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A Luta Continua: Coping with Threats to Prosperity and Health in Post-Independence Namibia**

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 35; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03057070802685593

1465-3893

Wendi A. Haugh,

German Colonialism and Identity Studies

Abstract In northern Namibia in the late 1990s, many Oshiwambo-speaking people were experiencing problems they had not anticipated during the excitement and hopefulness surrounding independence in 1990. In this article, I describe discourses about threats to health and prosperity, and the solutions people proposed, as they were constructed in private conversations and public song performances, as well as speeches, plays, and radio talk shows. These discourses constitute public opinion about the problems of insufficient educational opportunity, unemployment, crime, excessive alcohol consumption, and HIV/AIDS, and the ways they might be resolved. I focus particularly on the perspectives of Catholic youth, and show that youth were seen as especially endangered by these threats, as both victims and victimizers; their survival was linked to the survival of the nation itself. Rather than turning to discourses of witchcraft or to 'traditional' practices in an effort to address contemporary problems, as documented in other African cases, people in this region called for increased government assistance, greater individual initiative, and stronger Christian values. Notes *I wish to thank the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad programme and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for their generous financial support of this research. I also wish to thank Sameena Mulla, Cat Bolten, and three anonymous reviewers for their thorough, helpful comments. An earlier version of this article was presented at the African Studies Association annual meeting in November 2005. 1 J. Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity: Myths and Meanings of Urban Life on the Zambian Copperbelt (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1999), p. 17. 2 Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity, p. 12. 3 Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity, pp. 141–3. 4 Most notably, A. Ashforth, Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2005), P. Geschiere, The Modernity of Witchcraft: Politics and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa (Charlottesville, University Press of Virginia, 1997), and chapters by A. Apter, M. Auslander, and M. Bastian, in J. Comaroff and J.L. Comaroff (eds), Modernity and Its Malcontents: Ritual and Power in Postcolonial Africa (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1993). 5 C. Bawa Yamba, 'Cosmologies in Turmoil: Witchfinding and AIDS in Chiawa, Zambia', Africa, 67, 2 (1997), p. 200. 6 Bawa Yamba, 'Cosmologies in Turmoil', p. 208. 7 Bawa Yamba, 'Cosmologies in Turmoil', p. 215. 8 Ashforth, Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy, p. 13. 9 Ashforth, Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy, p. 314. 10 M. Karlström, 'Modernity and Its Aspirants: Moral Community and Developmental Eutopianism in Buganda', Current Anthropology, 45, 5 (2004), pp. 598 and 605. Eutopia, a term Karlström borrows from Thomas More, differs from utopia in those it is 'not a phantasmic impossibility but a realistic realizable ideal' (ibid., p. 596). 11 Buganda', Current Anthropology, 45, 5 (2004), p. 596. 12 This state of affairs is reflected in the very name Ombalantu, which means 'palace of the people'. 13 O. Shivute, 'The Kingdom of Ombalantu is at Hand', The Namibian, 11 February 2000, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/Netstories/2000/February/News/kingdom.html. 14 In fact, it is unclear whether or not the man chosen, Christof Aitula Mulamba Aipanda, actually served as king or simply as the king-designate. Since his death in May 2008, one faction has sought to install a successor, while others argue that there is no place for kings in Ombalantu. An anonymous letter purporting to be from the people of Ombalantu directly challenges Titus Heita, who claims that his son Abisai is now the rightful king, and reminds him in a threatening tone of Kamhaku's fate. See 'Aambalantu taya yamukula omusamane Titus Aikanga Heita', The Namibian, 30 June 2008, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/2008/June/oshiwambo/08116587DF.html. 15 Some people said that witchcraft wasn't nearly as prevalent in Owambo as it was in Caprivi, a region they knew to be afflicted with an abundance of witches. 16 A. Beris, From Mission to Local Church (Windhoek, John Meinert, 1996), p. 395. The Catholic mission at Anamulenge in Ombalantu was something of an exception, as there was already a Lutheran mission at Nakayale, just 5 km away. For Namibia as a whole, about 50 per cent of the population is Lutheran and about 15 per cent is Catholic. 17 Meredith McKittrick has written an excellent history of Christianity in Ongandjera and Ombalantu from the time of the first missionaries through the 1950s. In To Dwell Secure: Generation, Christianity, and Colonialism in Ovamboland (Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann, 2002), she argues that children and young people played a crucial role in spreading the new religion and driving the sociocultural changes associated with Christianisation. 18 M. McKittrick, To Dwell Secure, pp. 204–6. 19 R. Gordon, 'Variations in Migration Rates: The Ovambo Case', Journal of Southern African Affairs, 3, 3 (1978), p. 284. 20 T. Aarni, The Kalunga Concept in Ovambo Religion from 1870 Onwards (Stockholm, Almqvist and Wicksell International, 1982), pp. 9 − 10. 21 P. Katjavivi, 'The Role of the Church in the Struggle for Independence', in Church and Liberation in Namibia (London, Pluto Press, 1989), pp. 12–21, and P. Steenkamp, 'The Churches', in Namibia's Liberation Struggle: The Two-Edged Sword (London, James Currey, 1995), pp. 94–103. 22 Interviews and conversations were held in Oshimbalantu, the local language, but songs were performed in Oshindonga or Oshikwanyama, the two standardised varieties of Oshiwambo. Kristiana Shilongo, who was serving as secretary of NACAYUL at the time and was also a respected song composer, transcribed the song lyrics and the police officer's speech. I discussed her transcriptions with her and translated them into English; I also conducted, transcribed, and translated formal interviews, and participated in informal conversations. 23 J.C. Mitchell, The Kalela Dance: Aspects of Social Relationships among Urban Africans in Northern Rhodesia (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1956). 24 L. Vail and L. White, 'Plantation Protest: The History of a Mozambican Song', Journal of Southern African Studies, 5, 1 (1978), pp. 1–25. 25 D. Coplan, 'Eloquent Knowledge: Lesotho Migrants' Songs and the Anthropology of Experience', American Ethnologist, 14, 3 (1987), pp. 413–33. 26 T. Turino, Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2000). 27 L. Gunner, 'Zulu Choral Music – Performing Identities in a New State', Research in African Literatures, 37, 2 (2006), pp. 87–90. 28 M. Magalasi, 'Malawian Commercial Popular Stage Drama: Origins, Challenges and Growth', Journal of Southern African Studies, 34, 1 (2008), pp. 161–77. 29 M. Chikowero, '"Our People Father, They Haven't Learned Yet": Music and Postcolonial Identities in Zimbabwe, 1980 − 2000', Journal of Southern African Studies, 34, 1 (2008), p. 155. 30 A. Stambach, 'Curl Up and Die: Civil Society and the Fashion-Minded Citizen', in J. Comaroff and J. Comaroff (eds), Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1999), pp. 251–66. 31 J. Mchakulu, 'Youth Participation in Radio Listening Clubs in Malawi', Journal of Southern African Studies, 33, 2 (2007), pp. 251–65. 32 C. Maletsky, 'Nanso Slams Exam Results', The Namibian, 8 January 1999, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/Netstories/january99/nanso.html 33 'Ex-Fighter Demo Swells', The Namibian, 22 July 1998, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/Netstories/June98/exfighters1.html 34 'Poverty Grips Former Combatants', The Namibian, 23 July 1998, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/Netstories/June98/exfighterspoor.html 35 'Angry Ex-Fighters Launch New Protest', The Namibian, 21 July 1998, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/Netstories/June98/exfighters.html 36 '"Abandoned" Fighters Take Demo to Outapi', The Namibian, 4 August 1998, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/Netstories/August98/exfighters.html 37 'Fighters Stand Their Ground', The Namibian, 10 August 1998, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/Netstories/August98/exfighters4.html 38 This was not a permanent solution, and ex-combatants seeking employment or monetary compensation have repeatedly made the news in the years since. Recently, the government has argued that it cannot afford to meet the their demands except at the expense of Namibia's economic health, while others have written letters to the editor arguing that it wasn't only ex-combatants who contributed to the liberation struggle or suffered during the apartheid years. See, for example, 'President Rejects War Vets' Demands', The Namibian (7 August 2006), available at http://www.namibian.com.na/2006/August/national/063BF3FF69.html, and 'Who are the Veterans?', The Namibian, 10 November 2006, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/2006/November/letters/0658C5CCB2.html 39 Literally, it may have come from the language developed by urban criminals in South Africa, tsotsitaal, as an adaptation of the word tsotsi. Unlike ombotsotso, otsotsi is listed in Tirronen's Ndonga–English dictionary, published in 1986, but I never heard anyone in Ombalantu use this word. 40 I actually ran into the leader of the team that had staged one of these plays at a kefe, where we sat and discussed its message. This goes to show that spending time at kefes in moderation was fine, and appropriately sociable; even the most reputable community members could be found there at different times. 41 AIDS was never publicly considered the cause of any particular death, although people might privately speculate or assert that it was a factor. 42 V. Notkola, I. Timaeus, and H. Siiskonen, 'Impact on Mortality of the AIDS Epidemic in Northern Namibia Assessed Using Parish Registers', AIDS, 18, 7 (2004), pp. 1,061–65.