Opinions

In early June, the #EndGBVNamibia campaign was launched. I could not attend as I was helping my family prepare to bury my beloved murdered cousin. Slain at the hands of her drunk 'boyfriend and father of her child. Sadly, our family was not the only one making preparations to bury their loved one who had perished at the hands of GBV (Gender Based Violence). Despite the many campaigns, I believe GBV will continue unabated in Namibia.  I'm not suggesting the campaigns are useless, but I think all our lives in Namibia have been impacted in some way by now. We…

PAUL T. SHIPALE (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) Abstract                           This article interrogates the Eurocentric hegemony embedded in memorializing the Herero and Nama genocide (1904–1908) as Southern Africa’s singular genocidal event. Drawing on Frantz Fanon’s dialectics of colonial violence and liberation, it argues for a pan-African historical consciousness that centers the interconnected suffering of marginalized groups—including the Ovambandja, San, Ovakwanyama, Lozi, Mbundja, Ndebele, Shona, Kalanga, Xhosa, Zulu including 8 million Congolese who were massacred by the Belgians.   By exposing the colonial logic of hierarchizing suffering, we call for a unified ethics of remembrance that rejects Western-defined exclusivity in justice. Introduction:…

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro Quo vadis Namibian Revolution? Yours Truly Ideologically cannot but pose this question. Prompted into it after listening to the memorial service of the recently departed Deputy Bishop of the Church of Afrika, Zacharia Zac Ngetujame Makari.  At the time of his departure on Saturday the 30th of  May, a man of cloth. Actually second in command of the Church of Afrika as Deputy Bishop but in charge in the interim following the death of Archbishop Paulus Kandjou early this year. How he  landed behind the pulpit defies logic. Given his radical political outlook nurtured during the South African…

Dr Rauna Shipena  When Immanuel “Imms” Mulunga won his Labour Court case against the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor), many assumed this marked the end of a turbulent chapter. But the question still hangs heavily in the air: What now? Despite a clear ruling in his favour, Mulunga has received no word from his former employer. “They have not reached out to me yet,” he told The Namibian. “I don’t think I’m wanted, to be honest.” This is more than just a workplace dispute. It’s a complex story of broken governance systems, corporate retaliation, strained professional relationships and perhaps,…

Sakaria Johannes  In Namibia’s journey from colonialism to independence, many names have been etched into history. But not all of them have been celebrated equally. One such overlooked figure is Nahas Gideon Angula, a key architect of Namibia’s education system and a quiet giant of nation-building. Angula served as Namibia’s first Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport after independence in 1990. Tasked with dismantling the apartheid-era education system, he led the transformation toward an inclusive and equitable system that aimed to serve all Namibians, not just a privileged few. Under his leadership, sweeping reforms were introduced. A new national…

Lazarus Kwedhi The United Democratic Party’s (UDP) push for the so-called independence of Caprivi, hereafter referred to as the Zambezi Region—separating it from Namibia—is not a democratic right under Namibia’s constitutional democracy. It is, in fact, an act of treason against the Namibian state.  The Namibian Defence Force has a constitutional duty to protect the country’s territorial integrity, and it must do so without hesitation against the UDP’s secessionist attempts to divide Namibia. If not, it is a bad precedent to seek to destabilise national peace and has the potential to compromise the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The independence…