Real, Imaginary or Euphemistic, A Marxist Dialectical Overview
First things first! My misgivings and mixed feelings about the nomenclature Cde or Comrade to address a feudal Lord of aristocratic birth such as Seretse Khama Ian Khama defies Socialist revolutionary thought!
I can imagine Vladimir Lenin, Bukharin, Zenovive and Kharmeneve as well as Trotsky addressing King Niccollas ii when the Communist Party attained power in 1917! The whole aristocratic pedigree was exterminated and others were banished to the cold prisons of Siberia, in Botswana they seat at high table wine and dine with their former detractors! Phew!
I can imagine Earnesto Chenguevara, Raul Castro, Fedel Castro of the September Movement wining and dining at high table in five star hotels and motels of the Carrabian Islands with the former despot and dictator Batista after their fierce battles in the mountains against the Batista regime!
He was rather subjected to public execution together with his generals and retinue.
The pseudo revolution in Botswana driven by greed and percuniary benefits, reeling under the encumbered by dept , hungry to have access to the National treasury by crook or hock offers their former adversary, despot and declared dictator a red carpet within their ranks!
Their subservient, docile and ever loyal rank and file both the educated and their barely educate counterparts shout empty revolutionary slogans on roof tops, shrilling like Crickets during the harmattan, with ear deafening choruses of ” Viva Seretse Khama Ian Khama vivaaaa! Viva Mmadinotshe vivaa! ( Mmadinotshe deriving mainly from his temporary popularity with his servile people and communities at GaaMmagwato, some of whom are defeated communities such as the Karangas, Birwa, Kgalagadi and some San who pay tribute, allegiance and loyalty to their Ngwato overlord).
Kaaya Koruyezu, it’s an abomination, a feudal Lord whose authority and popularity hinges upon patronage and tribal conservatism, devoid of ideological direction cannot earn nomenclatures of a revolutionary nature, “Cde Ian Khama Seretse Khama!” Yrrrrrrr!
Revolution Betrayed, Revolution circumvented. It’s repulsive and nauseating if you understand the revolutionary context of the nomenclature “Cde” not in its ordinary loose, English connotation and context but in its revolutionary socialist context.
Toivo Ja Toivo, Chris Tembelise Hani, Paul Rantao, Maitshwarelo Dabutha, Jackson Kautjiwa the revolutionary Namibian singer, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Robert Sobokwe, Jośe Marti, Kenneth Goabamong Shololo Koma, Maithamako Mapiri, Kecjetswe Mpho, Philip Matante, Eric September who headed the Wankie Campaign with Chris Hani, Thabo Mbeki, Sam Nujoma, Joeslovo of the South African Communist Party, Nelson Mandela, Fedel Castro, Raul Castro, Chenguevara of the September Movement in Cuba, Chairman Mao zedong, Solomon Majuru of ZANLA, the military strategist in the Zimbabwean war of Liberation Magama Tongogara etc would not call e feudal Lord who during his tenure of office regressed the hard earned democratic creditials of his own country!
It is blasphemous a nomenclature for an aristocrat to share such with revolutionary icons I enumerated above. It’s nauseating, mediocrity and hypocritical at best. Revolution Betrayed and Circumvented. My solitary opinions and no Gospel Truth!