We are in a festive mood. Soon we will be parading down the road to mark 50 years of independence. We will be proclaiming our achievements here and abroad. We will be telling the whole world, with swelling pride, of our big walk to freedom's broad plain without shedding a drop of blood.

We can all be justifiably delighted with the many successes recorded along the path to a united nation with unique characteristics. Countries that had to take up arms to win freedom will surely heap praise on our home-made recipe to peace and harmony. We can hold our head high when we march, waving the banners with the message that the tools of violence need not necessarily accompany the birth of a nation.

But let's pause. What are we really celebrating? Hasn't our country been in existence since time immemorial? Why should the mere fact of colonisation be the starting point of our 'enslavement' and eventual liberation? Colonisation is a figment of the imagination made real only by the sheer power of force. We had all along been a free people and those who came ashore to take away our freedom were mere passengers on the way to oblivion.

True, there's no denying the historical fact that our country had been subjugated by various colonial masters. The last imperial visitor had a very large appetite to the extent that he had carved an empire stretching far and wide. Throughout this regal reign, we had been made to feel that indeed we were inferior with no free will to chart our own destiny. By sheer physical force, the superior power had made us, and other subjected nations, accept the fact that only they could set us free.

But our country is as old as the mother of parliament. Freedom had been coursing in our veins throughout our historical existence. We are not 50 years old but as old as Mother Earth - the land was here well before the white men set their big dirty foot on our pristine shore.

Let's get rid of the archaic idea that independence is inextricably linked to a colonial past. Each time we hoist our flag and lower the Union Jack, we are only reliving a worn-out story and whistling a tired, old tune. History has imposed on us the belief that we owed our freedom to an outside power. For years, we have been faithfully playing by the script - there was a master race who ruled us and we the submissive subjects who finally broke the chain in a peaceful manner.

It's time we erased this play from our history. We cannot go on harping on a past that is no longer relevant to a rapidly globalising world. While we acknowledge the role played by our freedom fighters, we must move on to other more meaningful themes of human endeavour.

Independence cannot only mean breaking the chains of colonialism. Independence cannot always be about a long ago story of courage and sacrifices. Independence cannot merely be a reason to sing and dance every year to the beat of an old record.

Independence, in today's context, is surely a grander story about where the country is moving to. We should not celebrate an irrelevant past but shout with joy of the present changes that have shaped this country into something dynamic, vigorous, exciting.