[Vision2020] Southwest Africa: A Century of Brutal Occupation

[Gier, Nicholas]

Greetings:

We've just returned from a 6-week trip to Southern Africa, and I am filled with ideas for upcoming columns.  

September 13 is the 20th anniversary of a massive protest march in Capetown (organized by Bishop Tutu) which was the last major blow to the apartheid regime.  I'm busy gathering my notes for a column on that event.

We spent two weeks in Namibia and we were very impressed with the morale of the people, the stark beauty of the landscape, and the abundant wildlife (even where is no water seven months of the year). Below is my column about the shameful legacy of Germany and South Africa in this incredible land.

The full version with images of Christ Church, the Reiter Memorial, and the Caprivi Strip is attached as a PDF file.

Nick Gier

SOUTHWEST AFRICA: A CENTURY OF BRUTAL OCCUPATION

When I arrived in Namibia last month for a two-week stay, the removal of the Reiter Memorial from the capital Windhoek dominated the news. A front page picture showed the statue, an oversized German soldier astride a horse, hanging from a crane and carefully wrapped for storage. 
 
A small native kneeling at the foot of the statue had been removed long ago, but controversy still continues about the actions of Imperial Germany when it controlled the country as South West Africa from 1884-1919.

The UN’s Whitaker Report of 1985 concluded that German atrocities in their colony constituted the first act of genocide in the 20th Century.  Some historians claim that there is a direct connection between the African labor camps and the Nazi camps 40 years later.  

In 1919 the League of Nations gave the white South African government the responsibility "to promote to the utmost the material and moral well-being and social progress of the inhabitants." The South Africans, however, did not do any better than the Germans.

After World War II the UN General Assembly reminded South Africa of its mandate of beneficent protection, but conditions worsened dramatically as the Nationalist Party extended its brutal apartheid laws to what it now considered its own territory.

Under the advice of the South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO), the UN renamed the country "Namibia" in 1968, and then recognized SWAPO as the sole representative of its people in 1978.  Since its inception in 1959 SWAPO had used nonviolent means to end South Africa's illegal occupation.

South Africa, however, had no interest in giving up Namibia’s vast mineral resources of diamonds, copper, and uranium. In 1966 SWAPO, mainly with the support of Soviet Union, turned to arm struggle and finally won its independence in 1990.

For a party that said that it believed in “scientific socialism” and a “classless society,” SWAPO surprised its critics by not changing the country’s capitalist means of production.  Unlike Zimbabwe, white farmers have not been forced off their lands, but some compulsory farm selling may be on the horizon.

Namibia ranks 6th out of 48 Sub-Saharan countries for good governance, and is 25th out of 169 countries for press freedom.  SWAPO still wins elections by wide margins, but opposition parties are gaining some ground.

In 2008 per capita GDP was $6,577, but this figure obscures huge disparities between the rich and the poor, the largest gap in the world. One half of Namibia's 2 million people lives on only $1.25 per day.  

Namibia's 125,000 whites are still very much in control of the economy, so that means that because of income disparity and separate places of residence apartheid is alive and well.

In order to correct the severe deficiencies of black education under apartheid, the Namibian government has invested heavily in its schools, spending more as a percentage of GDP than all countries but two. All children between the ages of 6 and 16 must go to school, and Windhoek is the home of a vocational-technical school and a national university.  

Compared to other African countries the Namibian government offers its people good medical care. It has set up rural clinics where drugs are free, and visits are charged at the equivalent of one U.S. dollar. Medivac by ambulance to the nearest hospital is provided at no cost.  

On the negative side, life expectancy is only 49 years, mainly because Namibia's HIV-AIDS infection is 15.3 percent. South Africa's is 18.1 percent while the U.S. stands at .6 percent.  

In 2004 the German government formally apologized for their African holocaust and it now sends the most foreign aid of any country.  The German airline Lufthansa now flies non-stop from Frankfurt, and thousands of European tourists enjoy the abundant wildlife and striking desert scenery.

Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. He just returned from a 6-week trip to Southern Africa. 


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