. It has the ability to build and to destroy. And it does both through the words that spew out of our mouths. That is why it is important to exercise vigilance and restraint whenever we have to speak. We must learn to listen more and talk less, because being a motor-mouth can lend one in deep trouble. One English writer once acclaimed that there is a loquacity that says nothing and a silence that says more! So, where am I going with this supposed banter? I am this week making an appeal to all and sundry that we form a movement to Amend the National Anthem. It is my considered opinion that if well-constructed, the National Anthem can become a unifying factor. Make no mistake about it, I don’t fault the legendary musical genius of Kgalemang Tumediso Motsetse; I am merely saying my bit. In Setswana idiom we say, ‘Mmua lebe o bua la gagwe gore monalentle a le tswe’. This is the basis and foundational stone upon which our democracy is built. We say ‘Ntwakgolo ke ya molomo’ or that the most decisive battles are fought through debating and not warring. This is very important for what I propose hereunder. Before you unleash your pointed arrows at me, kindly take a moment to reflect. Think of our Botswana before Independence.Do you remember there was absolutely nothing of the infrastructure developments and the roads; electricity and water networks we boast of today? Men and women tilled the land. In fact agriculture – both arable and livestock farming – was the cornerstone of our economy, the single highest contributor at the time to our gross domestic product. Men defended their families valiantly; they fought the bitter wars against marauding armies of conquest, losing arm and leg in the process of safeguarding their children, women, livestock and property. And when contemporary political activity, as we know it today, finally reached our arid shores, it was once again the men who led the campaign for self-rule. It was after his sojourn to Kwame Nkrumah’s pan Africanist Ghana, where he heard that inspirational ‘God bless our homeland, Ghana’ by Philip Gbeho – that Motsete was fired to compose our National Anthem, ‘Fatshe leno la rona”. But in the course of time, I am afraid the second stanza, which also serves as the refrain, has lost its purpose, especially if interpreted in its literal meaning. It implies that men are sleeping and ought to wake up. Although the English translation says, ‘Awake, awake, O men, awake! And women close beside them stand’, the implied meaning is not lost to an impeccable observer, that men are sleeping and ought to wake up! The Tswana version is ruthlessly blunt. It says, “Tsogang, tsogang banna,,tsogang! Emang basadi, emang!’ It is from these lyrics that the local women’s liberation movement derived its name – ‘Emang Basadi’. Whilst, there is every good in women fighting for equal rights and justice, which are their inalienable rights – I feel constrained by a national anthem which tends to be gendered. This nation is made up by parents and children. And if you pay careful attention to those lyrics,, you may find that by removing the letter ‘N’ in banna (men) you have ‘bana’ (Children) and by inserting the letter ‘T’ in basadi (women) you get ‘Batsadi’ (Parents)! And there you have it, Children are implored to awake and stand beside their Parents to work together in service to their land. I am convinced that this is what KTM had in mind, after going through the original version of Ghana's national anthem before Michael Kwame Gbordzoe’s changes were effected sometime in 1970 following Nkrumah’s coup. In our case, we don’t need any change of government to make the changes. We only need the will. It is said that where there is a will there is a way. I am convinced that should we go this route we may even carve for ourselves an overarching economic model that recognises males and females – parents and children – as our baseline and not the current warped system in which males (men) are being marginalised in the name of youth and women empowerment! Similarly, I wish to propose a change of name to our National Football Team from ‘Zebras’ to something more aggressive, strong and enduring – whether animal, bird, snake, tree or landscape! Perhaps we can settle for ‘Tshukudu’ or ‘Ntsu’ or ‘Phika’ or ‘Mowana’ or ‘Tsodilo!’ anything but the Zebras which seem to be easy pickings in a game where laws of the jungle reign supreme.