By Mwinji Nakamba
There is a time and place for everything. In the morning, as a child, I would wake up, get dressed, putting on my shoes excitedly, eating my breakfast distracted by TV-and I would get in the car, ready for school.
At night, I would put away my toys, dress in my pyjamas, and examine the day that has passed (and sometimes the day ahead), reaching out to the Creator to make it better. Yes even as a child, especially as a child.
I used this image of a child intentionally because children’s lives are so innocent and can tell us often, like children whether something is right or wrong as we grow more distracted with pressures of adulthood-money, rent, marriage, in-laws, deep friendships, and children, I find in my nieces and nephews, just by observing.
Where is the place in a child’s life for Bill 10. Is it when they are so confused by all the fighting and confusion that they cease to play, and the things they once enjoyed are no longer there?
It is not a little law, for children it is a big law. Many children suffer but just imagine where a law like this would fit into a child’s life, if it mentions the welfare of children at all, or if it only mentions the interests of power, of adults, and not the ones that will make a child’s day-a child’s day-learning, play, work. Yes children suffer in Zambia already-and you do not need to be an NGO, or have family who are suffering to know that, you must just look onto the street and see a child. Our Children are strong, they play through hunger, and darkness, but our children do suffer.
Where is a place for Bill 10 in the day, in life, in the joy, in the peace of a younger generation?
For me this year, stuck in doors in Cape Town just before I could return to Zambia, it has been a time to reflect, think of, and raise up, the words-the sacred scriptures, literature, jokes between friends- and laws that bring us together, with the most important words and laws being love no matter our faith.
Like children, because the day (year) is almost over and we can take stock, over bill 10, how our day has been, what we could do better and what will have a place in our lives tomorrow, or as it were next year.
Mwinji Nakamba Siame is a Catechumen (the word for a person being instructed on Catholicism before being received into the faith), writer and a model.
