Namibia is just another province of South Africa. We worship everything from South Africa. We worship their politics. We worship their sport. We worship their entertainment industry. We worship their linguistics. Everything from South Africa is golden to us. Yeah, I said it! Catch all you want!
I never promised to be nice to anyone on this platform. My job is to shine a spotlight on the realities. The reality right now is that you prefer anything but Namibian and everything South African!
The reality is that you would rather find comfort and companionship with South African TV channels, programmes, and soapies as opposed to NBC and One Africa. Heck, even NBC and One Africa have an unhealthy dose of South African content on their respective schedules.
The reality is that you would rather dance to South African music as opposed to Namibian music. The reality is that you would rather watch the South African parliamentary sessions as opposed to the Namibian parliament.
Lieg ek? Come on. You know for a fact that I am telling the truth. Just last week, chilling with some friends and some dude who tagged along with a friend of mine said “Ek? Ouens ek glo in Suid Afrikaners met musiek man”, loosely translating to “Guys, I believe in South Africans with music”.
This guy was singing along to the likes of Sjava and Kwesta who are known for doing vernacular music. I asked the homie if he has any idea what Sjava, Kwesta and others are saying in the songs or is he just oblivious to the fact that he does not understand what they are saying? He got offended and a whole debate ensued.
Get offended all you want…but you are the reason why event organisers cannot bank on an all Namibian line up to a live show. You are the reason why event organisers have to fly in MCs from South Africa instead of using Namibian MC s. You are the reason why radio has to playlist proportionally more of South African music as opposed to Namibian music. You are the reason why the NPL is struggling to fill stadiums for Namibian league matches because you would rather watch Sundowns at home on a South African channel.
I saw posts and tweets on social media from Namibians focusing more on the South African elections as opposed to our own elections coming up in November.
We are on a path to social destruction as a country. This plague where we worship everything South African can never be good news for the Namibian entertainment industry. We need a seismic shift in mindsets. The heartbreaking bit is that South Africans couldn’t give a rats a$$ about us.
Here we are, worshiping anything but Namibian and everything South African. We do not have an identity as Namibians because YOU believe anything but Namibian and everything South African is golden!
Until the next loop, we say “GMTM”!
NSK is a professional MC. For bookings, email naobebsekind@gmail.com
@naobebsekind (twitter)