Why can't namibian tribes get along?

The other day, I was surfing the interwebs to pass time, yes I have succumbed to the evil temptation of procrastinating instead of writing. I was switching between my social media applications when an interesting tweet flashed across my time line.

“Why is it that in Namibia, whites (Afrikaners and Europeans) get along better than most tribes (black ethnic groups).”

I laughed, because of the underlying hypocrisy. The individual behind the tweet used to sit at the table of power and now that he has been exiled from the table, he criticizes the government, and the ruling party, institutions that once fed him. Like a pastor denouncing his own church.

My initial response was the Oshiwambo proverb, “Omayoka ihagiili.” Snakes don’t bite each other.

I ditched this answer because, 1) snakes do bite each other, heck, they ingest each other. I once watched an episode on the discovery channel where a snake swallowed another snake whole, 2) it sounds hateful.

So I decided to go with another proverb, “Birds of a feather, flock together.” After all, game recognizes game, evil applauds evil, and even though they’re not actively in the business of colonizing and oppressing countries, they all think the same. So, it’s easy for white people to find common ground. I decided to ditch that approach as well, because it sounds particularly hateful.

So, I settled on another theory, one that is very much unique to the Namibian context. Apartheid, yes, I said it. Apartheid: the racially discriminating system of economic and social oppression that black Namibians had to endure for close to 50 years. Namibia was until 27 years ago a South African colony, they exported Apartheid over the Orange river and made Namibia a de facto province. If Apartheid South Africa was the KFC franchise restaurant, then Namibia was the drive though.

I’m sure you’re thinking, “But, how long are black people going to blame Apartheid for their problems?” Well, until we get the land back, all of our problems will be laid squarely at the previously advantaged door of Apartheid. Let’s ignore the racial segregation and promotion of white supremacy, and the use of the Christian religion to justify an evil act and pass it off as “A policy of good neighborliness,” as Hendrik Verwoerd once so eloquently put it. The genius of Apartheid was in geographically separating the black ethnic groups. Sure, constraining black people to dry patches of dust and economically exploiting them for 5 decades was smart, but making sure that the patches of dust where far apart was the real genius of the system. It’s classical divide and concur, a tactic as old as time but very effective as history has shown. Its 2017 and the majority of black Namibians in rural areas still live in what was demarcated as ethnic homelands.

Black people are naturally jealous of each other, that’s why witchcraft is still a booming business, we all want to succeed but cannot stand seeing others do it. By geographically separating the majority black Namibian population along tribal lines, Apartheid South Africa achieved something that they could not do with brute force. They drew in our minds the lines that would divide us, in some minds those lines still have not been erased. They were able to put up mental borders and fences that still exist today, even though the physical ones are long gone. It got me thinking on a Steve Biko quote, “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

Apartheid has left black Namibians with a simmering dislike for each other, just walk into a retail shop: the black cashier will give a black customer attitude,”Owahala shike?” What do you want? But, when they see a white customer, it’s suddenly, “Menier/Juufrou kan ek vir jou help?” Mr/Madam can I help you? They installed an inferiority complex into us, inferior to them, so we try to overcompensate by making other black people inferior to us. Tribalism may not be a side effect of Apartheid, but it was definitely exacerbated by it.

White Namibians get along with each other and other whites because that is what they were taught, they are the minority so they must protect the future of the herd. Black Namibians don’t get along because that is what we were taught, with the able assistance of a repressive system whose aim it was to keep black Namibians inferior and separated. Think about it. We grew up thinking that certain areas belonged to certain tribes and an individual from another different tribe is a foreigner. God forgive that they even try to marry someone of a different tribe. How absurd is that? A black man, a foreigner in another black man’s home? Hendrik Verwoerd must be laughing in his grave. We think of our tribes before we think of our country. We grew up thinking and the majority of us still think that certain areas belonged to certain tribes and an individual from another different tribe is a foreigner. That is what has sparked the controversy around ancestral land and the rights of certain communities to it, but that’s another topic on its own, that will require its own blog post. 

This is contradictory to our urban work environments, where different cultures and ethnicities blend into a melting pot, it is also contradictory to most urban schools where it’s a rainbow nation of kids trying to navigate the maze that is the Namibian education system. In that maze, no one cares about what tribe you’re from, survival is more important. It’s now wonder that the urban areas lead the transformation in the ethnic integration of Namibian communities, because transformation and education go hand in hand. Tribalism thrives in communities that are a) isolated and b) mostly uneducated. In Urban areas, ethnic segregation has given way to economic segregation, in towns it’s not about tribe, it’s about money and status (but, that is another discussion altogether).

As I tweeted my theory, some tweeps liked, retweeted, and commented. We engaged each other, and then like true millennials we got bored and moved to something else. I think it was Bonang Matheba’s badly written autobiography. We live life in real time, something is only relevant for a moment, then we move on to another hashtag, but perhaps there are some things in the past that are to be recognized and acknowledged if we are ever really going to get along as black Namibians in an independent Namibia. Yes, we are one Namibia, but we are still far from truly being One Nation.