Knowing Namibia?

JUST a short but serious note on the NBC’s ‘Know Namibia’ series.

I can’t remember ever watching this programme and not feeling annoyed.
On Monday, 17 September 2012, they aired a very offending broadcast. In this broadcast, a family of San people were wrongly introduced as Hai-//om people to start with.
However, what was worse is when they started calling this family Ovakwanghala! For those who may not know, Ovakwanghala or simply Kwankala/kwankara is a derogatory word used towards the Damaran, Naman, Hai-//oman and San people collectively.
This is not the first time that this programme has shown utter disrespect for the groups I have mentioned. For the most part, whenever they feature these groups, they either corrupt their names by mispronunciation or they misinterpret the message being given.
It remains to be seen what the NBC management and the line minister, Joel Kaapanda, will do about a programme that claims to inform and educate. For those Namibians who think that ‘One Namibia One Nation’ is still a goal revered in today’s Namibia, look no further than the NBC and face the truth. Their news broadcasts and magazine programmes offer the best possible medium for us as Namibians to watch ourselves and do so critically.

Dantago Eigowab
By email

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