Racism in Namibia

"About 25 years ago, almost every white person was 'boss' or meneer, I guess it sort of just sunk in that that's how it's supposed to be", replied a man in his late forties after he bumped into a white guy outside a local store in Windhoek, Namibia. The white guy was a tourist from Finland trying to find out if Namibians were racist or not.I found that on a YouTube video made in 2015.

Last week, Aunt Iselin and I spoke about racism in Namibia. It was pretty educational, I guess, even for me, because I had never really thought about racism in Namibia. I mean I know that Namibia has an apartheid past which has strongly influenced how black and white Namibians interact with each other, but I also know that a lot has been done over the years to try and fix what was wronged back then and to bring the people together. Sadly, the entire goal has not been reached yet but with young optimistic citizens, the goal might not be so far away.

So, Aunt Iselin volunteered at an orphanage where I lived with my little sister for a couple of months, hence the 'aunt' in Aunt Iselin. We used 'aunt' to anybody that helped at the orphanage as a a sign of respect and in this way, we got a lot of cool aunts too!

Anyway, she told me about this one day when she went to buy meat at a local store with one of the boys from the orphanage. It was already so strange to people that a white person was in Dolam, Katutura and I knew why, because that hardly happens. Ever. White people stay on their side of town and unless if your parents got a lot of cash, you stay here with everybody else and only see white people when you go to a mall or go to work etc.

They got to the local store that was packed with other customers, all of them black. The other customers were wandering around, just shopping I guess. As soon as they entered, a white lady approached them and offered to help (assuming she was the manager or something). Aunt Iselin thought that was really strange since all the other customers were there too, but then again she was the only white customer and the white manager probably just wanted to help her like she would help any other white person that walked into a store packed with black people.

The point is, one can tell that the division between the races is still very evident, even if it might not be as harsh and brutal as it is in the US and some other places in the world where lives are being lost mostly because of the fear of skin color or just fucking stereotypes. Sorry.

A few years ago, Nico Smit, a member of the Namibian parliament said that the independence celebrations were used as a platform to criticize white people. He then questioned why they would go to a place knowing that they would be insulted and called names. This was in response to the fact that white Namibians do not attend independence celebrations, presumably because it reminds them of what their people did during colonization and if you look at it that way, it makes some sense.

I watched a video of how the Namibian President, Dr Hage Geingob personally welcomed and thanked four Boers that showed up at a SWAPO meeting that had something to do with elections or something. That just went to show how deep that really is. Before anybody catches any feelings, I would like to highlight that there are (prolly) white Namibians that attend these independence celebrations and have a good time while braaiing and chilling because lokal is lekker in Namibia (hehe).

I spent the whole of last week reading about racism in Namibia and watching videos that people uploaded on YouTube. I also asked a couple friends and family what they thought about the interaction between black and white Namibians and I hope their responses will give you an idea how it actually is.

To me it would be fair to say that you still find some individuals that do not want to accept each other and from the black community, it might be because some of them are holding a grudge from the past and from the white community it could be because the tables have now turned, and yet, they still have the upper power. Amid all this, my friends added that they've had pleasant encounters with white Namibians while some have not been really good at all.

I asked about 50 people of which 30 of them ignored or could just not answer for some reason. From the remaining 20 , one of my friends blatantly refused to talk about the topic, she said that her past with white people was in the past. That was it.

Most of my friends who replied mentioned that they didn't really know what to say since they didn't have any white friends. Yes, you walk past one another in malls, you walk into the office and there's that white guy behind the "Manager" door. It's like we living in different countries. That's how it is. Or you know that your mom has been a domestic worker for white people for almost 15 years and nothing has really changed.

One friend mentioned that she went to the same school with white kids and some acted like they were better because of the color of their skin which meant that nobody really came forward and made friends. It's like everybody keeps their distance and that's for the best, that goes without saying. Sometimes whites are seen as targets by black robbers or street thugs, but then again those guys will rob you as long as you look like you have something worth money to them.

One of my former teachers had this to say:

"There's no apartheid as a policy but racism is still experienced in white dominated industries and upmarket residential areas."

It is true that fixing racism in this country will still have a long way to go, but we've come very far from the times of apartheid. The optimistic youth really show that they(we lol) are up for a change and that feeling has been stronger than ever in recent years. As everybody gains an understanding of what it will take to make a change, the goal does not seem so far away.

Stay tuned for my next post!

NB: A White Namibian Speaks Up

hearts, Queen