Racism On Increase In Namibia

I THINK it’s high time we face the truth! The fact is that there is tribalism and racism in this country and it is growing at an alarming rate! All peace loving citizens should be concerned with this phenomenon! Whether in political parties, government, churches, business or in communities, there is growing concern about this evil called racism and tribalism and it manifests itself through nepotism, favoritism and corruption which are tantamount to malpractices and poor service delivery. We want peace, unity and harmony for all Namibians, moreover we want development for all and not only a certain tribe or race.

If you doubt, analyse within your own environment, locations, political parties, churches, … there is no tolerance for one another, no deliberate efforts to integrate or to accommodate each other and to share and care for each other. Instead, life is characterised by selfishness, greed, disrespect, etc. Can you imagine, the frustrations that are causing the creation of tribal based political parties, or revival of tribalism within parties, in a new Namibia! We need to do something about this evil; all of us, whether black or white, Herero or Damara, Nama or Owambo, German of Afrikaner, Caprivi or Kavango, rich or poor, Swapo or DTA, UDF or RDP, The Namibian or Republikein, old or young, etc! However, only if we admit the facts and realities, we will make deliberate efforts to redress the situation; we are still keeping silent on this issue, perhaps to satisfy our bosses – time for these bosses is over; it is a new era, we need to be concerned about the future now. Otherwise, we are silently killing each other and delaying genuine development process. We need, within the mentioned structures, to make conscious efforts to integrate, and take the lead to create a society of unity, that is caring and sharing.Let’s start with political parties! All those parties, and I think it’s individual leaders, who are practicing tribalism consciously or unconsciously, please stop, and devise ways and means to redress the problem. We acknowledge that some political parties were formed in their tribal bases; it was good then, but we moved out of it into pure political parties with no discrimination, etc. I have observed that within some political parties we maintain the status quo, promoting fellow tribespeople and not making efforts to integrate or to sensitively include others; instead we find all reasons to avoid others, and calling each other names. Churches were greatly respected for spiritual strength and the formation of moral base; it can revive and optimise such a role. They played an important role in the de-colonization era! But it can also unite people instead of dividing people on the basis of race and tribalism.We are a small nation, and we ought to do things differently; we need to come up with new breakthrough initiatives to safe our society and especially our new generation!!Hosabe H /Honeb, Via e-mail