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Mandela writes

why intergenerational dialogue?

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I was featured a few days ago on NBC’s 8 o clock bulletin saying something that in retrospect, I felt needed to be contextualized. I saw my intervention on that day as it is herein, as an attempt to provide but an extenuating circumstance for youth militancy.

To a large extend the report did well in covering the issues that I had sought to bring forth in my address, these included a reference to the standard youth development framework, such as enunciated amongst other in the National Youth Policy (NYP), The African Youth Charter (AYC) and the famous World Program of Action for Youth (WPAY). The latter of which speaks to the issue of intergenerational dialogue and the need for the world to prioritise, better understanding through cogent robust but respectful dialogue ,amongst different generations of the people of the world.

It is clear that there are deep schisms with my generation and those of previous generations in particular the current ruling corps. What NBC report however did not clarify from my vestige point was that to a large extend such schisms are borne out of some sort of arrogance or an allergy rather to youth interest and voices from older generations.

I have always looked at the current tone and militancy of the youth movement as a tactical position rather than one borne of an inherent arrogance on the part of the youths. That it is not, and any attempt to curry such sentiment is mischievous and deliberately so, in my view.

On the contrary rather, this tactical approach is to illustrate that disregard for youth interest will not be swallowed wholeheartedly by youth and will provoke the kind of militant resistance that we have seen recently at amongst other at UNAM, in the Caprivi Region and from the Children of the liberation struggle amongst more instances. My own observations are that what we have seen are rather mild manifestations of much deeper resentment. One can therefore only hope and pray that more willing insight is applied to understanding our countries youth and their aspirations.

It is the current haughtiness from policy holders and makers that causes this confrontational reaction from within the youth. If barriers continue to persist in dialogue with youth, so too will the “patriotic stubbornness” of the youth. Its would seem that young people are no longer willing to give credence to institutions, individuals and policies that are supposed to work for them, but have failed, a rather logical position if you ask me, anything contra would in fact be delusional.

Therefore it is important that policyholders and makers acquaint themselves with those three documents that I made mention of, so that the fact that many in public and policy circles in Namibia are out of tune with youth, becomes apparent. I think many will do well to learn from the likes of Hage Geingob, Pendunkeni Ivula Ithana, Nahas Angula, Nangolo Mbumba, Richard Kamwi, Frans Kapofi, Inspector General Ndeitungua , Alphues Naruseb and Hon Mungunda amongst some few others, whom have learned and practice a more modern 21st centaury based dialogue with youth. Anything else I am afraid, will warrant nothing but reciprocal arrogance.

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betrayal of the "blood".

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A once notable man of the cross, who is has come out of his retirement to champion a cause , in defense of human rights, democracy, freedom and what I presume is anti-despotism , would have gained much affinity to his cause, had it the slightest semblance of being genuine.

All Namibians care deeply, that we should consolidate national cohesion, unity and strengthen our resolve to mould Namibians not only into true believers of our founding convictions, but also into nationals that would live and die for those founding ideals. No doubt that these ideals include genuine people’s rights, democracy, freedom, liberty, justice, national unity, patriotism and a host more. No one person can claim monopoly of these values they belong to us all and have bearing for us all equally.

SWAPO at independence inherited a government that was broken, void of morals and empty of true justice. The colonial state’s institutions propagated division and skewed development along racial lines and for the sake of political manipulation.

Only the foolhardy will belief that our society today is free from these colonial vestiges. They exist still today, not because SWAPO has no inclination to deal with them but because the mindsets that brought them to be, still survive and continue to entrench predatory capitalism, racism and tribalism in Namibia. SWAPO’s biases must therefore continue to be to ensure that in our process of development, we continue to seek the advancement of all our people collectively.

If indeed we are true defenders of the inalienable right of the people than we should preach not the only of human and democratic rights (which by the way they cannot live in or eat) but also of their economic and social rights that this constitution in its current form undermines. As long as the constitution does not allow for the dismantling of colonial remnants then it is but liberal diatribe to continue to chew such bubble gum sentiments .

A true champion of the people will be that man or woman that preaches the further evolution of our constitution into a pure and just people centered instrument. It is a crying shame that liberals cannot see that their tendencies are as naked as an emperor with an invisible robe, and count for nothing more than aesthetic camouflage. The real revolution lies in our ability to be able to demand for collective economic and social progress, which outweighs individual economic and social tendencies. It would thus seem odd that there are some amongst us that compete to out chant one another this almost empty rhetorical diatribe that can never ever without economic and social justice have true meaning

What’s more, I can never ever accept that someone can in the same breathe claim to be a champion of morality, peoples rights and advancement, while being a member of RDP. For me the two are incompatible, in my mind there exist no doubt that RDP is a tribalist and egoist enterprise, no one that has a thread of justice can therefore be just and tribalist, it is illogical. Conventional logic does not allow me to accept that one could be a just tribalist. Unfortunately there are people who cannot come to the same truth and truly belief that it is a form of injustice that there are people like me who cannot fathom their RDP affinity, and therefore except it as logical. What is logical is for person to belong to the parties of their choice, what is not, is their choice to do so through means that negate progress, justice and national unity, such as tribalism.


I digress, surely there is then a clash in our constitution, a clash of liberal democratic individual rights vs. mass socio-democratic and economic advancement. My biases here are for the later particularly as they relate to economic rights. The clash in our constitution is as clear as day and night and while I say thank god to the founders of the constitution for having done just that (having drafted this document). I can’t help but curse a process that failed to recognize that people’s rights in the developmental stage of our independence should supersede those that entrench individualism and predatory capitalism.

I have no doubt that there will be those who will deliberately or mistakenly make my assertions out to be anti “human rights” indeed they are not, I have no shame in admitting though that I have a predisposition to peoples rights as apposed what Phil ya Nangolo stands has for.

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The shock doctor(ine).

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We must continue to belief in the collective, I restate this not only because it is a fundamental truth encoded in our party constitution and youth league oath of office,but because it is only through the collective will, that we shall be able to achieve for Namibia a reality based on progress and unity (mutual co-existence).

Many people do not take the time to listen to and read the assertions of dr.Ngurare (http://www.spyl.org/?p=62#), as one who does so regularly, it is striking to note that the basic tone of his assertions are a return to the values of nationalism, African affirmation and socialism. This is more than all else, why I in particular am steadfast in the direction of our nascent youth movement. if only for this reason, than all the young people of Namibia must rally behind Comrade Ngurare, the SWAPO Party Youth League, The SWAPO Party and its President H.E Hifikepunje Pohamba, who on behalf of the SWAPO masses projects the fundamental truth that a socialist path to development, based on national unity and an absolute affirmation of our AfriKaness is the only foundation that shall proof to be lasting.

This week again, as is usual, I once again received from our friends at the Cuban embassy, daily dispatches written by Comrade Fidel Castro entitled ‘refections by (comrade) Fidel’, where comrade Fidel elucidates, as sharply as he always has, on matters that occupy his mind. At one such occasion, he writes of Comrade Evo Morales in such a lucid and empathetic manner that it evoked in me, a rather starkly surreal similarity to Comrade Ngurare. He says of Comrade Morales’s persistent, struggle against oppositions hardheads inter alia ‘Nobody denies any longer that he is winning the battle without resorting to the use of force or abusing power” he continues in the immediate line after that , in what is typical Fidel wit, with ” The adversary can not cope with his volley.” This optimizes the wit and talent for strategy that our leader of the youth league posses.

It is but Sam Nujoma, Theo Ben Gurrirab, Bankie Forster Bankie, Clinton Swartbooi (all of whom, I have been privy to occasional chats with) and my own father, from whome I have been able to draw more or perhaps as insightfull intellectual inspiration other than our dear Secretary.

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Why we are on they right side of history!

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The Next “elder” that doles out the now infamous coinage that youth in Namibia have no respect for elders and that implies even tacitly that ‘I’ call the SWAPO PARTY YOUTH LEAGUE to order, will have to forgive me for my respectfully insolent refusal to heed
.

Trouble with Namibia, generally speaking of course, is everyone speaks and no one really listens, people often think they do, but it is as clear as day and night that they do not, allow me to say respectfully that some “elders” are most guilty of this abhorrent behavior. I often think that instead of the almost allergic aversion to the SPYL, a more useful response would be to listen and learn a thing or two. The aversion of some who seem to me, like recent converts to liberalism, is indeed very instructive and it epitomizes the fact that young people in order to be heard must resort to the tactics used by SPYL in recent months, what a sad fate for our country if it is indeed the case, that its youth have to resort to causing mass hysteria in order to be heard. Why should youths first scare some to a shitles state of fear, before they heed to what we have to say?

By nature, I am not prone to ‘big statements” or controversy, but I must say that the current crop of SPYL leaders are the most effective weapon the youth movement has in its artillery at this stage and I will continue to support both the tone and content emanating from across the Katutura State Hospital. For as long as there are those that are oblivious to the fact that young people have a legitimate stake at the decision making table, then there is no other means but this, left to us as a movement. This state of crisis is not unique to Namibia, but exist the world over, reactions of French minority youths in one instance and students in another, after the election of Sarkozy in France are illustrative of that fact, one could site many other examples of this from Pakistan to Columbia to Nigeria, though the circumstances and issues vary, the result of such alienation from the center is a radicalized and angry response from youths.

My own experiences from interacting with youths on a daily basis lead me to the unfortunate observation that the outcries of SPYL are rather mild in comparison to the anger of many other youths outside the leadership of SPYL. Many youths particularly those who still languish in rural poverty remain dedicated and committed to SWAPO and her political program. This again is instructive of the fact that youths, the vast majority of them anyway, will continue to be loyal to the SWAPO Party, because it represents our best hope for the future. The inability of the powers that be, to perfect the mechanisms of our party particular as she relates to her government are loathsome at best and deserve “rectification”. Chairman Mao is very instructive in this regard, and I quote him as follows “our point of departure is to serve the people whole heartedly and never for a moment to divorce ourselves from the masses, to proceed in all cases from the interest of the people and not from one’s self interest or from the interest of a small group, and to identify our responsibility to the people with our own responsibility to the organs of the Party.”

Many often argue that the SPYL leadership’s radicalized stances are because those in leadership of SPYL wish to jostle for positions in parliament or/and that the Founding Father and others are behind this amplified discontent, these arguments are pitiful if not giddy and far from the simple truth. Parliament is not the destination, in actual fact no one of those in the leadership of SPYL, I have talked to, have expressed any such wishes even lightheartedly, moreover, who would want to trade the dynamism of the being in the leadership of SPYL for the mundane diplomacy and chivalrous pomp that parliament requires. Our destination is youth development that is meaningful and far from the tokenistic development and institutions that exist to date`. Bringing Nujoma for as much as we love and adore him onto the scene will not change the real factors at play.

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Condom use and why the Papacy got it wrong....

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His Holy Grace Pope Benedict the 16th’s recent comments on his Africa tour on the use of condoms are shockingly dismaying at best and disturbingly irresponsible in general. His comments come in the wake of signifgant gains the African continent has been able to attain through the rollout of treatment and equally as import through reduction of infection rates of many countries on the continent and through infection rate stabilization in many others.

The continent has over the past 30 odd years experimented with various approaches and we can say with some certainty that condom use promotion in tandem with abstinence promotion does work. It is my feeling that if the Papacy persist with detracting condom use, years of gains might be compromised.

This anachronistic stance of the Pope and the Catholic church is not helpful in a large majority of instances and serves little value outside of religious puritanism , which in my view sometimes is an easy retreat considered against the hard knocks ground level intervention that we must employ in order to reverse adverse impact of social ills in our society. Consider that in a world where 7400 new infections are recorded daily, we cannot be divided about the strategies that need to be put in place in order to consolidate gains made thus far. I respectively disagree with His Grace’s notion that religious piety and sexual fidelity alone shall reduce infections rates.

While I cannot fault His Holy Grace for his assertion that there is a moral dimension to high persistence of infection rates, I am at pains to say that unfortunately statements such as his, reflect little compassion for the millions that have contracted the virus while being religiously pious and monogamous in their sexual relations, His Holy Grace himself during the 2nd Vatican Council made a profoundly suggestive gesture when he said amongst other that “what the church needs today as always are not adulators to extol the status quo but men whose humility and obedience are not less that their passion for truth.”

What I seek to evoke through this piece is not ill will for the church or contempt for the institution of the Papacy, on the contrary I seek merely to express my point of view that obedience to the doctrine of the one true faith, must also be weight against the good that comes of safeguards that are the fruits of the free enterprise of mind, body and soul of humanity. Condoms specifically here refer.

I too share the concern of the Papacy that excessive hedonism and the dictatorship of western relativism as he calls it or liberalism as I do, removes us from gods favor in many ways, where I disagree fundamentally is the manner, intent and lack of compassion of his discourse on this matter.

Mandela Kapere
Madiba.tigblog.org

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Youth expect no more than we deserve...

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Young Namibians today, cannot deject that the anti colonial struggle for liberation and against apartheid, remains a cogent political and sociological lesson for our times. It might seem that there are some of us who are obsessed with liberation rhetoric, but this is not the case, on the contrary, apart from the historic worth of liberationism, liberationism teaches us real and cogent lessons for our times, such as loyalty, patriotism, determination, hard work and unwavering resolve. It is these values and notions that we invoke today as we set the pace for a new development discourse.

Given the above, the demand and the struggle for opportunities within the nascent economy remains our rallying call. It is from the struggle against anti colonial resistance from which we must draw our inspiration and resolve. The broad based empowerment of the masses of our people, the rural masses in particular, is preeminent in our minds eye as we seek to trudge towards vision 2030 and as we gather for this event. To underestimate the importance of this objective is to undermine the masses who where and are the bedrock of both our previous and present struggles.

The empowerment of young people is within the above ambits and surely it cannot be anything but a just ask, to receive support while we learn, toil and strive for our country. Those institution and persons who steer us towards vision 2030 consider, and apply their minds to creating worthwhile opportunities for young people today and in the future.

Nevertheless while the above remains a paramount objective we must continue to strive, toil and learn, we must strive for what is just fair and in our national interest, we must toil to grow food, build infrastructure and extract the resources which God has abounded this nation with and finally we must learn to perfect means of governance harmony and without seizing perfect the use of technology for our own advancement.

It is only the generations that owns and strives towards its aspirations that can ultimately achieve them

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Defending our values is a categorical imperative.....

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Nangola Mbumba said a most profound thing at the recent SWAPO party rally, when he said amongst other, that there is no one entity that has a monopoly for being smart. I was reminded of this rather telling assertion this morning (Monday, the 15th of September, 2008) while listening to Hon Nora Chase MP (COD) on the Good Morning (Namibia) show.

The assertion that was made by her, implied to me that she viewed that SWAPO had failed at several levels and its failures in respect to the implementation of the constitution and consolidation of democracy where with intent.

This is no complicated matter to take issue with, thus I will do so briefly without much ado and jargon jostling. It is obvious that this statement is set against the backdrop of opposition hyperbole and was made without references to an objective measurement of the relevant tools for analyzing this; consider that Africa is abound with various measures in that respect. Consider also that the most fundamental basis always in our reference to ourselves and our relationship with the state, should be a reverence to firstly the constitution and then secondly other law, most things other than those that are codified in our law are arbitrary considerations.

She dully recognizes that the Namibian constitution is a fair and good instrument and that it enshrines the rights of the citizens of this country. However the assertion that the relevant provision in respect to the same are deliberately not adhered to is fallacious and devoid of logic and falls firmly in the ambit of polemic hyperbole. As Bona fide “defenders” of law, justice and democracy, Why then not defend the law in the courts. And seek the necessary legal recourse?

It is not my manner to consistently make reference to
the past in the analyze of nascent challenges, but in many cases we have to realize that there is a sound logical basis for such arguments on the odd occasion and this issue is one case in point. Democratic ideals both for leaders and the ordinary citizens take years and generations to entrench. So it is not odd in the Namibian instance that we have skirmishes. It is purely hogwash to say that SWAPO has not entrenched democracy in Namibia. In the first place while it is granted that SWAPO as the party in government has a major role to play in this endeavor, it is utterly nonsensical to say then that the failure of democracy is the fault of SWAPO.

Recently in the USA during the Texas “Two Step” as well as in the Philadelphia Democratic Primary, there was much uproar on the process its fairness and incidences of voter intimidation arose, even cases of cheating and actual fighting where recorded. Recently in Arkansas, the Democratic Party’s State Vice Chairman was shot and killed outside the parties’ state headquarters, in an attack that was largely seen to be politically motivated. Consider this against the background that even in a nation that is one of the world’s oldest liberal democracies, we do on the occasion react in an inappropriate manner.

My argument here is not that violence and intimidation is right but that it does occur in the process of a heated political race. The second predicate of my antithesis is that Namibia has an entrenched culture of antagonized politics with roots in the cold war era liberation struggle of the country.

In my modest view, we very often misinterpret the relative absence of our personal political values in the political system as unjust, this is wrong, selfish and at often times elitist. Democracy by its very nature presupposes that there are others in the polity that will have different views than that of our own.

Our democracy is young, fragile and in need of further consolidation, our nation is only now consolidating a new political culture and the odd occasional fracas must be condemned but let us please see such occurrences through the right lenses.

SWAPO should and will do its part to defend the gains of our liberation but so should others, the stakes have bearing on us all.

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Avant Garde or Liberal diatribe?

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In the early pages of love in the Time of Cholera the masterful Gabriel Garcia Marques uses lucid and brilliant prose to carry a lesson, which I think we would do ourselves well to consider.

When narrating some of Loratio Thugut’s peculiar sexual habits as a novelty of the avant garde to the sexually and emotionally naive protagonist, Florentine Ariza. Marques says specifically …and so Loratio Thugut could never persuade him that watching and letting himself be watched were the refinements of European princes…just as Floretine Ariza could not be bent to forego his values beliefs and principles to the more seductive excceses of his German fiend in the novel. We as young people of the African continent and of Namibia in particular, should avert being seduced by the easy and romantic notions of liberalism and its nascent excesses

The world is not what it seems, the beautiful is often ugly and the ugly is often prettier than its surface reveals, it would seem that truth is no longer determined by the free conscious but by thugery, collusion and the imagery that is invented subjectively and without the consideration of the values of Africans in particular, it shocks me how easily people are willing to forego their independence and liberty for temporary expedience. There are those amongst us, whom have become too comfortable in this pretension of an existence. The current global economic turmoil reveals only that our economies have misplaced priorities and that ultimately it is the poor, the young, old, woman and the rural masses of black Africa that will bear the brunt of this crisis.

We watch with flushed eagerness the resolutions of the summits of the G8, anticipating with salivating reverence that perhaps Bernake, Bush, Straus Kahn, Sarkozy or Fukuda will offer solution to our burden, how futile and foolish this is. Nujoma has taught us and continues to preach food security as a paramount precondition to our cause, we must be able to feed ourselves before all else. Then invest in the education and technological advancement of our people, this is imperative. Failing this, our states will have no choices to make for themselves and we will have no freedom other than the freedom to salivate for more of the same.

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Where others waver, the youth league shall soldier on....

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A disturbing development occupies my mind as I write this post, the first post after several weeks of absence. A period during which we in the Namibian Youth Development sector, lost our dear fiend and compatriot Chris Hawala suddenly and tragically.

I have over the last few weeks been aware in the back fissures of my mind that there is a growing insolence both in the SWAPO Party, media and others for the SWAPO Party Youth league, its leadership and its opinions. I have now come to see, that not only is this festering thought real, but I have seen indications that there are those who seem to be willing to use all manner and means to make known their disdain for the SWAPO Party Youth league.

It now seems that the issue that is at the root of this rancorous backlash is preeminently the Zimbabwe crisis. It is totally acceptable that in the course of a debate, that we influence and synthesize each other views, it is also acceptable that we dissect the opinions of others and often expose the fault lines in such arguments, it is even occasionally suitable to differ strongly and publicly where such differences are acute, but what is certainly not tenable is for foreign Ambassadors to our country to determine the views of the countries leadership on its young people. It is very disturbing that some in the top echelons of our countries leadership are developing an aversion for the Youth league its leaders and opinions, based solely on the positions they hold on certain issues.

If anything this reaction is the antithesis of liberal democracy which seems to be the growing mantra amongst those who lead our party and country, SWAPO party despite it clear oscillation towards scientific socialism and Panafricansim, in its party constitution seems to be in practice a broad church, similar to what the ANC likes to profess of itself. It seems to me that the vagueness outside the parties’ constitution and political program is the cause of the hyper myopia, identity crisis and allergy that some have for the written and expressed ideological positions of the Party, which the youth league seeks to defend. The Youth league has said and done nothing outside of this framework, thus this undeclared war on the league and its leaders seems have a deeper and more sinister genesis than seems apparent.

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Panafricanism in Namibia : Henny Seibeb , Elijah T Ngurare , Clinton Swartbooi


Related to country: Namibia
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This week i have the pleasure to post a piece guest written by three close friends and associates all of whom have been playing a role in re-enegesing both the political landscape and Panafrican thinking in Namibia.

This in my view is a timely piece in that Namibia needs to do much soul searching in her attempt to define herself in the broad context of the "One Africa" project.



‘I beg to direct your attention to Africa: I know that in a few years I shall be cut off in that country, which is now open: Do not let it be shut again! I go back to Africa to try to make an open path for commerce and Christianity; do you carry out the work which I begun. I leave the work which I begun. I leave it with you’
David Livingstone, European Missionary-Explorer

“The missionary says that we are the children of God like our White brothers….but just look at us. Dogs, slaves, worse than baboons on the rocks…..that is how you treat us”
A Herero to a German Settler

“The Hottentots have no aeroplanes, and because of that the Boers and the British can bomb them out of their holes and huts and ultimately subdue them. But around these American cities and this Western World we have many Negroes who can fly in aeroplanes. Why not build some, and when the Hottentots need aeroplanes to combat aeroplanes, why not give them of our technical ability and help them to put over the big job that all of us want done”
Marcus Garvey


In using these quotes, it is not our intention to reopen the wounds of the past, but in our view, these wounds have not yet healed completely because the bandage continues to be cut by the realities of the relationship between the ‘Master Race vs. the Slave Race’. We are aware of the sensitivity of this characterization but judging the behaviour of our modern Africa both as individual States and people, there is increasing evidence to substantiate the dominance of the ‘Master Race’ and its subjugation of the ‘Slave Race’. The negrophobic attacks in South Africa as well as Kenya are examples that whilst we slaughter ourselves over crumbs from the capitalist table, the European neo-colonisers remain in control of our means of production, our economies and prices of African strategic raw materials. In this opinion piece, we argue that the only practical and realistic way for us as a people and continent to truly free ourselves from the mental shackles of colonialism and regain our true self determination and economic independence is through Pan-Afrikanism.



Clearly, since the advent of Europeans in Africa, our continent and people have not known real peace, stability and tranquility. Instead in the place of peace came war, in the place of stability came the drawing of arbitrary colonial borders (in 1884-5) and in the place of tranquility came slavery, racism and colonialism.
The African people were exported and sold as commodities in Europe, North America, South America and the Caribbean. The Constitution of the United States of America even declared an African as being 3/5 of a human being. Indeed, this African Holocaust began with the ‘European Renaissance’ in Italy in 1400 and since then slavery, colonialism and racism had ravaged the African continent and its people for centuries. It was the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism which destroyed Africa and underdeveloped it. In his book “How Europe underdeveloped Africa”, Dr Walter Rodney gives a vivid picture of this African tragedy. Slavery and colonialism were made possible by the so-called European Renaissance. The authors of this renaissance used the compass and gunpowder. These Chinese inventions for peaceful purposes were used by Europeans to steal the land and wealth of Africans.

It was as a result of this that visionary leaders of African descent advocated that all Africans - wherever they might be - should unite to end slavery, colonialism and racism. As a result of these events African people world wide began to realize that they faced common problems (slavery, colonization, and racism), and that it would be to their benefit to work together in an effort to solve these problems. Out of this realization came the Pan African Conferences of 1900 (London), 1919 (Paris), 1921 (London, Brussels, Paris), 1923 (London), 1927 (New York), and the last official one was in 1940s.

As Motsoko Pheko points out in his article in The Sowetan (1999), Pan Afrikanism is a movement began in 1776, however, the fifth Pan-African Congress held in Manchester, England, in 1945 advanced Pan-Afrikanism and applied it to the decolonisation of the African continent politically. Some African leaders involved in this noble cause were giants such as Kwame Nkrumah, William du Bois, Jomo Kenyatta, Robert Sobukwe and Patrice Lumumba. In other words, “Pan-Afrikanism includes the intellectual, political and economic cooperation that should lead to the political unity of Africa. The Pan-African alternative provides a framework for African unity.” It also fosters radical change in the colonial structures of the economy, and the implementation of an inward-looking strategy of production and development. It calls for the unification of financial markets, economic integration, a new strategy for initial capital accumulation and the design of a new political map for Africa. Contemporary Africa is beset with difficulties rooted in its inability to unite territorially. The consequences have been national economies incapable of developing because of geographical, economic and political reasons.



We must accept this truth, and take it as our prime duty, if the restoration of Africa is to become a reality. Today we have currencies and passports which allegedly identify us from one another. Yet our currencies lose their values at the borders where we willingly surrender to the power of the Euro and American Dollar. Our national passports are used to restrict the movements of Africans but not of Europeans and Anglo-Saxons from America and elsewhere.

It is imperative to quote Pheko further when he states that “The artificial borders that separate the national territories in the region are divisive of people united by history and divisive of regions united by geography to the extent that they are the subject of disputes and conflicts between African states. SADC must strive for a community that transcends the economic level and strive for the territorial and political unification of Africa. This is the only way for the continent to become a great modern power. This is the only protection against neo-liberalism and globalisation.”

Pan-Afrikanism demands that the riches of Africa be used for the benefit, upliftment, development and enjoyment of the African people. Pan-Afrikanism is a system of equitably sharing food, clothing, homes, education, healthcare, wealth, land, work, security of life and happiness. Pan-Afrikanism is the privilege of the African people to love themselves and to give themselves and their way of life respect and preference. In other words there should be no need to sell white dolls in predominantly black neighborhoods or countries because such dolls are not made in the image of Africans but of Europeans. The only window out of this self-imposed slavery is Pan-Afrikanism. The current problems of Africa therefore are ‘neo-slavery, neo-racism, neo-colonialism, globalisation and neo-apartheid’. So why Pan-Afrikanism, because it was developed by outstanding African scholars, political scientists, historians and philosophers living in Africa and the Diaspora. It was conceived in the womb of Africa. It is a product made in Africa by Africans. Pan-Afrikanism is the oldest vision in Africa. No other ideology has successfully challenged Pan-Afrikanism intellectually. In other words, we do not need ‘coconut academics’ today who look black outside but white inside, NO, we need genuine African scholars, political scientists, historians and philosophers living in and the Diaspora to provide a salvation of the Afro-centric ideals espoused by great African visionaries of yesteryears.

PAN-AFRIKANISM IN NAMIBIA YESTERDAY

The national resistance wars of 1904-05 certainly had a lasting effect on the indigenous people’s lifestyle and views regarding Whites in Namibia in terms of Unity and Solidarity. Since the popular uprising by Hereros and Namas was crushed brutally by Lothar Von Trotha’s commando, many of the indigenous leaders were forced to sign protection treaties and surrendered to German Imperial Forces.

From July 1915, the South African regime took over the control of the Namibian territory from Germany, ending 30 years of German colonial rule. Although there has been a change in regime from one master to the other, the oppressive policies remain largely unchanged. Between 1920 and 1925 resistance against colonial rule assumed a variety of forms unparallel in Namibian history (Tony Emmet).

This period also witness the emergence of new forms of political organizations and ideological strands that transcended pre-colonial divisions and began laying a basis for national unity. Among various organizations that were established were the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), the African People’s Organisation (APO) and the South West Africa National Congress (SWANC). Tony Emmet notes that “UNIA with its Pan-Africanist platform proved remarkably successful, spreading from the industrial center of Luderitz to other urban, centers, and then to the countryside”.

Both Tony Emmet and Gregory Pirio acknowledge that the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League were launched in Luderitz in 1921. The nucleus for the formation of the UNIA branch was constituted by a small group of West Africans and West Indians who had settled in the coastal towns of the territory. The majority of this group was said to be originating from Liberia, the Cameroon’s, Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast and had been brought into Namibia by the Germans before and during World War 1. In 1910…fifty men and a number of women and children were deported from German colony of Kamerun to Luderitz, following mutiny among the Black Schutztruppe in the West Africa colony (Tony Emmet). Some of the West Africans had been brought to Namibia by Woermann Shipping Company.

Towards the end of 1921 the Luderitz branch of UNIA had a membership of 331 and had collected more or less 41 pounds in subscription fees, a huge amount at that time considering the Black population of 2155 in Luderitz. Upon registration each recruit received a ‘Black, Red and Green Rossette’ which worn on the lapel (Gregory Pirio).

The Luderitz UNIA Branch was active in mobilizing the Blacks under one umbrella body. The continued exploitation of Blacks in all its manifestations-politically, socially and economically gave rise to the unity and resistance zeal to these ordinary people. Fritz Headly, its President was always persistent and resilient in providing the Parent Body with material documenting the real situation and used to write letters to the Negro World and was thus instrumental in acquainting Black people throughout the world with the oppressiveness of the South African mandate regime in South West Africa.



In one such letter, he stated (Gregorio Pirio);

‘We are segregated, discriminated, disenfranchised, jim-crowed in cattle trucks, coal boxes, and last but not least, butchered by the other fellow with rifle and machine gun bullets. But what we are dealing with mostly is segregation wholly in its aspects in the former regime of our oppressors the Germans’

GARVEYISM SPREAD TO THE COUNTRYSIDE


The Luderitz division of the UNIA branch was established in Windhoek in October 1921 under the guidance of its President Headly. From the onset what makes the Windhoek Branch of UNIA unique was that the executive of the branch was firmly under the control of local Black leaders.

The local leaders who were prominent in the Windhoek branch were Hosea Kutako, Aaron John Mungunda, Traugott Maharero, and Nikanor Hoveka. Other leaders on the executive committee were Alpheus Harasemab and Franz Hoisemab.

The Windhoek Branch sent out in October 1922 two emissaries-Theodor Hambue and John Mungunda to establish branches of the association in Usakos, Karibib and Okahandja (Gregory Pirio). Headly was also instrumental in the founding of the UNIA Branch in Swakopmund.

Not only were the ideals of Garveyism spreading in Namibia but the Parent Body also got wind of the activities of the UNIA Namibia. The first formal connection between Namibia and Garveyist organization is said to occur in 1922 when a UNIA delegation was sent to Geneva to petition the League of Nations to turn the former German Colonies over to black leadership (Tony Emmet).

Garvey himself was not disappointed or discouraged by the continued ignorance and silence by the League of Nations and continued steadfastly, in a true combative form to support the cause of South West African Blacks. One such example is in reaction to the aerial attacks against the Bondelswarts (in 1922),


Marcus Garvey had declared on the front page of the Negro World;

‘The Hottentots have no aeroplanes, and because of that the Boers and the British can bomb them out of their holes and huts and ultimately subdue them. But around these American cities and this Western World we have many Negroes who can fly in aeroplanes. Why not build some, and when the Hottentots need aeroplanes to combat aeroplanes, why not give them of our technical ability and help them to put over the big job that all of us want done’
Gregory Pirio

It is befitting to mention here that the hallmark of the early phase of the African liberation was the need to unite in the face of common intruders. The unity of purpose, which was so openly provided by Pan-Afrikanism in the form of UNIA’s ideological nexus, in action for change, heralded the birth of the Modern Namibian Nationalism, giving rise to the emergence of nationalist organizations in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

PAN-AFRIKANISM IN NAMIBIA TODAY

Namibia gained its independence on the 21st of March 1990, ushering in a new wave of democracy and nation-building process. Indeed, the last colony on the African continent had become part of the international community. The challenge for the SWAPO leadership was now to transform the economy which was beset by a myriad of contradictions and inequalities into a modern economy, which is able to respond to the challenges faced by the people. The SWAPO Party government not only concentrated on transforming the education system but also provided the much needed political space, where young people, the majority of them who have not witness war could innovate with new ideas and ideologies.

It was during such time that the Pan-African Students Society (PASS) was formed in 1994 at the University of Namibia by the political science students to enhance the process of dialectics. According to Joshua Kaumbi, the Chairperson of PASS from 1998/9 the aim of the student society was to ‘promote African values and morals; acknowledge and honour the contribution of African men and women towards the advancement of the Pan-African ideas; to organize public lectures and to undertake research on issues affecting Africans at home and in the Diaspora’ (The African Origin of Civilization and the Destiny of Africa: 2000).

PASS was amongst the most vibrant and vocal societies on the campus. It held numerous public lectures and seminars on topics such as Global Politics, International Terrorism, Privatisation of Higher Education etc. It also hoisted the AU flag on the Unam campus. It brought in High Commissioners, Leading African intellectuals and Pan-Afrikan Activists. One memorable event is the co-hosting of the ‘Land Question’ seminar workshop with The Caucus Political Science Club of the University of Namibia in 2000. It was fully attended by high level student segments and High Commissioners from both Britain and Zimbabwe, and agricultural unions.

It was amidst this euphoria that student leaders such as Joshua Kaumbi, Ben Uugwanga and John Pangech decided to organize a first-ever Pan-Afrikan Conference in an independent Namibia together with the resourceful Pan-Afrikanist like the current Prime Minister Cde. Nahas Angula, Cde. Bankie F. Bankie, a devoted Nkrumahist, and Cde. Utoni Nujoma.

‘The African Origin of Civilisation and the Destiny of Africa’ conference was held at the Safari Hotel conference complex, in Windhoek, 24 May 1999 on the eve of the OAU day. This conference attracted a high level political segment, students, and African academics such Prof KK Prah, Dani Nabudere of the Du Bois/Diop Center in Uganda, and Malegapuru Makgoba, amongst others.

After this watershed conference, which was aired live both on NBC TV and Radio, the resolution was then taken to establish a Pan-Afrikan Center in Namibia, which shall mobilize, propagate and disseminate the ideals of Pan-Afrikanism. It was in this collective spirit that the Pan-Afrikan Center of Namibia was established with its first Chairperson being Uazuva Kaumbi. During his tenure PACON has tried rudimentary to attract academics from Diaspora such as Prof. Horace Campbell, Runoko Rashidi. To date the only and probably the biggest project of PACON has been the movie ‘Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation’.

In the year 2005, PASS has also organized a historic first of its kind 17th All Afrika Students Conference (AASC) at the University of Namibia, in smart partnership with Unam, NANSO and National Youth Council. Previously, All Afrika Students Conferences used to take place only at the Caribbean Universities, Canada and the United States of America. Therefore, PASS’s Conference was the real attempt at bringing the students from the Diaspora and Continent to engage on matters of mutual consent. It also tried to harbour notable Pan-Afrikanist such as Omali Yashitela, Chairperson of the Global Afrikan Congress Cikiah Thomas, and Kalenjin.

DID PACON KILL PAN-AFRIKANISM IN NAMIBIA?

This is a question that has been posed because there are serious concerns particularly amongst those who used to frequent the center during its formative years that the Center and more importantly the ideology of Pan-Afrikanism is under threat. In raising this question, we are keenly conscious of the dedication and hard work of those entrusted with the responsibility of PACON although on part-time basis. It is not to be understood that our take is against an individual person because Pan-Afrikanism is beyond that.

In our view, PACON in its entirety was supposed to be a Center for Pan-Afrikan education, teaching, studying, research and preservation of Afrikan history, culture and religion throughout the 13 Regions and beyond.

PACON’s rallying point and purpose was to teach the rich and diverse history and heritage of Afrikan people and their immense contribution to humanity. It should also touch on subjects as diverse as contemporary Afrikan economics and politics, religion, astronomy and science.


PACON as an Afrikan centered institution in Namibia was and is able to organize seminars and presentations to bring much needed educational material to the attention of local people as well as Afrikan people from the Diaspora who on a visit to Namibia should make it their mission to go to PACON, to learn more about their Afrikan culture and heritage. PACON is also important in the sense that it is the only institution of its type in Namibia since 1999/2000 to occupy a Pan-Afrikan agenda and is strategic to offer counter ideology academically, via research to the new anti-establishment organizations and other non-progressive counter revolutionaries. It must also be added that the success of PACON ought only not to be the preserve of Government but indeed it is the Center that our corporate citizens should be availing all the necessary resources to including financial and material support.

The role which PACON has played in the production of Namibia’s first ever internationally acclaimed film based on the life of our National Hero, H.E. Cde. Sam Nujoma, an icon of the Namibian Liberation Struggle, is commendable. However, above all and unfortunately, beyond the film, the activities of PACON have remained largely dormant in the last five years or so. For example, in the year 2006, there was only one Public Lecture that was initiated by our colleague Cde. Henny Seibeb, namely the Annual Sam Nujoma Public Lecture, which was eventually launched by the Founding Father, H.E. Cde. Sam Nujoma.

It is also notable that during the launch of the Annual Sam Nujoma Public Lecture, the Afro-Voice magazine was announced and even launched by the Founding Father with the promised that it shall be an ongoing magazine but up to date nothing came of it and Namibians are still waiting for the publication of the second edition. It is a sordid state of affairs that if we are not vigilant it will be possible that PACON may soon be infiltrated by neo-colonial agents who are hell-bent on decapacitating the institution from inside with the sole aim of surrendering it to the counter-revolutionaries and hogwash voodoo academics.

Today PACON is not able to command the space for which it was created for. It appears also that PACON, or perhaps some individuals, have made the organization to take a complete U-Turn against the ideals of Pan-Afrikanism and attacks its democratic kith and kin, and it seems at present to feed the neo-liberals and other moonlighting political projects, with vital information on our strategy and tactics, which cannot even offer a viable alternative to our people.

It is our wish and hope that the line Ministry and the Pan-Afrikan Students Society (PASS) through the Patron of PACON and other stakeholders would leave no stone unturned in realizing the patriotic ideals of Pan-Afrikanism within the context of Namibia. We call upon the students of the University of Namibia to register in their thousands and rally behind PASS in order to realize this vision.


A worldwide look throughout history will reveal the crucial involvement of students in sparking positive changes. Their success is due to the unique position that they hold in society. Students, with their exposure to wide-ranging information and access to educational tools and resources are better able to develop an understanding of the world lacking among the masses. Students, too, are in a unique position because they, for the most part, have not yet committed themselves to their career jobs. Kwame Ture stated in an address entitled, “Education as a Tool for Liberation”, that the purpose of education is “to lead one out of problems”. Once armed with the educational tools and an understanding of the problem as well as the solution, the student is prepared to use his or her youthful energy to unite with others and struggle for the betterment of all.

The students must engage in the new Pan-Afrikanism of the twenty-second century by taking a progressive stand on environmental issues and state of the world’s ecology and climate change. They must address the utilization of the natural resources of the world; our reliance on petro-chemicals and carbon-based technologies which foul the air and pollute our water; and storage of toxic wastes which shorten our lives of our children.

The Pan-Afrikan Students Society must, in a nutshell, remember that Pan-Afrikanism remains as an essential democratic vision, to deconstruct and uproot the inequalities of racism; to challenge the unpopular capitalist “New World Order” represented by the IMF, the Economic Hit Men and World Bank. Let the former student activists of PASS call a re-union to revitalize this once glorious society and craft its niche.

It is within this context that we are issuing a clarion call to all notable Pan-Afrikanist to mobilize in order to hasten the Pan-Afrikan agenda, amidst the negrophobic attacks that we are witnessing today in South Africa, the ethnic conflicts in Kenya, the derailment of peoples plan to implement emancipatory projects by the Western implanted agents in our eco-systems (economic) and voodoo economic planning by Western consultants to set us back. We must never capitulate and shall resist any attempt to negate us from the revolutionary journey of Pan-Afrikanism.

THE WAY FORWARD: PAN AFRICANISM

In our view, all African countries and peoples must institutionalize Pan-Afrikanism in all facets of their lives. It should also include the deliberate gestures by African leaders (Presidents, former Presidents, Ministers, former Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, CEOs, MDs, Traditional Leaders, Musicians, Artists, etc) to become disciples of this Pan-Afrikanism gospel and for ordinary African peasants to be afforded the opportunity to travel Africa by attending AU or SADC summits etc.


In individual countries it also means that efforts by various African governments should include allowing the people from the north, south, west and east in each country to be on cultural exchanges within the country in the form of Pan African Bus or Cultural Libraries and so forth.

In conclusion, we find it instructive to once more borrow from Motsoko Pheko’s analysis of Pan-Afrikanism in which he draws attention to the lecture of a prominent Nigerian political scientist who reminded participants at the fifth Pan-African Colloquium in Ghana of the historical context of the 'European Renaissance', from which the so-called 'African renaissance' is trying to borrow and transpose its rationale. He pointed out that the 'European Renaissance' was the foundation of slavery, colonialism and racism. Africa has nothing to gain from this decadence, which was responsible for the worst holocaust of the African people in memory.

The inheritors of this inhuman 'renaissance' are still working hard to perpetuate the holocaust of the African people and the underdevelopment of Africa, which they inflicted through slavery, colonialism, apartheid and racism. Today these forces have their Pan-Europeanism through their European Union, making them a powerful economic bloc. They are integrating socially and politically, and working for a borderless Europe.

On the other hand, Africa is wallowing in the quagmire of underdevelopment, poverty, endless border wars, economic domination and the dictatorship of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This is because African leaders are dragging their feet on the implementation of Pan-Afrikanism and have made Africa a perpetual beggar of foreign 'aid'. Some of these leaders have become agents of neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism, whose instrument is 'globalisation'. Globalisation is just a new form of recolonising the African continent. There will continue to be an ideological and intellectual crisis in the African world until Africans understand Pan-Afrikanism, its value and benefits, and apply it to their many problems.

These include 'foreign debts', reparations, repatriation of African intellectual property from the museums of Europe, lack of continental railroads and air routes, intra-trade, communication and technological development among the African people and states.

The triumph of Pan-Afrikanism is the only way Africans can survive the foreign onslaught and live as a truly liberated people, will come out of the sweat and blood of the African people themselves.





As Dr. Kwame Nkrumah put it:

“Only a united Africa can redeem its past glory, renew and reinforce its strength for the realisation of its destiny. We are today the richest and yet the poorest of continents, but in unity our continent could smile in a new era of prosperity and power.”

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