Rampholo Molefhe
11 April 2008
Gaborone — There should be heightened vigilance on the part of the constituency among the Batswana which seeks to uphold the ideal on which the country's democracy was founded following the deliberate and calculated incursion of soldiers into civilian politics.
There has been adequate warning that a drift towards entrenchment of the military and royalty upon the arena of democratic governance, which must, by definition, be led by civil society, spells danger for the very future of the foundations of that system of government.
It is noteworthy, as might have been noted in other contributions by this writer, that the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), under no real threat to its hegemony over parliamentary domination, opted, perhaps in panic, canvassed the support of the soldiers and the kings in order to keep political supremacy.
The practice was subtle in the early years under first President Seretse Khama becoming abrasively pervasive in the mid 1990s.
In every instance when that has happened it spelt disaster for democracy. The examples of Emperor Hirohito of Japan and that of Chief Leabua Jonathan nearer home (in Lesotho), should offer a glimpse of things to come.
'Bogosi' is not decided on the basis of competence, but rather, on the basis of descent, usually through the father. Generally, the institution is inherently sexist and undemocratic.
Leadership of armies in Africa is associated largely with the desire of the earliest post independence rulers to protect their regimes against civil rebellion, by placing one of the president's blood at the helm of the army, or somewhere comfortably near the top.
That was the case in Zambia under Kenneth David Kaunda, as it was in Seretse Khama's Botswana. In every other situation, a youth brigade of one sort or the other was put in place, with cousins and relatives of the ruler in the leadership, to ensure enforcement of acceptance of the ruler of the day, especially where there were signs of a thriving opposition.
In addition, there would be a vigorous women's brigade that would sing songs, ululate after the words of the praise poets, feed the dignitaries and assure them of the necessary comforts at celebrations of the leader of the day. This was good custom in Malawi, Zaire and all the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa, which created the likes of General Bantu Holomisa and Lucas Mangope.
The military and 'bogosi' will be the most conservative of institutions that hold back the forward march of democracy as it is designed by modern civilisation. Needless to say, the third of the institutions, which exhibits many, if not most, of the characteristics of the army and bogosi, is the church.
The leaders that combine soldiering with political leadership invariably seek the blessing of a god of one sort or the other.
So, there shall be obedience to God, respect for the chief and allegiance to the leader of the republic.
The three legs of conservatism stampede the rural constituencies where the church and the chiefs will prey upon the superstitions of the ill informed communities to foster deference to the 'tautona' who shall reside in a far off capital not easily accessible to the average citizens of the republic. The population will be kept busy with prayer and bickering over matters of bogosi such that they will only have reverence for the 'Big Lion' when he should decide to visit.
There shall be stupendous celebration and slaughtering of the last of the beasts that the ordinary tribes people will be compelled to donate to the 'big chief's' festivals, organised under the guard of the police forces and the parliamentary and council representatives.
In what the Zambians would have called 'the third republic', that of President Festus Mogae, really a man of the modern age of borderless capitalism - more appropriately named 'imperialism' by the earliest political scientists of the socialist ilk - the role of 'tautoana' would be thrust upon his vice president, himself a warrior even if he never fought a war, King and politician of the feudal type.
Little attention would be given to the fact that the history of democracy from Greek society to contemporary times, is the story of how the democratic state worked to rid itself of royalty, the army and the church in day to day matters of governance.
Over centuries, democracy found a way to subject soldiering to civilian authority, and to free governance from priestly intervention and interference from kings and queens.
That is precisely because each one of those institutions - at their most perilous when they act together - detracts from the necessity and right of the greater population which works to pay tax and finance the state to play a role in political decision making.
Where royalty is allowed to play a part in contemporary society, it is with the purpose of enriching national pride, tradition and the social rituals that keep the collective psychology of the people focused on the greater social purpose of development.
Freedom of worship is made accessible to every member of society so that there should not be wars arising from parochial allegiances to one God or the other, but more importantly, because matters of the conscience do not easily translate into practical instruments of governance.
The conservative leaders of Botswana society, particularly the type that attended the missionary schools, make the brave claim that the African societies that they lead are 'Christian' societies, mainly seeking to disown their own African forms of worship.
The most popular denominations now attempt to fit their traditional religions into the gospel of the Christian bibles resulting in cacophonious noise at the places of worship, and rampant looting and fraud by the church leadership, mostly West Africans.
The 'spiritual churches' in ways as varied as their numbers also, conform to, and help to preserve the institutions that foster deference to authority, God and tautona, against the democratic principle that seeks to expand popular participation in every facet of governance as an unconditional right of all good citizens.
The Americans revere war heroes, the most notable being General Ike Eisenhower, who directed the US army through World War II. The Americans believe him when he says he joined the army 'in order to protect democracy' because he did that out on the battle field. He did not crawl into army fatigues that were already decorated with a general's stars. And after the American generals earned their stars, they were exposed to the rigours of the democratic process, the party primaries followed by the campaigns for election to the presidency or congress. There, they submit to civilian scrutiny of both their performance in the army and their potential to lead a country.
That system is qualitatively distinct from the one practised in Botswana where constitutional manipulation, tantamount to the highest political mischief, deliberately denies the civilian population the right to decide on the discipline and competence of the people who want to be president.
Far more importantly, a good argument can be made that the three pillars of conservatism - church, army and royalty - tend to arrest growth of the productive forces of society, even those of capitalism.
The Nazi generals and soldiers who served under Hitler will all claim that they took the whole world to a devastating war because of the compelling need for professional deference to the commander of the armed forces. "We were following orders," they all say. World War II and the other imperialist wars - there is one going on in Iraq - all destroyed the economic gains that were made over centuries, for the sake of a religious fanaticism based on racial purity, and a system of governance based on usurpation by the army of the sovereignty of free citizens to choose their leaders and mode of governance.
The same can be said of apartheid under General Smuts and the others who practised exclusion of the black population from the mainstream of development of the South African economy. In both these instances, there was something of a symbiotic convergence of the military, church and manipulation of royalty, which all conspired against economic development. As previously alluded to, the African kings were used not just to lead the apartheid instruments of Bantustans, but even in the neighbouring labour reserves such as the Bechuanaland Protectorate, the kings were employed to follow the 'homelands system' of South Africa.
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