Lazarus Kwedhi
Thirty six years after independence, Namibia is still drowning in a system built by Jan Smuts. Not because of race, but because of the dual structure of superiority and subordination in land, language, labour, and dignity.
Until we decolonise the mind, we keep redecorating colonialism and apartheid and calling it independence. Colonialism and apartheid keep changing colour like a chameleon.
They did not just take our land. They threw Namibians into the deepest sea. The purpose was never to save us, but to drown us.
In that sea, as a nation, we have two choices: we either learn to swim, or we risk drowning. Therefore, the question of who threw us into the deep ocean is a matter of history. Learning how to swim is a matter of survival.
Let us learn from the wisdom of a newborn baby who does not ask who the real mother is. The child is hungry and immediately latches on to survive. Namibia must do the same.
Hence, reminding ourselves about who colonised us is important, but dismantling the colonial and apartheid ruling structures is the focal point of decolonisation of post-independent Namibia.
The origin of the dual state in one country
To understand Namibia today, we must return to Jan Smuts. As South Africa’s Prime Minister and architect of the mandate over South West Africa, Smuts perfected what scholar Mahmood Mamdani calls the “bifurcated state.”
Smuts built two states in one country. The first is the Citizen State: urban areas and commercial farms, governed by civil law with property rights and representation, meant for white settlers.
The second is the Subject State: rural areas governed through chiefs and customary law, meant for native Africans and Namibians with permission to occupy land, but without land rights.
Race, white or black, was the marker of colonialism and apartheid. But the goal was power, wealth, and the exclusion of the majority from economic opportunities. The citizen system was declared superior and modern, while the native system was declared subordinate and traditional.
In Namibia this became: commercial land vs communal land; north vs south of the redline; Municipal Council vs Traditional Authority; civil law vs customary law; Cape Education vs Bantu Education. The aim was to enrich a small group of political and economic ruling elites at the expense of the majority.
Mamdani’s warning to the pre-independence leadership
Mamdani warned that colonial structures do not disappear after independence. They reshape into neocolonialism to defend themselves, just as the chameleon changes colour. After German rule, the South African apartheid regime added “divide and rule” to Smuts’ blueprint.
Namibians were restricted to homelands and sorted into categories: Koevoet vs PLAN, territorial forces vs “terrorist,” puppet vs freedom fighter, one homeland vs another.
The purpose was simple: make the majority fight each other so they would never unite to challenge the system that enslaved and exploited them, the same system that kept them landless, poor, and underdeveloped.
Post-1990: Same structure, new colours
In 1990, Namibia won political independence. The flag changed. The national anthem changed. But the colonial and apartheid structures remained intact.
Citizen vs Subject became the ruling political elite vs the majority. Those with title deeds, bank loans, and access in towns vs those in informal settlements and communal areas with state permission to occupy land and entitled to mere compensation during township proclamation.
Commercial vs communal land remains. Commercial land is bankable with title deeds and market value. Communal land is administered by the state and traditional leaders without commercial value.
Government vs Chiefs remains. The politician holds the state budget. The other is called “custodian of culture.” The redline remains. Livestock and red meat from south of the redline move freely, while livestock from north of the redline faces restrictions.
The old divide-and-rule returned in new forms: party colour, ruling vs opposition, war veteran vs non-veteran, born in exile vs born in the country, state funeral vs family burial.
We are no longer colonised by white people and we are no longer divided by skin colour alone. We are now colonised and divided by who has access to the “superior” side of the dual system.
This is why even many of our most educated and freedom fighters in the legislature, executive, and judiciary cannot imagine beyond the colonial structure to successfully lead the decolonisation of post-independent Namibia.
Simply because they were trained not only to hate, but to use and sustain the colonial and apartheid system in a new shape. Bantu Education taught native Namibians to memorise the textbook and never taught innovation and critical thinking.
Baas/meneer became VIP with allowances and privileges. Kaffir became the blue-collar workforce with slavery wages and unemployment. English and Afrikaans stayed the gatekeepers to power while mother tongues are pushed to the margins.
The colonisation of the mind was the biggest weapon
The deepest colonisation was of the mind. Colonial education used what Paulo Freire called the “banking system”: deposit facts, withdraw them in exams. No critical thinking. No questions. No connection between the textbook and life in Havana, Katutura, or the communal areas.
From this background, both pre- and post-independent Namibia learned three lessons. Firstly, one system is naturally superior to the other. Secondly, we must compete in categories created to divide, exploit, and enslave us. Thirdly, liberation and election means joining the elite, not dismantling the colonial and apartheid ruling structures.
So we argue about who is a “real Namibian” or ruling party vs opposition, while the dual land system and redline stay untouched. We fight over veteran and hero status while a small class profits from our division.
The only way forward: Learn to swim
If colonisation weaponised education to mentally enslave native Namibians, then decolonisation must start and end with education as the enabler to dismantle colonial and apartheid ruling structures.
We already know who threw us into the deep sea. Now we must teach ourselves how to swim, or we risk drowning in the deep sea of debt, hunger, poverty, crime, unemployment, and underdevelopment. To swim means three things:
First, see the water. Teach every child that colonialism and apartheid were not just about white people. They were about a dual system of superiority and subordination designed to enrich a few and exclude the majority.
Second, move your limbs. Replace memorisation with critical thinking and innovation. Take students to read the Communal Land Reform Act and redline, and ask: who does this Act or redline serve? How do we change it?
Third, swim together. Reject the categories meant to divide, exploit, and enslave us. The real divide is not party, veteran status, or race. It is the majority vs the small group that benefits from keeping two systems alive to exploit and enslave the majority.
One nation, no boundaries
There must be no boundaries among Namibians. The boundaries were drawn in 1915 by Smuts to keep us weak.
Colonialism and apartheid represent the deep ocean water we were thrown into and were meant to kill, exploit, and enslave us. To keep redecorating colonialism and apartheid and calling it independence is to tread water until we sink into pure post-independence slavery.
The only option is to learn to swim – decolonisation of the mind. That means one system of Namibianship: one system of rights and one system of land.
It starts when a child learns not to repeat the textbook, but to ask: “Who wrote this, and who benefits if I believe it?”
Colonialism and apartheid in chameleon skin die the day we stop seeing each other as citizen and subject, and start seeing each other as Namibians in the same boat. If we keep it afloat, we all survive. If it sinks, we all drown.
