DURING my recent visit to Namibia, I made it a point to visit the much hyped and talked-about ‘Herero Mall’ in Katutura, which is not far from where I grew up.
My sincere apologies for putting it so coarsely, but I could not have a different view of the place other than a Hobbesian perspective of the youth in Namibia, in particular the role they have to play in our developmental process (that is if they have to). Herero Mall would burden any critical Namibian with a sense of hopelessness because it epitomises what is sociologically wrong with the youth in this country.Perhaps it is a display of the failure of Government and society at large in crafting a different future for the youth in this country.On that score, we could argue academically the Herero Mall is a form of an alternative protest movement and not necessarily a ‘Booze Mall’.Admittedly, Herero Mall is a social, and possibly a creative hub, with the sounds of Kakazona and occasionally The Dogg or Stanley ‘Ou Stakes’.But it is nothing like cosmopolitan Roppongi, the social and entertainment area in Tokyo, which features numerous bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and other forms of entertainment including movie theatres and cabarets.It is not the kind of place that is helping to shape a new Namibian identity.And I so wish that it was a place that could shape a sense of “ethical cosmopolitanism”, to borrow a term from Kwame Anthony Appiah’s ‘Ethics of Identity’.It won’t.Herero Mall is in that sense a symptom of our failure 17 years after Independence, notably our half-hearted attempts at nation-building and innovative city planning.That the youth of this country have to resort to a place without proper sanitation for entertainment is absurd.Therefore, looking at the Herero Mall outside the framework of national and local Government initiatives or lack thereof is an intellectually dishonest exercise.The Herero Mall aside, Namibia’s youth provide interesting contrasts in the way they craft a future for themselves and the country.On the cultural and art scene, there seems to be a lot of creative talent coming up.We now have a dynamic musical scene and I am proud of my most recent CD acquisitions in the form of Stanley ‘Ou Stakes’ and The Dogg.It is through our embrace of that musical diversity that we can truly call ourselves ethical Namibians.I am not sure if the Herero Mall does justice to our efforts at becoming those ethical Namibians.The Herero Mall is not only a sociological problem but does on the whole show that the Namibian youth is growing up in conditions of mass unemployment and that they face exclusion due to a lack of education and skills.It also shows that the youth are marginalised in national state policies and have a weak legal position.Whilst being young in New York or Paris represents future opportunities, the Herero Mall poignantly tell us that it is a liability to be young in Africa and Namibia in particular.Being young on the African continent is widely and consistently perceived as problematic in essence.Largely, it is for this reason that African youths are over-represented in armed rebel or insurgent movements of various kinds as well as in criminal activities, into which they are so easily recruited.Therefore, the Herero Mall is in sharp contradiction to those of us who grew up in relatively well-integrated societies irrespective of their equally highly segregated nature.When President Hifikepunye Pohamba abhorred the lack of respect for elders, he missed an important socio-economic component in his cultural analysis on the state of the youth.A youth that is so dispossessed and hopeless is unlikely to have respect for the societies in which they live if these societies deny them opportunities to live dignified lives.For a youth that grows up knowing Herero Mall as a place where they can “chill”, it is evident that only faint traces of social order and cultural integrity still exist in our society.It is for this reason that the City of Windhoek must tear down the Herero Mall and provide those who frequent the place the dignity they deserve in the form of proper entertainment facilities.* Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in political science at the University of Paris-Panthéon Sorbonne, France.He is currently on a UN research internship at the UN Headquarters in New York.Herero Mall would burden any critical Namibian with a sense of hopelessness because it epitomises what is sociologically wrong with the youth in this country.Perhaps it is a display of the failure of Government and society at large in crafting a different future for the youth in this country.On that score, we could argue academically the Herero Mall is a form of an alternative protest movement and not necessarily a ‘Booze Mall’.Admittedly, Herero Mall is a social, and possibly a creative hub, with the sounds of Kakazona and occasionally The Dogg or Stanley ‘Ou Stakes’.But it is nothing like cosmopolitan Roppongi, the social and entertainment area in Tokyo, which features numerous bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and other forms of entertainment including movie theatres and cabarets.It is not the kind of place that is helping to shape a new Namibian identity.And I so wish that it was a place that could shape a sense of “ethical cosmopolitanism”, to borrow a term from Kwame Anthony Appiah’s ‘Ethics of Identity’.It won’t.Herero Mall is in that sense a symptom of our failure 17 years after Independence, notably our half-hearted attempts at nation-building and innovative city planning.That the youth of this country have to resort to a place without proper sanitation for entertainment is absurd.Therefore, looking at the Herero Mall outside the framework of national and local Government initiatives or lack thereof is an intellectually dishonest exercise.The Herero Mall aside, Namibia’s youth provide interesting contrasts in the way they craft a future for themselves and the country.On the cultural and art scene, there seems to be a lot of creative talent coming up.We now have a dynamic musical scene and I am proud of my most recent CD acquisitions in the form of Stanley ‘Ou Stakes’ and The Dogg.It is through our embrace of that musical diversity that we can truly call ourselves ethical Namibians.I am not sure if the Herero Mall does justice to our efforts at becoming those ethical Namibians.The Herero Mall is not only a sociological problem but does on the whole show that the Namibian youth is growing up in conditions of mass unemployment and that they face exclusion due to a lack of education and skills.It also shows that the youth are marginalised in national state policies and have a weak legal position.Whilst being young in New York or Paris represents future opportunities, the Herero Mall poignantly tell us that it is a liability to be young in Africa and Namibia in particular.Being young on the African continent is widely and consistently perceived as problematic in essence.Largely, it is for this reason that African youths are over-represented in armed rebel or insurgent movements of various kinds as well as in criminal activities, into which they are so easily recruited.Therefore, the Herero Mall is in sharp contradiction to those of us who grew up in relatively well-integrated societies irrespective of their equally highly segregated nature.When President Hifikepunye Pohamba abhorred the lack of respect for elders, he missed an important socio-economic component in his cultural analysis on the state of the youth.A youth that is so dispossessed and hopeless is unlikely to have respect for the societies in which they live if these societies deny them opportunities to live dignified lives.For a youth that grows up knowing Herero Mall as a place where they can “chill”, it is evident that only faint traces of social order and cultural integrity still exist in our society.It is for this reason that the City of Windhoek must tear down the Herero Mall and provide those who frequent the place the dignity they deserve in the form of proper entertainment facilities. * Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in political science at the University of Paris-Panthéon Sorbonne, France.He is currently on a UN research internship at the UN Headquarters in New York.
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