Sexploitation, Poverty and Inequality in Namibia

ASK A CYNICAL economist about the difference between prostitution and marriage and they’ll tell you that historically, and even to a large degree today, both are based on transactional relations – money, children and a person’s sexuality.

The only difference is the length of the contract and the class of the partner. In voluntary marriages the partners are commonly of a similar class origin; prostitutes are there because they are poor and their clients rich, at least temporarily. If you do not believe that children and money are the central elements of marriage, try to get a divorce and you will soon join the ranks of the cynics. What complicates this simple picture is the strange but overpowering human distemper called love which basically gives marriage an air of emotional propriety beyond that of a material relationship involving only money and children. 

This simple dichotomy between wife and prostitute perpetuates the view of sex workers that one sees in the back streets and shebeens of Windhoek. Unlike wives, their contracts are short in duration, and from the sex worker’s point of view, the shorter the better. This, however, disguises the very spectrum of human and commercial relationships between men and women and sometimes between people of the same gender. In my traditional Polish culture, for example, it was common in the past for a sex worker to bring clients into their homes to meet their parents and establish medium-term relationships. Similarly, in a Namibian context, there is a wide spectrum of relationships between a ‘kamboroto’ (in Oshiwambo, literally a ‘small piece of bread’ or side chick) and a street walker. Simple distinctions only serve to obscure the numerous gradations of the relationship in terms of length, obligation and even emotion.  

To be an educated and connected woman in Namibia is truly a blessing. In terms of gender equality, Namibia is far ahead of most of the continent and the rest of the world. We have a woman prime minister, many Cabinet members and a large portion of the National Assembly are women. There are five women on the High Court out of 16 but none on the Supreme Court. In the corporate world, women have risen to high positions with many CFOs, but far fewer CEOs.

If women have no jobs and are at the mercy of their partners, they are even more susceptible to the very high rate of gender-based violence common in Namibia. If women are lucky enough to have a job and work as maids, cashiers and shop assistants, they will earn little more than N$2 000 a month and commonly far less. These women are simply not able to afford a 3G phone, hair braids or reasonable quality clothing. After they have paid rent, food and transport, they are penniless or further in debt at the end of the month. Even if they are further up the income ladder than maids and shop assistants, it is not uncommon for women to have to sleep with their bosses or potential bosses in order to get a job, keep it or get a promotion. In a rare public case, women at Pupkewitz in 2020 complained about sexploitation by their boss. The formula is simple enough – no sex, no job, no promotion. This is by no means unique to Namibia.

What has emerged in Namibia is a system of sexploitation that is a sexual cornucopia for those men, both white and black, who have the high incomes to afford the luxury of multiple partners. It is one of the main reasons why that other disease – HIV-AIDS – is so prevalent. I had a good European friend in Namibia who was forever surrounded by a horde of beautiful young women, many young enough to be his granddaughters. For the young women, age differences mattered little; after all, ‘one must eat’. For my friend the morality or otherwise of his relationships also mattered little as they were simply transactional.

This is a product of Namibia’s horrendous income inequality and the poverty of working people and women in particular. The only good news is that the position of ‘kamboroto’, of having a ‘blesser’, is not eternal. One day it will diminish though it rarely ever vanishes. Unfortunately, the change will take a very long time. In Britain in the 1850s it was estimated that some 12% of London’s female population were sex workers of one type or another. As the income of women has risen in the UK, this occupation is less commonly a British one and is taken up by women from Eastern Europe and Africa, i.e. those who are poorer or entrapped by sex trafficking gangs.

In Namibia if we ever address the inequality of the country and raise the living standards of women, sexploitation will diminish. While laws to end the illegality of sex work in Namibia would benefit poor women, they are unlikely given the power of the church. No well-intentioned laws will change the system of sexploitation, only economic growth and prosperity will end the degradation of Namibian working class women.

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