I am from Okaku. When I die one day, that is where they will bury my remains. I know Okaku as the place where my family home is located. For me, it is the first home I came to know as a child. I was born in another village called Oshigambo which I have a similar relationship with as Okaku.
I have a very strange relationship with Okaku. This has nothing to do with the latest and popular stereotypes of the place. I just find that it has a rather peculiar energy. I cannot quite put my finger on it but this is a feeling I have had from childhood.
Despite this awkwardness, it is the place that I can remember being in during my early years of life. I fully relate to it in the sense that it is and will always be my first idea of home. It is an odd and familiar place.
I would like to think that this oddness has to do with how I generally relate to natural and village surroundings. It is something I am yet to study. I do not visit Okaku as much as I should because I have become a slave of urban life. This is one of my struggles as a black male who grew up in contemporary urban Namibia. It has never been easy being a mbwiti.
But have no doubt, have no fear, Okaku is a balanced place. The silence is priceless and the people are warm. Every school holiday was not just spent playing in the soft sand but working hard in the fields and around the homestead. We wake up to the sounds of the birds chanting and women singing straight praise songs from their fieldwork.
What do I have to say about the recent supernatural events and happenings at the village? I do not have the details about how these events manifested apart from what media has already fed us. I will say that this is nothing new to Okaku nor this country, for that matter.
These things are universal. These are the inherent spiritual powers of our people. This is part of our intangible heritage which manifests in different ways for different intentions.
Every house has its own ‘juju’ and you know that. Every man has his own medicine to guard and protect his territory. Whether you read it as witchcraft, sorcery or black magic, it is still something that happens in many places in the world and not just Okaku.
Think about the sins of our mothers and fathers, and how we often have to pay for them. Our ancestors did not only leave the positive powers behind, they also left negative powers behind. These powers are determined by how they lived their lives on earth.
I am of the view that we do not always have a choice about the forces we posses simply because we are often born into these things. It is about how we make use of the powers that we inherit. It is all about intent and purpose.
When we make our life journeys about harming and destructing others from their life purposes, this is how we end up where we are, in Okaku or not.
Jacques Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja is a performer, theatre maker, educator and cultural worker. Follow him on Twitter @ChantingWarrior
