Elections Reveal Worst-Case Scenario About Tribalism And Race

FIFTEEN political parties will contest the forthcoming Presidential and National Assembly elections. Of these fifteen, the overwhelming majority of them can’t claim to have a constituency that is broadly a reflection of the diversity of our Republic.

In essence the language used by many of these parties shows that most of them are rooted in tribal grievances and responses to what is perceived to be a culture of exclusion on the part of the ruling party, Swapo. Whether these grievances are real or imagined is a matter for intense debate.Similarly, whether these are the appropriate responses to what is perceived to be a national problem is also a matter of rigorous debate. I certainly don’t think that this is a sufficient response.Be that as it may, what is evident is that our fourth presidential and National Assembly elections reveal in a manner that is unprecedented the deep fault lines of the politics of ethnicity and race.An all-encompassing question comes to mind: Why are our politics so tribally and racially polarised almost two decades after Independence? Can we further the republican ideals as they are articulated in the Constitution? I don’t believe we can. In that instance, much of the blame will have to be put squarely on the doorstep of Government, in particular the ruling party. After all, while the ruling party itself has fared well as a broad church of various ethnic groups, it has failed dismally in race relations.Unlike the ANC in South Africa, how did Swapo fail at its last congress to have whites in its Politburo and worse, the Central Committee?In fact, South Africa provides interesting transformative lessons about how to deal with both race and ethnicity as political problems. Should a governing party like Swapo go as far as to rent a white Afrikaner male through the Youth League in order to appeal or to show that it is representative of the Namibian people?Ordinary citizens are equally guilty of having taken refuge in the politics of the tribal political party.What this catastrophic situation reveals, which in so many ways reaches a dangerous tipping point with the forthcoming elections, is that the policy of national reconciliation has been a total failure.It is not only a failure in terms of the politics of the natives themselves, but the overall picture with regard to race relations is equally alarming.If it had any meaning and substance, we would not be sitting with political parties whose primary impulses are tribal constituencies and in some cases, parties that seek to articulate, ‘white issues’.The Monitor Action Group (MAG) and the Republican Party come to mind as parties articulating themselves primarily on the basis and preservation of whiteness.There is a possible panacea to the rise of ethnically oriented political parties. What we lack in Namibia is a broader process of social engagement on the most burning issues.The rise of ethnic parties and continued existence of racial entrepreneurs are not singular, but they are part of a plethora of issues that we are afraid to discuss openly.We are not courageous enough to deal and engage with issues that threaten the survival of the republic.Of course, the current electoral environment will not allow for a debate about this issue.However, as a political problem, the rise of ethnic and racial political parties ought to be one of the key priorities and challenges of the next government. A process of national dialogue ought to be initiated and interventions ought to be devised in order curb this phenomenon.As a case in point, government can start with promoting a culture in which we keep traditional leaders and authorities outside party-political activities.It is not logical in a Republic that the Chief of the Ovaherero people is the President of a political party, whose constituency is largely tribal.Can we logically expect the Chief of an ethnic group to appeal to a national constituency? Certainly not! The troubling question is why we allow an anti-republican culture where the overwhelming majority of the political parties contesting elections are primarily rooted in ethnicity and race. * Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in political science at the University of Paris- Panthéon Sorbonne, France.