More than Just a Town of Drinking Calves

EENHANA is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the country’s northern neighbour, Angola, and for several years now it has been one of Namibia’s fastest growing urban centres. Yet the town is not well-known beyond Namibia.

Unsurprising, as Eenhana is not situated close to major attractions or on any of the main routes travelled by the tens of thousands of tourists visiting Namibia annually. So Eenhana and the geographical region remain off the radar of tour operators.

Serviced by a good road network actually makes it easy to reach Eenhana from the west, east and south.

The administrative capital of Ohangwena region, Eenhana was the site selected as a mission station by the Finnish Missionary Society that included a hospital to serve the local population.

Ohangwena, one of Namibia’s 14 administrative regions had a population of 245 100 according to the national census in 2011, about 14% of the country’s population at that time.

This, like Eenhana’s population has grown significantly by now, considering the country’s annual population growth and the urban migration, as people move to Namibia’s larger towns from villages and settlements in rural areas, in search of jobs.

With more effort on the part of tourism marketers this could and indeed should change, as the town and its surrounding sub-tropical forests and villages have much to offer that will attract foreigners eager to learn more about Namibia’s rich ethnic and cultural diversity. They will also see first-hand how the majority of the country’s people live, work and go about their daily life.

Also for those tourists with an interest in military history, as Eenhana was used as a strategic military base by the 54 battalion of the then South African Defence Force (SADF) during Namibia’s liberation struggle. The Eenhana memorial shrine is situated on the western side of the town, created to commemorate the many lives, mostly of young men and women, lost in the Namibian war of independence.

It was not far from Eenhana that the SADF soldier, Johan van der Mescht was captured on an evening in 1978 close to a waterhole at their camp, by Danger Ashipala and other soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan).

Van der Mescht was held as a prisoner of war (POW) in Angola before being exchanged during the Cold War for a Russian spy, Aleksei Koslov, at the infamous Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin in 1982. For those who don’t have a keen interest in contemporary history, the Cold War is that period between 1946 and 1991 when the United States, the Soviet Union, and their allies were locked in a long, tense conflict.

Proclaimed as a town in 1999, the name Eenhana means calves, derived from the calves that came to drink water at the spot where the town is now situated.

A friend, Nathanael Nuulimba, who hails from Namibia’s north and is knowledgeable on the rich history and culture of that part of the country, tells me the name rightfully is Eenhana daHelia, meaning the place where Helia’s calves are watered, obviously shortened to Eenhana for practical purposes.

You must be wondering if I am now doing the tourist-thing.

No, I continue indulging in my passion, which is working in the enterprise and entrepreneurial development space.

An exciting programme has brought me to Eenhana, which is to help, albeit in a modest manner, public sector officials hone their skills. Participants on the programme are drawn from local, regional and central government, charged with supporting emerging and established entrepreneurs in the Ohangwena region, to start or grow business.

* Reach Danny Meyer at danny@smecompete.com

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