Namibia-Part 1 (Namibia Heart)

by Leah
(USA)

Soup

Orange rugged hills of the Kalahari Desert was the first view I had of Namibia when I looked out the airplane window before landing in Capital City, Windhoek. The desert seemed to stretch on forever, swallowing up the fairly large city. It was beautiful in a desolate kind of way, mountains popping up like ripples on an otherwise smooth pond. From first looks, it seemed to be everything I thought and read it would be, Namibia was a country of many exotic cultures and colorful people. Namibia was a country that could swallow the heart, capturing it completely. The new republic of only 19 years, was not lacking in history giving Namibia rich heritage.
Being similar to many countries, Namibia’s history starts as most do, with its colonizers. There is not much known about Namibia before the 1800’s, because the Natives did not write their history down untill later. In the year 1485, Diogo Coa, Portuguese explorer, explored the Skeleton Coast, on the west coast of Namibia. It was not until the 1800’s however, that any true explorers took interest in Namibia’s dry land. “Before later independence Namibia was known as South West Africa (SWA), named after its geographic position.” Soon the Germans saw the land as profitable and took control. The German Government handed the white farmers land and livestock seized from the SWA natives. Because of this, the SWA natives faced poverty and starvation. The hardships the natives were forced into caused the people to rebel and take up arms against the German Colonial Rule, this was known as the “War of National Resistance.” When the SWA natives rebelled, it enraged the Germans, who in return brought genocide to the country-killing thousands. In 1915, SWA a German Colony, was defeated by South African troops who then took control of SWA, ending close to 30 years of German Colonial Rule.
Unfortunately, South Africa’s rule was no better than the German rule. South Africa’s Government continued to take SWA natives property and continued to diminish their rights, making it very much a white dominated government. Soon the natives found themselves being relocated to reserves (similar to reservations), according to ethnic groups. To control the SWA natives, South Africa placed tribes strategically away from each other and the whites, trying to keep the tribes from banding together. These reserves were located in areas inhospitable for farming. The soil was poor and whites did not want it. Since the soil was bad for farming, the natives were forced to work for other white farmers, or they would seek work in mines or factories, trying to keep their families from starving. They were not allowed off the homelands (reserves) other than for labor purposes for the white people. Many countries did not like the homeland concept, the United Nations was SWA’s biggest supporter towards its independence. “So the United Nations petitioned the International Court of Justice, declaring South Africa’s control over SWA illegal,”(my-beautiful-namibia.com) but South Africa’s determination to make SWA its fifth province, overcame the attempts at liberating SWA. South Africa continued to introduce policies to separate the whites from the black.
“In 1950 the International Court of Justice declared that South Africa’s actions were illegal,” (my-beautiful-namibia.com) but this tiny victory did not mean SWA was independent form South Africa yet. This small victory only prevented South Africa from declaring SWA as its fifth province. When South Africa continued its oppression towards the SWA natives, “many Namibians fled the country from 1960 to 1980-they fled to neighboring countries.”(my-beautiful-namibia.com) On June 12, 1989, South Africa finally agreed to abolish the discriminatory laws towards the natives. More than 4200 SWA natives were repatriated from more than 40 different countries according to the web site my-beautiful-namibia.com. By 1989 most Namibians had resettled back into their former communities. After much struggle, South West Africa finally gained independence on March 21, 1990, forever changing its name to The Republic of Namibia.
Namibia has very interesting social classes, being a product of its South African rule only 20 years ago. Namibia has three distinct class groups, whites, coloureds, and blacks. “Whites account for about seven percent of Namibia’s population” (World Book). The white people very much have more of a higher social standing, being more or less the better educated class. The second social class is the coloureds, who are of mixed origin, Namibian natives who intermarried with early European Settlers. They tend to be on fairly equal ground with the white class, and not far behind in social standing, often they are just as well-educated as the whites. After the coloureds, who are very proud of their heritage, are the blacks. There is a very distinct difference between coloureds and blacks. Blacks have a much darker completion and traditional African facial features, bigger lips, wider noses, etc…. while the coloureds have lighter skin, and more European features. The black group is very much the bottom of the social classes. Blacks make up over 90 percent of Namibia’s population” (World Book). All classes have equal rights in Namibia, but the years of segregation and separation of the classes, have made a lasting impression in Namibia today. There are three kinds of schools in Namibia; there are the public lower class schools, public upper class schools, and private schools. The public lower class schools have very little supplies and the student per teacher ratio is very high. Julia, a local black woman from Mariental, Namibia stated “you are only required to buy your school uniform, at a local store in order to attend some schools.” Next are the public upper class schools where the wealthier kids attend. These schools are bigger and have a good supply of materials for the children’s learning. Third are the Private Schools where the rich kids go to school. When a student has graduated high school and wants to continue to college, more likely than not they would seek a collage in South Africa. Namibia is trying to build more schools and colleges to help educate their citizens so they can continue to grow towards the country they hope to become.