Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

One Namibia, one nation? The Caprivi as contested territory

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 27; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02589000903399454

1469-9397

Henning Melber,

South African History and Culture

Abstract The second of August 2009 marked the tenth anniversary of the failed secessionist attempt by the Caprivi Liberation Movement (CLM). It resulted in Namibia's sole state of emergency since independence. Ten years on, the high treason trial for what began as more than 130 accused drags on. Namibia thus has the longest serving political prisoners within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) without their having been convicted. This article draws attention to a widely neglected failure in Namibia's nation-building effort and thereby highlights a special challenge left by the colonial legacy to the independent government. It presents a summary of events leading to the secessionist attempt and a historical overview of issues around the so-called Caprivi Strip and explores the shortcomings in an unresolved relationship between the central state and the local perspectives and identities of people living at the margins. By doing so, it uses the case study of the Caprivi region as an example for the challenges of bringing about 'One Namibia, One Nation'. Keywords: NamibiaCaprivination buildingsecessionist attemptSWAPOCaprivi Liberation Movement Acknowledgements A first version of this article was presented to the workshop 'Interrogating the New Political Culture in Southern Africa', hosted by the Southern African Regional Institute of Policy Studies, Harare, Zimbabwe, 13–15 June 2001. It was there that I met Björn Lindgren for the first time. At his invitation a revised paper was submitted to the second workshop on 'Local Governance in Transition' at the Collegium for Development Studies, Uppsala University, 4–5 October 2002. Björn then joined the Nordic Africa Institute until his untimely death in November 2004. I dedicate this revised and updated article, a partial result of our all too short period of collaboration, to his memory and to the memory of Hoster Bebi (first born to the Mafwe Chief Boniface Bebi Mamili, who had to mourn the loss of his son in Danish exile) and Aldenia Chaka. Both from the Caprivi region, they lost their young lives while travelling from Windhoek back home in 2000 and 2007 respectively. They had been employed at the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit as loyal colleagues and true Namibians. Notes 1. It should be noted, however, that the chapter in Chomba (undated/Citation2008) provides some critical assessment of deficiencies in Namibia's legal system, which also relate to the Caprivi case. 2. 'The Caprivi: A year of unrest', The Namibian, 3 August 1999. 3. After defecting from the liberation movement in exile, Muyongo had returned to Namibia and joined the interim government, which later turned into the opposition DTA party. 4. Attempts by the Namibian government since then to return them to Namibia for a treason trial have been unsuccessful. Mishake Muyongo continues organising from the outskirts of Copenhagen an exiled political organisation with little to no influence, while his views are more than only geographically remote from the Namibian realities. A lengthy interview published in the October 2008 issue of the Insight Namibia magazine testifies to this lack of realism. 5. See the in-depth analysis by Taylor (Citation2008) for the particular conflict between the San group of the Khwe in the west Caprivi and the Namibian government under SWAPO. 6. The South African divide-and-rule policy, which offered preferential treatment to the local population in the western Caprivi, promoted deeply divisive we–they lines along the border between those living in Zambia and Namibia: 'differences between Lozis of all hues (including particularly the Subias) in Caprivi and in Zambia became seriously entrenched. The propaganda campaign indulged in by the South Africans was partly to blame for this as was the development handed to Caprivi at a time when Barotseland proper was suffering serious underdevelopment. The Lozi consciousness was seriously traumatised during this period' (Flint Citation2004, 195). 7. Quoted from Tangeni Amupadhi, 'Mopping up proceeds in Caprivi', The Namibian, 4 August 1999. 8. Based on its own fact-finding mission, Amnesty International reacted to the events by articulating concern over the violation of human rights by representatives of the Namibian authorities. On several occasions local NGOs such as the Legal Assistance Centre and the National Society for Human Rights publicly criticised the heavy-handed treatment of both civilians and suspected secessionists – and were subsequently blamed for being so unpatriotic. 9. Quoted from Tangeni Amupadhi, 'Govt admits abuses', The Namibian, 12 August 1999. 10. Quoted from: 'President vows to crush rebels', The Namibian, 9 August 1999. 11. Tangeni Amupadhi, 'PM ducks rights issue', The Namibian, 8 September 1999. 12. Article 6 (Protection of Life) in Chapter 3 on 'Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms' states: 'The right to life shall be respected and protected. No law may prescribe death as a competent sentence. No court or tribunal shall have the power to impose a sentence of death upon any person. No executions shall take place in Namibia'. 13. Max Hamata, 'Savimbi, Muyongo "must be on world terrorist list"', The Namibian, 3 October 2001. Gurirab later served as prime minister and is now the speaker of Namibia's National Assembly. He was elected president of the International Parliamentary Union in 2008. 14. Amnesty International, 'Namibia: Authorities must ensure a fair trial for Caprivi defendants', Press release, 30 October 2003. 15. Quoted from Clapham (Citation1998). 16. Given the history of denial it is hardly surprising that independence was accompanied by a number of stickers attached to cars bearing the slogan 'Namibian and proud of it'. 17. For the colonial boundaries of present Namibia and the various conflicts see Berat (Citation1990), Dreyer (Citation1987) and Demhardt (Citation1989 ,Citation1997). 18. It became known – despite a different official title – as the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty because part of its deal had been the exchange of these territories. The full text of the document is reproduced in Herrfurth (Citation1917). 19. The control of the water resources offered by the Okavango, Zambezi and Chobe rivers remains a bone of contention, as the border disputes over islands in the Chobe River illustrate. The seasonal access to plentiful water and abundance of wildlife results in a particular blend of 'Geopolitics of water and tourism' which 'motivated some singularly unfriendly international relations' between Namibia and Botswana (Stanley Citation2000, 28). 20. 'The Germans wanted access to the Zambezi River in order to create a better link with their protectorate, East Africa. However, they were unaware of the existence of the Victoria Falls 60 km downstream, which rendered any navigation impossible – and the British carefully avoided informing them' (Diener Citation2001, 246). 21. Some of the 'authoritative' overviews do indeed subsume the several ethnically, linguistically, historically and culturally different groups living in the Caprivi region under such a label. See for example Malan (Citation1980), 7), who refers to 'The eastern Caprivians'. But even the official Population and Housing Census of 2001 continues to promote distorted perceptions by listing as main languages spoken at home in this particular region the discriminatingly generalising term 'Caprivi languages' (Republic of Namibia Citation2003, 5) throughout its report. 22. For a concise overview on the regional restructuring process in Namibia see also Simon (Citation1996) and, more detailed and updated but also more affirmative, Tötemeyer (Citation2000). The latter has been a member of the Delimitation Commission. 23. See for details the chapter in Stals (Citation1978, 69–87). 24. Until the 1950s, when four-wheel-drive vehicles could at last be used and a bridge was constructed, there were only four alternative routes to the central town of Katima Mulilo (Curson Citation1947, 125): by rail from Livingstone to Masese in Rhodesia, 30 miles east of the destination; by bus from Victoria Falls to Kasane in Bechuanaland and from there 76 miles by car; by boat from Livingstone via the Zambezi; or as the easiest way, by aeroplane. 25. Comprising at least six ethnically and culturally different groups of people, of whom the Subya and Fwe represent the actual factor of power in competition with each other. 26. Notwithstanding such identification with the anti-colonial resistance, specific identities in the Caprivi remained alive, as later rivalries within SWAPO proved (Fisch Citation1999b, 18ff). 27. The South African effort at getting indigenous Caprivians 'on board' certainly made inroads into the way many Caprivians thought about themselves and differed from the way South Africa treated other indigenous Africans, both in Namibia and elsewhere' (Flint Citation2004, 185). 28. 'By the time of independence, ruthless plundering and massacres had lead [sic] to the extinction of several mammal species and the severe decimation of many others throughout Caprivi' (Zeller Citation2000, 43). 29. Notwithstanding this influx, the demographic trends in the Caprivi region suggest that between 1996 and 2001 the overall population declined by 334 people or 0.5% (Republic of Namibia 2003, 79). It might be speculated whether that is partly due to the number of refugees leaving the country before and after the secessionist attempt. 30. See the account in Fuller et al. (Citation1999, 44–147) for a detailed report on the conflict around the 'imported' teachers from Katima Mulilo. 31. This is confirmed by the lack of any meaningful reference to the Caprivi area in two relevant volumes offering a profound and comprehensive analysis of historically relevant aspects of South African rule in Namibia (Hartmann et al. Citation1998, Hayes et al. Citation1998), which at least is acknowledged explicitly in the preface of the latter one as a regrettable shortcoming. 32. It also showed a welcome cartographic sensitivity to the challenges presented by the area in the maps included. 33. Most spectacular was the attack on a French family, in which the three children were killed in January 2000. 34. This included the defence force (54%) and the police (32.7%), both rated more positive than elsewhere. 35. The exceptionally high HIV/Aids-related mortality rate and the group of absolutely marginalised members of the various San (Bushmen) communities surviving under appalling conditions of scarcity are the single most important contributing factors to this situation. 36. Quoted in 'Caprivi political party declared illegal', afrol News/IRIN, 11 September 2006. http://www.afrol.com/articles/21239.