How free are we really after 20 years of ‘freedom’?

THIS week we celebrate 20 years of “freedom” – a marque accomplishment, for sure, but one which has become a rather bellicose and meaningless mantra to be touted and proclaimed at every turn.

We should celebrate, of course. All of us in this country – from the most conservative to the most radical – owe the ANC and its freedom fighters a huge debt of gratitude, for there can be little doubt that our recent history would have looked very different had Nelson Mandela and other leaders of the day not made the choices they did.

But as much as we celebrate the freedom fighters whose multitude sacrifices brought about the end of apartheid, we should also pause also to ask: what freedoms, exactly, are we celebrating? And how free are we really?

A friend recently prompted me to read Frank Ching’s excellent book, China: The Truth About Its

Human Rights Record. It is a short but revealing read about China’s much-maligned human rights record, but he real value of this book from a South African perspective is the many chilling questions it raises about our own so-called freedoms. Like democracy and justice, freedom is best described by alluding to what it is not.

Freedom is not merely the ability or even the opportunity to vote. Nor is it the vigorous and at-times vicious sparring of political opponents vying for votes, important as a multi-party democracy may be.

It is not even merely the absence of persecution, or the existence of a robust Constitution, or institutions and structures governed by the rule of law. Real freedom, it turns out, is not large and abstract at all. It is small and very intimate indeed.

Freedom is being safe in your home, or street, neighbourhood or local beach. It is access to decent healthcare and quality education.

It is a fair and just civil society that rewards merit and achievement, and punishes those who seek to corrupt or distort equitable systems.

It is a work force that promotes fair labour and abhors discrimination. It is gender equity in action, where women are protected and respected, from the biggest corporation to the smallest village.

It is a society which embraces diversity, in all its forms, and respects individual choice, even if it is at odds with established moral or religious dogmas.

For Freedom Day to mean something more than yet another paid holiday, we need to re-assess what it really means.

Real freedom cowers somewhere in your home, behind your burglar bars and alarm systems. It is hidden in undelivered textbooks and trampled in dingy, overcrowded mud schools. It lies crushed under mountains of expired drugs in dusty warehouses.

Real freedom is not an X next to a familiar face.