Haver- March 2

Some mornings I go to the shop to buy milk, bread rolls and a paper. A litre of milk costs me N$13 dollars, the rolls N$7 and the newspaper N$3. So N$23 dollars spent before breakfast. At current exchange rates that’s about £2. The vast majority of Namibians, however, live on less than £1 a day.

 

We live a fairly frugal lifestyle here compared to the standards at home. The VSO allowance is modest but the cost of food is no cheaper than in the UK and as there’s a family of us to feed, we are reliant upon our savings (can you hear the violins yet?) but even with our canny approach to cash the fact of the matter is that we spend more in a couple of days than many households here do in a month.

 

It was difficult, at first, to work out how people survived. Clearly the fact that 25% of children are malnourished suggests that for many simply having enough to eat is a significant challenge, but gradually the answers have became clearer.  In the rural areas, particularly in the ‘communal’ areas (commonly owned land administered by ‘traditional’ authorities) where most of the people live, there are no rents and no mortgages to be paid, everybody building their own home, mud huts for many, bricks and mortar for some. Also, the majority of people are involved in subsistence agriculture, so food is grown and livestock raised. But for most it’s simply not enough, so young men and women leave their homes to seek work in the city, sending remittances back to the villages, family, in turn, sending food to the city. There is no unemployment benefit or income support and for the 50% of the workforce that is unemployed it is the wider family that provides essential support. Survival, therefore, is in the family.

 

Clearly not everyone here is poor. The security guard on N$3 dollars an hour, good work if you can get it, may well work a twelve hour shift at his boss’s luxury home. Mercedes Benz have showrooms in Windhoek, there are designer outlets at Maerua Mall and the physically revolting Hummers (enough to make a VSO cyclist retch), but popular amongst the nouveau riche patrons of ‘The Wine Bar’, demonstrate that someone’s making a bob or two.

 

Without doubt things have improved since independence and nobody except the most dyed in the wool Afrikaner would pretend otherwise. In terms of education and healthcare it’s a different world, universal old age pensions have been introduced (about £45 a month), maternity leave is guaranteed, and for orphans the carer receives N$230 a month for the first child and N$100 for the second (crucial in a country of 2 million with 150,000 AIDs orphans). Despite these improvements, Namibia remains ‘officially’ the most unequal country in the world, the pattern of wealth largely reflecting that of the apartheid era and although huge voting majorities demonstrate the affection that the people hold for SWAPO in waging the liberation struggle, there are growing voices for a greater redistribution of wealth.

 

Fundamental to this is the land question. When Ben Boyes, the Head of Education in Hardap Region, one of the speakers at a VSO training event and a former soldier in the fight for liberation, was asked by one of the volunteers what motivated those that went to fight, he took a handful of sand and let it run through his fingers.  And for Ben’s grandfathers it was the German authority’s declaration that Africans in Namibia would have to sell 75% of their land to white settlers that was the final straw leading to the genocidal wars of 1904 to 1907, when the Nama lost 50% of their people and the Herero 75%.

 

Much blood has been split over the dry lands of Namibia and land is still at the heart of wealth in Namibia today. It was interesting to hear Mrs Lange’s response, a commercial farmer and owner of the lodge where the VSO training was held, when I asked her about land reform. “I should not be a victim of the crimes of my ancestors” she said, supporting the Government’s line on ‘willing buyer-willing seller’ and opposing any suggestion of compulsory purchase.  Naturally I was too polite to comment but it is a fact that the descendants of the colonialists own the richest and the most productive land. 75% of all Namibia’s agricultural land and 90% of commercial farm land is owned by just 4,500 white farmers, figures which are even more surprising when you consider that just 5% of the Namibian population is white. Clearly the crimes of the ancestors continue to benefit some.

 

Many observe that the inequality here isn’t sustainable. So what is to be done? I saw a beautiful glimmer of hope in the following interview, from the excellent Sister Namibia magazine, with an elderly Nama lady resettled under the Government’s farm redistribution scheme. Under this scheme some 200 farms have been purchased, taken into community ownership, sub divided and leased to qualifying households. There are 250,000 households eligible but in 20 years less than 30,000 have been resettled.

 

Maria Witbooi applied for resettlement in 1996 and not much later received a piece of land. She settled on a cattle post and had to build her own house. She has always been an enthusiastic farmer. "I know what goats and sheep need and I know how to treat them," she explains. Before, she had lived on communal land further south, owning about 50 goats. But there it was difficult and frustrating. "There were no camps (fenced enclosures) and I had to run after my stock all the time," she remembers. "When I got older I could not do that anymore so I decided to apply for resettlement." She also disliked the crowded conditions in the communal area. "We were sitting on top of each other and this created many problems. People were fighting."

 

Today Maria Witbooi has her own place and her herd of 50 goats has increased to 145. Her children and grandchildren help her with the more strenuous tasks, and there is enough space for them to stay with her. Having her own farm did not provide Maria Witbooi with a life without challenges. She is forced to sell some young animals because of the drought. "A good farmer sells animals while they are still strong" she explains.

 

"I am very content here," she says at the end of the interview. "Here I feel free, I am independent, and most of my problems have been solved." Does she have any wishes for the future, I ask and our guide translates my question into Nama. The old woman seems to be embarrassed about this strange question after what she has just told us. She slowly shakes her head and smiles. "No, no more wishes."

 

Have a good Easter everyone. And watch out for that weather!

 

Alan