Stop Praying for Rain and Fund Irrigation Infrastructure

By: Kandjengo Mkwaanyoka

 

Last month, I visited my home, and every evening my grandmother asked us to pray for rain and behave well so that the ancestors would bless us with a better season.

This has been a normal practice since my childhood. Granny, a firm believer in Kalunga kaNangobe, always looks to the skies, hoping for rain.

However, after attending numerous climate change-related gatherings, I wanted to explain to Granny that prayers and ancestral guidance need a different interpretation in this context.

I wished to tell her to pray for our policymakers to be inspired by the ancestors to channel funds into irrigation infrastructure. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say it, so we prayed for the entire week.

Back in Windhoek, I write this in the hope that someone in a position of influence will read it.