White Indifference Entrenches Racial Assumptions Of Our Society

OUR transition to independence was in addition to a history of both primary and secondary resistance, also the consequence of a negotiated settlement between the liberation movement and the West.These initiatives meant that the new order had to create a governance framework based on certain predetermined values as encapsulated in the Constitutional Principles set out by the Western Contact Group of five in the early 1980s.

In essence, these principles guaranteed white privilege, notably with regard to white ownership of the economy. In light of these principles, the Swapo government at Independence came up with the policy of national reconciliation to assuage white concerns that the liberation movement will forgive on the basis of some form of a blanket amnesty.It only dealt to a lesser extent with black-black relations in its intentions.Since our transition was the consequence of an elite pact, it posed unique challenges and opportunities.In particular, the challenge of socio-economic transformation is a demanding task under any circumstances anywhere in the world.Swapo was socialised through the Washington consensus into the view that it had to ensure macro-economic stability and then look at the broader participation of blacks in the economy.Concretely, this meant that the black majority would have to take the pain in the hope that benefits will trickle down to them as the economy hit higher digits of growth.Alas, at our pace, it will take us more than three generations to deal with the historical injustice of apartheid-structured inequality.If the challenge is on the government to redress past wrongs, our attention should also, and increasingly that is, focus on white indifference with regard to our socio-political processes as this has been less helpful in dealing with the historical injustice.The white community has dangerously disengaged from daily political life for as long as their economic freedoms are guaranteed.This in some measure is what has led to a certain degree of callousness when it comes to dealing with the plight of the black poor majority.Doing a BEE deal with the black elite serves as enough insurance to guarantee access to government tenders and state dinners with the black political elite.Since whites are not active participants in our politics, they have lost the social perspective or they have become indifferent with the plight of the black majority.For them, it has become business as usual.A clear illustration of such callousness, are the recent reports in the media revealing how white speculators are becoming property owners in Katutura and Khomasdal, pushing prices beyond the reach of the poor majority.Such actions reveal that the racial assumptions of our society undermine solidarity, and it is time for the white community to do some introspection.When Afrikaner theologians such as Beyers Naudé and Theo Kotze embraced liberation theology and challenged apartheid ideology in the 1960s, it was with the view to confront the inequities that were inherent in society.It is therefore distasteful that whites who benefited from one of the biggest affirmative action schemes in history under apartheid, buy houses in Katutura and Khomasdal at auctions.It is also distasteful that few white Namibians support the just claims for reparations from Germany or other just worthy causes.Worse, they don’t attend the commemoration of such events, while in essence it should be them reaching out to us.For them, the genocide is not a moral issue.This thinking underlines the substantive futility of our policy of national reconciliation.Frankly, I don’t think that it is necessarily Swapo’s fault that there is no single white person in the Central Committee or the Politburo.If white businesspeople happen to see opportunities in politically connected black people, they surely should also see the moral imperative to engage actively in our political parties and political life.Seeing “prominent blacks as business opportunities” shows the failure of the white community to rise to the challenge of ethical citizenship.Operating under this guise of economic pragmatism and opportunism creates a wedge between whites and blacks.The view that blacks must look after politics while whites occupy space in civil society and business is not sustainable as it also entrenches the racial assumptions of our society.Importantly, it robs us of a dialogue that is devoid of any ideology since each one of us is hell-bent on defending their defined spaces and “competencies”.The solution does not lie in whites creating their own political parties whose raison d’être would be to defend racial space.If the challenge exists to transform the discussion and the quality of leadership in our political parties, whites must also be an active part of that political process.There are costs to engagement.But whites have a much bigger moral responsibility to reach out to our political parties, and importantly to our communities in part due to the racial assumptions that were created by apartheid, and from which they were the sole beneficiaries.Their current indifference and adhockery to these issues is a rather sad entrenchment of the apartheid view of “otherness”.* Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in political science at the University of Paris- Panthéon Sorbonne, France.In light of these principles, the Swapo government at Independence came up with the policy of national reconciliation to assuage white concerns that the liberation movement will forgive on the basis of some form of a blanket amnesty.It only dealt to a lesser extent with black-black relations in its intentions.Since our transition was the consequence of an elite pact, it posed unique challenges and opportunities.In particular, the challenge of socio-economic transformation is a demanding task under any circumstances anywhere in the world.Swapo was socialised through the Washington consensus into the view that it had to ensure macro-economic stability and then look at the broader participation of blacks in the economy.Concretely, this meant that the black majority would have to take the pain in the hope that benefits will trickle down to them as the economy hit higher digits of growth.Alas, at our pace, it will take us more than three generations to deal with the historical injustice of apartheid-structured inequality.If the challenge is on the government to redress past wrongs, our attention should also, and increasingly that is, focus on white indifference with regard to our socio-political processes as this has been less helpful in dealing with the historical injustice.The white community has dangerously disengaged from daily political life for as long as their economic freedoms are guaranteed.This in some measure is what has led to a certain degree of callousness when it comes to dealing with the plight of the black poor majority.Doing a BEE deal with the black elite serves as enough insurance to guarantee access to government tenders and state dinners with the black political elite.Since whites are not active participants in our politics, they have lost the social perspective or they have become indifferent with the plight of the black majority.For them, it has become business as usual.A clear illustration of such callousness, are the recent reports in the media revealing how white speculators are becoming property owners in Katutura and Khomasdal, pushing prices beyond the reach of the poor majority.Such actions reveal that the racial assumptions of our society undermine solidarity, and it is time for the white community to do some introspection.When Afrikaner theologians such as Beyers Naudé and Theo Kotze embraced liberation theology and challenged apartheid ideology in the 1960s, it was with the view to confront the inequities that were inherent in society.It is therefore distasteful that whites who benefited from one of the biggest affirmative action schemes in history under apartheid, buy houses in Katutura and Khomasdal at auctions.It is also distasteful that few white Namibians support the just claims for reparation
s from Germany or other just worthy causes.Worse, they don’t attend the commemoration of such events, while in essence it should be them reaching out to us.For them, the genocide is not a moral issue.This thinking underlines the substantive futility of our policy of national reconciliation.Frankly, I don’t think that it is necessarily Swapo’s fault that there is no single white person in the Central Committee or the Politburo.If white businesspeople happen to see opportunities in politically connected black people, they surely should also see the moral imperative to engage actively in our political parties and political life.Seeing “prominent blacks as business opportunities” shows the failure of the white community to rise to the challenge of ethical citizenship.Operating under this guise of economic pragmatism and opportunism creates a wedge between whites and blacks.The view that blacks must look after politics while whites occupy space in civil society and business is not sustainable as it also entrenches the racial assumptions of our society.Importantly, it robs us of a dialogue that is devoid of any ideology since each one of us is hell-bent on defending their defined spaces and “competencies”.The solution does not lie in whites creating their own political parties whose raison d’être would be to defend racial space.If the challenge exists to transform the discussion and the quality of leadership in our political parties, whites must also be an active part of that political process.There are costs to engagement.But whites have a much bigger moral responsibility to reach out to our political parties, and importantly to our communities in part due to the racial assumptions that were created by apartheid, and from which they were the sole beneficiaries.Their current indifference and adhockery to these issues is a rather sad entrenchment of the apartheid view of “otherness”. * Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in political science at the University of Paris- Panthéon Sorbonne, France.