Part 1: Democracy in Namibia, History and Current Context
Recently there has been a lot of debate in Namibia over what it means to be a democracy and how strong the democracy here in Namibia really is. This debate has proved to be quite interesting and caused me to consider not only the state of democracy here in Namibia but also back in the United States. Before I get into the heart of my commentary it is important to provide a bit of background about Namibia in order to help the reader understand the historical context of this debate.
Namibia was first inhabited by the San (or Bushmen) People until the 1500 when Bantu speaking people immigrated from the north and settled throughout the country. These invaders were soon colonized by European countries, most notably the Germans. The Germans divided the country and began to take the best lands for themselves which sparked a series of rebellions by the existing inhabitants most notably by the Herero and the Nama. These uprisings led to what is considered by many to be the first case of genocide in the 20th century, and included extermination orders and concentration camps that would inspire the camps during the 2nd World War. These methods eventually led to 50% of the Nama and 80% of the Herero being wiped out. Following WWI and the German defeat control of Namibia was given to South Africa and became known as South West Africa. During the South African rule apartheid was extended to Namibia and led to further divisions not only between the whites and the blacks but also between the different tribes of blacks. This separation served to strengthen existing divides between the tribes. Then came the liberation struggle beginning in the 1960s and culminating in independence from South Africa in 1991.
The political party in large part responsible for the victory is known as SWAPO and led by the “father of Namibia” Dr. Sam Nujoma. Nujoma served as the country’s first president, and now serves as the president of the political party. SwAPO is primarily a party associated with the Ovambo people who are the single largest tribe in Namibia as well as being the majority. This means that for all pratical purposes SWAPO is only viable political party in Namibia easily gaining over 60-70% of the vote in each election. Yes there are some opposition parties but they have very little to no real voice in Namibian politics. Furthermore, while Nujoma was term limited by the constitution he remains the president of SWAPO and thus still controls the direction of the party and thus the direction of the country.
This situation means that the majority of the people not part of SWAPO feel in many ways disenfranchised as they have very little real power in the government. This also means that there is a perception that the majority of government programs are given to the “North” (the north referring to the communal area known as Ovamboland during South African rule where the majority of Ovambos and therefore the majority of the population in Namibia resides), while the south and non-Ovambo/SWAPO members suffer. In many ways this is understandable. The majority of the population probably should get the majority of the money from the government and on the whole the South has much better infrastructure than the north do to development for the white farmers during south African rule while the north was basically ignored do to the fact that it was the main area of opposition prior to independence. But as this division is also in large part tribal it continues to foster tribal divisions that existed before apartheid and were actively promoted by the policies or apartheid. (Side note: for those of you who do not know apartheid is an Afrikaans word that literally means separation and was the South African governments policy of extreme segregation that divided not only whites from blacks but also the different tribes of blacks. It was a hierarchical system where whites got the most privileges, then colored (mixed race), then blacks. This is the system that Nelson Mandel and Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu fought against).
So it is against this background that the current debates have been happening over what constitutes a democracy and is Namibia losing democracy through the rule of SWAPO and what the future of democracy in Namibia will be. Also highlighted in this debate is how the democracy if the United States is viewed here and how it has shaped some of the debates.
