Who benefits from the festive season?

As small-scale farmers in Kongola, the care of goats was integrated into our sociocultural orientation as part of our subsistence farming.

Hardly a boy in our village has not experienced this while growing up.

But it was not until recently that I realised how modernity has changed our agricultural practices. The introduction of schools meant that goats would have to wait for children to come from school.

This means goats remain locked up until after 13:00.

Very few of us have bothered to ask why we accept that the goats only graze after 13:00.

That there are places where goats graze from 08:00 to 18:00 was probably an expensive and remote perspective. We became our practices, and so did our agriculture.

In a few weeks, our modern settings will start slowing down in preparation for the holiday season.

Villages will be filled with the children returning from faraway workplaces with new clothes, new cars and the money they have accumulated.

This is the only time, generally, they are allowed to come home for an extended period of time. Like the goats released for grazing at 13:00, they will run in different directions, getting ready to enjoy the grass (festivities), which they were denied access to in the morning (11 months of work).

Like the kids (baby goats) that jubilantly jump at the sight of a mother returning from grazing because they know milk is guaranteed, the villagers will be delighted to see the returning members who were away for 11 months.

After a few weeks, the visiting villagers will return, and the cycle will be repeated.

Having spent all their money, seduced by the opium-characterising festivities, little money, if any, is left in their wallets when they return to their workplaces.

Owners of cash loan businesses are aware of this pitfall. February is the month when they register high profit levels.

The businesses are not alone in their awareness and planning for these pitfalls.

Alcohol manufacturers are the most prepared for these festivities. In fact, festive seasons are described, in production terms, as peak seasons. More alcohol will be sold and consumed during this period than any other time.

The recitation of Bible verses and songs about the birth of Jesus Christ has little to no success when compared to the strategies and tactics employed by brilliant minds in the alcohol manufacturing industry, ensuring that more people get drunk as a way to generate profits during this wonderful time.

Indeed, it may actually be that the logistical managers of alcohol manufacturers thank Jesus Christ as they see trucks departing their factories to various destinations. Take this region, Zambezi, for illustrative purposes.

We consume more beer than any other region in the country. The only thing we have not done is look at the figures to determine the amount of beer per capita. In Africa, Namibia is ranked among the highest beer consumers – as well as globally.

While the takeover of Namibia Breweries Limited by Heineken has been presented as a result of the ingenuity of Namibia Breweries Limited, what is often forgotten is that we have one of the most consistent and ever-growing beer-consuming populations.

It is thus without a doubt that alcohol manufacturers benefit most during the festive season. If they are to hold a prayer and thanksgiving session on the first day of work in January to thank the Lord Jesus Christ, it should not surprise anyone.

South African retail giants such as Shoprite, Spar, Checkers and others will also benefit handsomely from the festivities.

It is amazing how the field of marketing has managed to turn the religious season into a successful profit-making period.

Just imagine how successfully the idea that you need to have two different types of rice choices, one of which is only differentiated by yellow additives, was introduced.

Christmas, for example, means new clothes rather than Bible verses for most children. So, foreign retailers are another major beneficiary of the festive season.

Why must villagers suffer for 11 months just to be oversupplied with food and other goods in the two weeks of December?

Why can’t this be replicated every month? It is probably the same question we must ask about our goats, who only graze after 13:00.

It is the same mindset, as propagated by the Christian dogma, that blacks must not worry about poverty and suffering on earth because they will enjoy themselves in heaven, where there is a lot of milk and honey.

Although it is a tall order to reverse mental slavery, we must never give up on offering ideas that may and can change our society. This includes asking the very question asked in this column today.

* Muthoni waKongola is a native of Kongola in the Zambezi Region primarily concerned with analysing society and offering ideas for a better Namibia. She is reachable at [email protected] or @wakongola on Twitter / X.