Oshikango, a lifeline for Angolans

OSHIKANGO – The other side of the fence looks no different from this, but in some respects it is a world away.

Namibian Daniel Shindini, who runs a supermarket a stone’s throw from this border post, has never ventured beyond the blue and white sign reading ‘Bem Vindo Em Angola’. Yet 80 per cent of the customers at his ‘Safe Way’ supermarket are Angolans who cross the border to do their shopping in spite of the punitive rates customs officials charge them on the way home.A few years ago at the height of apartheid South Africa’s war against the Marxist Angolan government and its Namibian pro-independence allies, trying to cross this border was a very different affair.”In those days you could not come here, where we are driving now. The bush here was full of South African army,” said Paulo Pinto, who was born in Namibia to Angolan parents during South African rule.The war between the Luanda government and Unita dragged on until 2002.The wrecked infrastructure and adverse effect on development partly explains why so many Angolans queue up to cross the border, some daily, only to return home at night.”There is nothing there,” said 22-year-old Elena Jamba.”There is land, but sometimes because of the weather conditions, there are no vegetables,” she added as a man helping her wheeled a bicycle piled high with sacks of cabbages and carrots to take back to Angola to sell.Some areas across the border are still mined from decades of warfare, reducing agricultural output further.LUXURY GOODSThe huge steel warehouse of International Commercial boasts ‘Armazem Sem Impostas’ — Duty Free.It is packed with treadmills, exercise bikes, gazebos, Yamaha motorbikes and mopeds, beds, dining tables, miles of fabric, and crates of metre-long cuddly lions.On one shelf stand dozens of identical framed icons of the Virgin Mary.Everything is priced in US dollars, and much of it is off limits to Namibians because of its duty free status.Nearby is a car lot with row upon row of Toyota, Mitsubishi and Nissan four wheel drives, mini-buses and saloons.At the entrance a security guard stands nursing an AK47 rifle.”It is easy to buy European cars, but maintenance and spares are a problem. Japanese cars are easy to buy, and spares are easy too,” said Mohammed Nouman of Pacific Motors.His business cards are in English on one side, Portuguese on the other.Almost all the vehicles here are left-hand drive, shipped in second hand from Europe, the Americas and Asia and destined for export to Angola.The border post a few metres away lies on a motoring fault-line between left and right-hand drive that stretches from here round the vast Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, demarcating those parts colonised by Britain from those grabbed by other European powers during the Scramble for Africa.”It’s mostly Angolans — but at the moment business is not good,” Nouman said.”I think Angola has increased its customs. They are making problems for us.”He is not the only one complaining about the charges.Antonio Martins lives in the Angolan town of Santa Clara just over the border, but he says he must pay Angolan immigration officials N$50 every time he crosses it.He comes regularly to sell jeans, T-shirts and shoes imported from Brazil by way of Luanda through Portuguese-speaking trading links.Sometimes he has music CDs from Luanda and Cape Verde, another former Portuguese colony off West Africa.”In Angola there are no jobs for people. In Namibia business is good. I’m always coming,” he said.Seeing Angolans working can be irksome for young jobless Namibians who hang around in small groups waiting for odd jobs.”Here in Oshikango they don’t give jobs to Namibians, only to people who speak Portuguese.We run after Angolans, offer to carry their bags to the border, to get something to eat,” said 22-year-old Bernard Johanes.Not that anybody seems particularly enchanted with life in Oshikango, which is regarded by most as a functional place to come and trade — and then to go home from.Down the road South African kwaito music blasts defiantly from a bar, emphasising the absence of other amusements.”Living here?” said Nouma, originally from Pakistan, who has run Pacific Motors for the past three years.”Well, you can see — it’s dead.”- Nampa-ReutersYet 80 per cent of the customers at his ‘Safe Way’ supermarket are Angolans who cross the border to do their shopping in spite of the punitive rates customs officials charge them on the way home.A few years ago at the height of apartheid South Africa’s war against the Marxist Angolan government and its Namibian pro-independence allies, trying to cross this border was a very different affair.”In those days you could not come here, where we are driving now. The bush here was full of South African army,” said Paulo Pinto, who was born in Namibia to Angolan parents during South African rule.The war between the Luanda government and Unita dragged on until 2002.The wrecked infrastructure and adverse effect on development partly explains why so many Angolans queue up to cross the border, some daily, only to return home at night.”There is nothing there,” said 22-year-old Elena Jamba.”There is land, but sometimes because of the weather conditions, there are no vegetables,” she added as a man helping her wheeled a bicycle piled high with sacks of cabbages and carrots to take back to Angola to sell.Some areas across the border are still mined from decades of warfare, reducing agricultural output further.LUXURY GOODS The huge steel warehouse of International Commercial boasts ‘Armazem Sem Impostas’ — Duty Free.It is packed with treadmills, exercise bikes, gazebos, Yamaha motorbikes and mopeds, beds, dining tables, miles of fabric, and crates of metre-long cuddly lions.On one shelf stand dozens of identical framed icons of the Virgin Mary.Everything is priced in US dollars, and much of it is off limits to Namibians because of its duty free status.Nearby is a car lot with row upon row of Toyota, Mitsubishi and Nissan four wheel drives, mini-buses and saloons.At the entrance a security guard stands nursing an AK47 rifle.”It is easy to buy European cars, but maintenance and spares are a problem. Japanese cars are easy to buy, and spares are easy too,” said Mohammed Nouman of Pacific Motors.His business cards are in English on one side, Portuguese on the other.Almost all the vehicles here are left-hand drive, shipped in second hand from Europe, the Americas and Asia and destined for export to Angola.The border post a few metres away lies on a motoring fault-line between left and right-hand drive that stretches from here round the vast Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, demarcating those parts colonised by Britain from those grabbed by other European powers during the Scramble for Africa.”It’s mostly Angolans — but at the moment business is not good,” Nouman said.”I think Angola has increased its customs. They are making problems for us.”He is not the only one complaining about the charges.Antonio Martins lives in the Angolan town of Santa Clara just over the border, but he says he must pay Angolan immigration officials N$50 every time he crosses it.He comes regularly to sell jeans, T-shirts and shoes imported from Brazil by way of Luanda through Portuguese-speaking trading links.Sometimes he has music CDs from Luanda and Cape Verde, another former Portuguese colony off West Africa.”In Angola there are no jobs for people. In Namibia business is good. I’m always coming,” he said.Seeing Angolans working can be irksome for young jobless Namibians who hang around in small groups waiting for odd jobs.”Here in Oshikango they don’t give jobs to Namibians, only to people who speak Portuguese.We run after Angolans, offer to carry their bags to the border, to get something to eat,” said 22-year-old Bernard Johanes.Not that anybody seems particularly enchanted with life in Oshikango, which is regarded by most as a functional place to come and trade — and then to go home from.Down the road South African kwaito music blasts defiantly from a bar, emphasising the absence of other amusements.”Living here?” said Nouma, originally from Pakistan, who has run Pacific Motors for the past three years.”Well, you can see — it’s dead.”- Nampa-Reuters

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