Presidency Clarifies Stance on Colonialism and Informal Settlements

ALFREDO TJIURIMO HENGARI

IN MAY 2017, PRESIDENT Hage Geingob, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, warned that the press should not become a lapdog but should remain a watchdog as the Fourth Estate.

The president has also repeated on several occasions that irrespective of untruths, and bias by omission, for as long as he remained president of the republic, freedom of the press would be guaranteed and no journalist would be made a martyr.

Even if some in the press do not play their part in nation building, the press has an important role to play in building a nation and in creating an informed, peaceful and prosperous Namibia.

They would be failing if they were to take on the role of lapdogs, which they often do, inciting Namibians and seeking to create a wedge between the sovereigns and those elected by the sovereigns, of whom the president is the primus inter pares (first among equals).

Certain English dailies have been in campaign mode, publishing misleading articles that cite bits from statements made by the president on various platforms.

Two issues, namely the effects of colonialism and the informal settlements, have enjoyed press headlines with the clear objective of creating a certain impression of the president allegedly blaming colonialism for the challenges facing the nation.

Regrettably, certain newspapers frame these issues lightly and unreflectively in terms of their impact on public policy and the transformation agenda president Geingob has pursued since 2015.

In light of the fact that these issues are framed in terms that are purely sensational, not objective and with seeming intent to harm and misinform the Namibian public, with phony politically motivated ‘SMSes’ selectively published to reinforce the bias of the newspapers, the Presidency finds it necessary to provide clarity.

There are facts that cannot be contested or erased in the history of what is today Namibia.

In 1886, following the Berlin Conference, our territory was annexed as a colony of Imperial Germany.

It is safe to assume that some reporters don’t know the fact that among all the colonies, German colonialism in Namibia was the most brutal and its impact on livelihoods have been the most atrocious, with the first genocide of the 20th century and similar massacres committed against Namibians.

Many people of the territory were displaced from their land, robbed, enslaved, and women raped and chased into desert lands with limited potential for continuity of their subsistence farming.

Following the brutality of Imperial Germany, the territory of South West Africa was placed under the South African regime in 1915, which unleashed another chapter of violence through its policy of apartheid.

It deepened inequalities and created ethnic bantustans through the ghastly Odendaal Commission of 1964, of which the perverse effects of ownership remain visible upto today.

No editorials or headlines are dedicated to these perversities of the past and how they undermine nation building.

There is no headline or cries of a scandal when a German family sells tracts of stolen land in Windhoek for N$300 million.

Regrettably, the dehumanising effects of apartheid and separate development are still evident in such transactions.

Yet, blacks have been signed up as apologists and afro-pessimists, made to behave as if Namibia didn’t experience the longest period of brutal occupation in the form of colonialism.

When we consider the fact that our territory was barbarically colonised in 1886 and only became independent in 1990, a basic count arrives at more than a century of colonial domination of the black majority by racists who had no regard for the lives of the black majority.

To be precise, the black majority went through 104 years of racial inequalities.

Economists and economic historians, including, Thomas Piketty, have strenuously traced the history of inequality to patterns of property ownership dating back centuries.

Yet, The Namibian and Namibian Sun report spuriously and falsely that explaining inequality and poverty within the context of a century of colonialism is “blaming colonialism” for our ills.

In fact, the president with the experience and education that he brings to the table is not in a position to frame a problem in such simplistic terms.

And yes, they are a consequence of beasts with names, 104 years of brutal German Imperialism and South African apartheid occupation.

Since white people have perpetrated the inequalities, certain newspapers have taken the editorial decisions to never call our inequalities by their right name as racial inequalities.

President Geingob has always spoken candidly about the challenges facing Namibians after 32 years of independence.

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