Tribal Politics in Post-Independent Namibia – A Menacing Phantom

• BENEDICK LOUWTHE Oxford dictionary defines tribalism as “a behaviour or attitude which is based on being loyal to a tribe or other social group; or the state of being organised into tribe or tribes”.

During its history prior to independence in March 1990, Namibians from all walks of life came together putting aside existing tribal loyalties, with the aim to ultimately and collectively as a people achieve political freedom from the clutches of colonialist oppression and white-minority apartheid rule which governed Namibia in preceding decades.

The apartheid regime as history relates, was hell-bent on escalating Bantustan constructs – of which they were chief architects – the aim of which was to deliberately deteriorate ethnic relations among communities of different ethnic backgrounds, thus orchestrating tribal divisions (tribalism) with military precision in its pursuit of divide and rule.

With visionary sagacity of a multiplicity leadership, anticipating the likely corollaries of tribal divisions – peoples from different backgrounds, tribal, class and religious affiliations after a, bitter and prolonged struggle achieved that freedom – which would give them the guaranteed inalienable rights of equality and all other basic freedoms, key of which was the right to self-determination.

Accentuating the importance of unity in diversity to advance the liberation struggle of colonised African countries such as Namibia, South Africa and others, Samora Machel in a speech delivered in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1980 had this to say:

“To ensure national unity, there must be no Shonas in Zimbabwe, there must be no Ndebeles in Zimbabwe, there must be Zimbabweans. Some people are proud of their tribalism. But we call tribalists reactionary agents of the enemy”. Machel was a freedom fighter and socialist revolutionary leader of the Mozambican liberation movement Frelimo and the country’s first president.

Unfortunately, 27 years after Namibia’s independence tribalism appears to rear its ugly head in Namibian society through a rather audacious and conspicuous manner along ethnic lines. Yet, what makes post-independent tribalism more precarious is the fact that it is chiefly advocated by leaders in a post-independent era, a majority of whom ironically originate from the liberation struggle era.

This is perhaps what Machel meant when he referred to these as “reactionary agents of the enemy”. An example par excellence is the tribal card being carrot-dangled with the ‘appointment’ of political office bearers vis-à-vis national and regional government.

A case in point was at the opening of the 6th Swapo Party Youth League congress at Katima Mulilo recently, when President Hage Geingob announced that he has appointed senior private secretary to Swapo’s chief whip in the party’s parliamentary caucus, one Paula Kooper, to the National Assembly to replace former Swapo MP Bernadus Swartbooi.

For the unassuming, Geingob initially fired Swartbooi as deputy minister of land reform late last year following comments made by Swartbooi against land reform minister Utoni Nujoma at Hoachanas regarding the resettlement programme. The said announcement being no coincidence was aimed to protrude the current stale atmosphere of hopelessness among the youth but also to settle tribalism fears.

It was here, subsequent to the news going viral of the replacement that yours truly took to social media and gave vent that:

“President Hage Geingob’s replacement of Bernadus Swartbooi with Paula Kooper as MP is not only a joke but an insult of intelligence on the people of the south. I do not care on which side of the spectrum you find yourself but truth be told this is as much an indictment of an administration that lost its moral compass for the sake of political opportunism, as it is an administration that thrives on tribalism.”

The known and unknown inadequacies of the replacement aside.

It is no secret that the intention of this move is to give assurance to people of the south that all is not lost with the departure of Swartbooi and that people of this part of the country must continue to support Swapo, immaterial of what transpired over the last few months because the “she is one of yours” narrative, even if this is not the case.

To have expected no counter-attack from a number among thousands of friends on social media would have been naivety of the highest order. It was anticipated that, due to reasons known or unknown, some would not bother to delve deeper into the subject matter, not questioning what is difficult to detect with the naked eye with robust yet analytical debate.

What perhaps could have sparked some reactionary comments, I presume, can be attributed to oblivion of the subject matter at hand as it relates to the use of the tribal card to advance the ambitions of those who propose such, successfully being blinded along the way with Houdini politics – what the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes.

As President-in-waiting early February 2015, Geingob announced the names of eight MPs for nomination in terms of the amended constitution. They are Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, Jerry Ekandjo, Albert Kawana, Katrina Hanse-Himarwa, Zephania Kameeta, Bernard Shidute Haufiku, Obed Kandjoze and Heather Mwiza Sibungo.

Swapo won 77 seats in the national and presidential elections and the president nominated an additional eight members of parliament, bringing the total MP’s of the ruling party to 85.

Without need to go into the unpleasant details of tribalism, it is odd that some find it convenient not to mention the fact that regardless of the fact that Paula Kooper, being a Nama descendant as is the case with Swartbooi, she only got considered after the departure of Swartbooi despite her trouncing other more formidable cadres of the movement including the nominees of the President, most appointed into ministerial positions.

Perhaps most profound is the habit to use people of Nama descend doing fairly well in parliamentary nominations mostly as deputies and when such deputy positions become vacant, they again are substituted with the few (if lucky) scavenging for such positions, keeping the status quo in cycle.

Examples here includes Maureen Hinda, Priscilla Beukes, Bernadus Swartbooi, Lucia Witbooi and others of Nama descent of other regions.

The substitution of Swartbooi with Lucia Basson, also of Nama descent for the position of //Karas governor after the former was elected into parliament, is another case in point. This form of tribalism can best be characterised as neo-tribalism – the narrow sense is the ideology that human beings have evolved to live in a tribal, as opposed to a modern, society, and thus cannot achieve genuine happiness until some semblance of an archaic lifestyle has been re-created or re-embraced.

Indeed, this narrative is problematic because it gives credence to a systemic doctrine in Namibian society that leads many to believe that as long as the replacement remains ‘one of us’, we’re fine, decisively undermining the fundamental reasons that led to such developments.”

Nipping tribalism in the bud and accompanying a miasma of despair therefore not only means addressing ethnic, geographical or gender representatives but also the hierarchical disposition of political office bearers lest we endeavour to create a trajectory wherein which the narrative of carrot dangling becomes commonplace only as it relates to people of the south (Hardap and //­Karas regions).

* Benedick M Louw is a youth activist. You can follow him on twitter@benedicklouw

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