Kae Matundu Tjiparuro
Arguably, the biggest challenge facing many impoverished Namibians today is economic emancipation.
Arguably, because in itself, without much elucidation, the term “economic emancipation” is not only meaningless but senseless – especially ideologically.
Particularly hearing that 35 years after the country is believed to have been free and independent, it is not and actually has not been, by the politicians’ own admission, in view of the realisation, if only post facto, by the Swapo Party of Namibia itself.
It is strange that the country has not been free yet, while with the lowering of the apartheid South African flag on 21 March 1990 and the hoisting of Namibia’s own, this is the day the country must and should have been free.
Still, the last 35 years have clearly demonstrated that it is NOT YET UHURU!
This does not only beg the question as to when, if ever, it shall be uhuru, but also uhuru from what, if in the first place, on 21 March 1990, it was meant to have been uhuru?
If 21 March 1990, as may be, then it was never uhuru, or real uhuru, why was it necessary to accept an uhuru that ultimately, as it has been becoming clear over the years and transpiring, has not been uhuru yet for Namibia?
But to give those who accepted it as uhuru the benefit of the doubt, accepting first the political kingdom – which is and must have been what happened on 21 March 1990 – then when shall it be uhuru?
If what happens, and when, and after how long? Because from the look of things, it seems like an eternity before, let alone there shall be a full realization that it is NOT YET UHURU.
It has taken the country, as it seems, a good 35 years to let alone realise that real freedom is far from being attained.
Not only this, but then it was clear and/or was assumed, if not imagined and assumed naively or otherwise, even opportunistically, that freedom would be attained from colonialism.
Meaning that it was believed then, rightly or wrongly, that colonialism was the problem. Thus, getting rid of it would pave the way forward. Forward towards what? This was and has never been spelt out and/or defined.
Notwithstanding that since political independence, there has been talk of economic emancipation, which, again, remains undefined and at most has come to be no more than pure political fixation.
Because while it was clear then, during the liberation struggle, that freedom was to be attained from colonialism and/or foreign domination, it has been becoming clear, if anything, that it was easier said than done – oblivious to the true nature of the elephant in the room, with the assumption that this elephant, more than anything else, if not solely, was foreign political domination.
Since 21 March 1990, presumably, foreign political domination has been done away with. Unaware that indeed colonialism over the years has been transforming, if not regenerating itself from one geo-political era to another, thereby reborn.
It has not been much a matter of colonialism regenerating itself and/or undergoing a rebirth, but an inherent re-engineering designed for the survival of colonialism.
Because colonialism has not been in existence by itself but is the design and product of the very system it has been serving, which is capitalism.
This means getting rid of colonialism per se was and remains meaningless. Because, first, it was and has not been the problem, as the problem is and has been bigger than colonialism as was and continues to be assumed.
Even in today’s era of NOT YET UHURU, one cannot talk in terms of the riddance of colonialism, for that matter cannot be said to have been done away with at all.
As much as colonialism, as might have been perceived during the pre-liberation era and largely continues to have been, may not be anymore, one cannot with certainty say that indeed colonialism in Namibia, let alone in many of the former colonised countries, whether in Africa, Asia, or Latin America, has been done away with, given its regenerative capacity, not to mention its many metamorphoses, which have been giving lie to its continued existence under different guises.
Call them what you call them, but as exemplified by many so-called development blocs which have been created with the political independence of many former colonies wherever, starting with the Lomé Convention – the continued neo-colonial exploitation of African countries by their former colonising powers.
Today manifesting itself in the so-called regional cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU), conveniently and misleadingly referred to as Africa-EU partnership, which is often also referred to misleadingly as a strategic partnership.
Hence, when Namibia talks about economic emancipation, this is not something that one must and should take for granted.
Because in most if not all cases, and for all intents and purposes, the concept cannot be as hollow as it may have been sounding and/or projected, especially by the Swapo Party of Namibia and its government’s apparatchiks.
Granted that indeed there is no more colonialism in Namibia, let alone neo-colonialism, still the question begs: economic emancipation from what?
If economic emancipation, as we are made to believe, remains the elephant in the room – is it economic emancipation from capitalism?
If, of all systems, it is the capitalist system still having people in bondage, thus needing emancipation, it goes without saying that it is not colonialism, nor neo-colonialism, but capitalism.
But few of the Swapo Party leaders and activists alike seem to have the courage of such a conviction, thus continuing to resort to political rhetoric by employing catchphrases such as “economic emancipation,” “transformation,” and what-have-you.
