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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 May 1999 Issue No. 430 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 May 1999 Issue No. 430
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Supplement Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters News from Namibia
By Gamal NkrumahMore than ten years have passed since Namibia gained its independence. Today, the country is widely acclaimed as a haven of inter-racial harmony and an exemplary model of national reconciliation.
Namibian President Sam Nujoma, who made an official visit to Cairo last week, embodies his country's highly successful, yet self-effacing image. How anonymous he makes himself look, was my first thought. He does not wear a leopard-skin hat like the late Mobutu Sese Seku did, he sports no fly whisk like Jomo Kenyatta, and no white handkerchief like Kenneth Kaunda. Nujoma is affable and down-to-earth.
There was no pack of photographers, no scrummage of ruling party sycophants, no posse of security guards and intelligence officers. Of medium height and build, in dark grey non-descript suit and navy tie, wire-rimmed spectacles and salt-and-pepper beard, Nujoma looks more like a university professor than a revolutionary leader. But make no mistake: he still sees himself as a freedom fighter, a decade after being swept to power in the first free and fair general elections to be held in his vast desert nation.
Namibia is the size of Britain, France, Germany and Italy combined, but has a population of less than two million. It is a country of stark contrasts. The sophistication of the cosmopolitan cities, including the capital Windhoek, stands in sharp opposition to the desperately poor indigenous African communities which inhabit the northern third of the country and who make up over 80 per cent of the population. Many of the Khoi-San people of the bleak southern desert regions continue to live today in much the same way as their stone age ancestors did 40,000 years ago. The bitter legacy of apartheid has left an indelible mark on the country and Nujoma's government sees as its first priority the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment. That is why it has set aside over 30 per cent of the national budget for education and medical care.
Namibia is exceptionally rich in natural resources. With huge deposits of gold, silver, diamonds and other precious metals, it is one of the world's leading mineral exporters. The country also boasts vast reserves of zinc, copper, lead and uranium. Not surprisingly, the mining sector accounts for over 15 per cent of gross domestic product.
Namibia's mineral wealth has made the country a magnet -- and a lucrative one -- for multinational corporations: De Beers, Anglo-American, Lonrho and Rio Tinto. Rossing, the world's largest-known uranium ore deposit, is situated some 70km east of Swakopmund in the Namib Desert. Rio Tinto currently has a 68.47 per cent interest in Rossing. One drum of the mine's U308 uranium oxide contains the equivalent in energy of 25,000 barrels of crude oil.
Relations between Egypt and Namibia go back a long way and Nujoma is no stranger to Cairo. "I was inspired by the revolutionary action of the Egyptian people under the leadership of Gamal Abdel-Nasser," he told Al-Ahram Weekly in an exclusive interview last week.
Nujoma first visited Cairo in 1960 where he set up an office of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) at 5 Ahmed Hishmat Street, Zamalek. "This office was our first ever office in exile," he reminisced.
Moreover, the very first batch of SWAPO freedom fighters to train abroad were sent to Egypt. "We chose to send them to Egypt for military training because we were very impressed with the revolutionary regime. Egypt played a special role in our emancipation," Nujoma told the Weekly.
A CAMBODIAN boy sifts through street refuse and plastic rubbish bins, in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital.Selling items such as used plastic bottles and food cans is for many thousands of street children in Phnom Penh is the only way to survive.
For millions of street children throughout the world, and especially in the developing countries of the South, there is little or no hope for improved living standards under the current Asian economic crisis. The plight of street children is worsening in many Asian countries such as Indonesia and Thailand
(photo: AFP)
Egypt remained a close ally of SWAPO throughout the bitter years of the national liberation struggle. The 31 March 1989 ceasefire agreement under United Nations Resolution 435 stipulated the independence of Namibia, and was followed a year later by the first free general elections, culminating in full independence on 21 March 1990. According to Egypt's ambassador to Namibia, Ohib El-Soukkari, there are around 50 Egyptian agricultural and technical experts, engineers, medical practitioners and university lecturers working in the country today. The head of the economics department at the newly-established University of Namibia, Mohamed El-Toukhi, is an Egyptian.
But how did Nujoma get involved in the struggle to liberate his country from colonial rule and racial segregation in the first place? I wanted to know. "I was very young," he told me. "In Namibia, we used to receive Ghana Today, a magazine published by the Ghana High Commission in London. In one issue I saw a picture of Kwame Nkrumah, leader of the newly independent Ghana, dancing with the Duchess of Kent. This was unheard of in racially-segregated Namibia. And that is how I got personally inspired to organise the Namibia people into a national liberation movement -- SWAPO."
There were, of course, those who had no intention of setting Namibia free. "The minority white settlers of South Africa felt that they had the right to annex what was then South-West Africa, as part of the apartheid state," Nujoma explained. "They wanted to control Namibia's mineral wealth." So the struggle got underway. "We started writing petitions. But later on we realised that writing petitions was a futile exercise."
Nujoma himself was forced to leave the country. Fleeing through a succession of states whose names are now no more than (often painful) memories, he reached Sudan, from where he flew to Ghana, the homeland of his first political role model. Then from West Africa, he went on to New York, where he presented the first petition regarding Namibia to the UN in June 1960.
Namibia is today widely seen as a showcase for political pluralism and democracy in Africa. The Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), which was created by the South African colonial authorities to oppose SWAPO, has become the country's largest opposition party. Yet, though it may be free, the country has not found peace. Indeed, it is plagued, like so many African states, with insurrectionists and armed opposition groups. Albert Munyongo, for example, heads a rebel army that want the north-eastern Caprivi Strip to secede. Munyongo was DTA president until early this year, when his secessionist tendencies became common knowledge. "He also owed the banks a lots of money," Nujoma told the Weekly. "So he went back to the Caprivi Strip and tried to raise a secessionist army. There he made contact and collaborated closely with Angola's armed opposition, UNITA, under the leadership of Jonas Savimbi, with a view to carrying out insurrectionist acts. He committed murder and escaped justice. In Namibia, Munyongo is a wanted man. But those who were misled by him are free come back to Namibia, except for those who committed atrocities."
Another subject of growing concern throughout Africa is Namibia's involvement in the Congolese civil war. Nujoma's views on the matter are forthright: "Our position is based on the decision taken by the heads-of-state of the SADC [Southern African Development Community] countries when we met in Cape Town in 1997," he told the Weekly. "We decided that the SADC countries would not allow any government of a member state to be overthrown by force of arms or by a coup d'état."
When Congolese President Laurent Kabila found himself faced with armed rebellion, he appealed to the SADC member states for help and a meeting was held in Harare. "At the time Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, was besieged by rebel forces backed by Rwanda and Uganda," said Nujoma. "There was going to be another genocide like that in Rwanda in 1994. So Angolan, Zimbabwean and Namibian troops were dispatched to defend the territorial integrity of the country. We are now working on a ceasefire, but Rwanda and Uganda walked out last year at a meeting in Addis Ababa. They refused to sign the ceasefire then, and again in January and February of this year in Lusaka. Now, we hope that wisdom will prevail," he added philosophically.
"In any case, Rwanda and Uganda cannot occupy Congo indefinitely," Nujoma told the Weekly. "It is a huge country, bordering nine other African states." For the Namibian leader, African unity is paramount. "Rwanda and Uganda are playing with fire," he added. "They have no right to invade and occupy other African countries."
So what have been Nujoma's major achievements in government since independence? "First of all, we broke the chains of colonial enslavement. That was a great achievement. Second, the Namibian people are now masters of their own destiny. For the first time in living memory, they make their own decisions. There is no more apartheid and racial discrimination. There is peace and stability."
I asked Nujoma if he thought that the bitterness of the past had indeed been healed. "We still have some elements who possess disproportionate power and wealth and want to preserve the status quo," he agreed. "They don't want to share. We are telling them that they must share with the have-nots. For me, national reconciliation is a two-way process. That is why the disparities will remain with us for some time."
Yet the outlook is not necessarily bleak. Even now, Nujoma is planning for another revolutionary future. "My government has embarked on crash courses to train our people to master advanced technology," he told the Weekly, as our interview drew to an end. "Technical know-how is key to our success." In the place of Armalites and Kalashnikovs, the next war will be fought with memory chips and ZIP drives. That, in itself, is progress. Nujoma smiles: "I believe that Namibia has a bright future," he adds in conclusion.
