Freedom day- again. Wasn’t it Freedom Day just last month? Oh,
wait. No, sorry. That was Human Rights Day.
Same difference, right? All these public holidays are the same anyway.
No school/work. Yay! Party hard the night before, sleep in, hit the malls,
braai and drink with ama-genge, dread school/work then sleep.
I fall in a generation that may or may not know why we even
commemorate this day- funny because we are the generation with the most access
to information. Perhaps that is our downfall- excessive access. But that is a
whole different matter on its own. We’ll explore it on another day. Another
public holiday, perhaps?
This year’s Freedom Day comes on the back of several weeks
of tension and pain born of the xenophobic attacks (aka Afrophobia) in the
country that we have either witnessed or been involved in. We had to bear the
shame of having the world, and more importantly, Africa, see the chickens of
our frustration and dwindling hope come home to roost in a spectacular show of
self-hatred and bitterness.
So I had to reflect on this freedom we are commemorating
annually- what it means to me, and where it begins and ends. The answers to
these questions differ from person to person therefore I won’t impose mine on
you. The one reflection I feel should share is this one: my freedom is
intrinsically tied with yours; and yours with his; his with hers; and hers with
theirs. At no other time has this been better illustrated than in the last
weeks. For as long as one or a group of us isn’t free then we are all not free.
When a Zimbabwean man’s right to make a living was violated in Kwa-Zulu Natal,
it impacted a musician in Gauteng’s same right (think Kelly Khumalo). These people
have never met and might never meet but they are woven together in this South
Africa despite whatever differences you and I believe exist between them.
Then it became clear to me that while my freedom is mine to
enjoy, your freedom is also mine to protect. Our freedoms are not separate, as
a matter of fact; your freedom and my freedom are the same freedom. You and I
have equal responsibility to protect it. So the challenge this Freedom Day,
when you eventually wake up, shop and braai is to be conscious of the privilege
afforded to us, through struggle and bloodshed, to enjoy said freedom and the
duty on each of us to protect each other’s freedom.
“In my people’s quest for true freedom, I pray that we
unmask ourselves from everything that allows us to love because love is true
freedom, and that’s where our freedom is.” Kabomo Vilakazi (Singer/ Emcee/
Poet/ Producer/ Actor/ True Love Man editor)
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