Shakespeare and Botswana Politics in 2014

A Case of Life Imitating Art

Abstract

Shakespeare’s influence cannot be confined by subject, theme, spatial and/or temporal setting. His works transcend disciplines and geographical identity. He is a linguist, a psychiatrist, ecologist and a political, social and economic commentator. Three thousand new words and phrases all first appeared in print in Shakespeare’s plays. Through Shylock’s resolve on three thousand ducats repayment, readers of The Merchant of Venice learn about the dangers of a cash nexus on human relations. The major tragedies and tragicomedies impart knowledge about politics at both national and family levels. Julius Caesar; Macbeth; King Lear; Othello, and Romeo and Juliet each touches on the important aspect of power dynamics in the private and public spheres. This paper considers some of the major political events in the build-up to the 2014 Botswana general elections and compares them to Shakespeare’s political intrigue in Julius Caesar. The paper concludes that there is credibility in Oscar Wilde’s argument in his 1889 essay ‘The Decay of Lying,’ that "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life" (Wilde, 1889, p. 11).