Colonisation in the 21st century

                                                                      

We have always (Eswatini) deemed ourselves as a country that is independent and every year on the 6^th of September we as a nation celebrate the independence. As always we link this to the day in which the country was set free from colonial rule, and as a nation we adopted / had the constitution of Eswatini come into effect years back on this day (I will choose to ignore the nitty gritty's  of the repeal etc) . I pose this question; are we really independent?

Independence is a concept of being liberated from a certain type of leadership; a leadership that is foreign, does not really have its mandate set on promoting every individuals livelihoods and rights in a communal setting etc. As opined by Kosovo in 2015, independence is the state of self-governance by a body or group nation, country etc. The idea or theme surrounding independence is that of bringing about an essence of equality and promotion of ideal values which benefit everyone and everyone believes in.

Eswatini

As a nation we continue to say we are independent because we have a ruler who is ‘our’ kind a ‘Swati’ and that we as Swati’s are managing our nation (well I believe so). None the less, each country has a constitution which is meant to depict the beliefs of the society and this document is essentially written to protect the people and it is for the people. Our constitution I must say still has an element of foreign rule as it has laws inherited from colonisation. The reason I say this is because some laws are of colonisation origin and yet we somehow continue to uphold them. We have indoctrinated them and embedded them in our society and in such a way, gone astray from our values as a society of ethnic origin. The common law, under the sodomy act criminalises consensual same-sex relations between two consenting males. This piece of legislation was adopted from the Dutch common Law. It is not of ethnic origin and therefore brings about the question; are we really liberated or independent?

Ethnic values

The mere notion that we are Swati means that we value our culture and we ‘hope’ that it will protect everyone. We are a country that upholds love, peace and respect for each-other. We hold ourselves true to this, we acknowledge ‘ubuntu’ as a principle. LGBTIQA+ identities have always existed in our country, mind you in the context of transgender identifying individuals, we have always been revered. We have been called two-spirited individuals, mediums etc among other things (at some point in time). The connotation that we have never existed is entirely absurd. It is comes as a shock then when our government officials dismiss our existence in society and claim that our existence is not valid.

Colonised

To me it sounds like we are still colonised, but in a modern way. We are now colonising each-other. Mind you, colonising is defined as a process or action of settling among or establishing control over indigenous people. To me it is simply like we took the gun from the oppressors and then we are literally oppressing our own kind. The law is simply segregating its people, causing a division over sexual orientation and yet as a nation we should be united.

Change

The dawn of change is upon us and as such we should embrace it. Let equality for all, simply encompass all regardless of the social stratification that exists; gender, race, sexual orientation etc. We need to seriously ponder on this, do we want to colonise each-other or essentially liberate everyone?