OMEGA ONE – The Khwe people of Bwabwata have asked why they are without a recognised traditional authority or area of jurisdiction they can call home, 34 years after Namibia’s political independence.
They say they have repeatedly engaged the government – but to date, they are still in limbo.
They now claim Bwabwata is their ancestral land, and that their history has been ignored – unlike other ethnic groups.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, with support from the environment ministry, gave the Khwe the go-ahead to have their chief, but that has been put on hold and blocked by the Hambukushu, who also claim the same area as their ancestral land.
The Hambukushu have since written to President Nangolo Mbumba to intervene.
“We feel Kavango East Regional Council doesn’t pay attention to our cry and plight. We are requesting that we fall under Zambezi region because they have recognised us to be established as a regional council, and they are willing to give us a constituency with our own councillor,” said Omega One headman Rambo Paulus during a press conference last Wednesday.
Paulus is not recognised by the Hambukushu Traditional Authority.
“We want to have our own constituency as Bwabwata between the Kavango River and Kongola. We want to have our own political councillor because most government services don’t reach us, because we don’t have a councillor serving our needs. And we want to be part of Zambezi because they assist us with our concerns,” he asserted.
According to the community, they used to receive better services in the then-Caprivivi region, present-day Zambezi.
“My outcry is about our land where I was born, and things are not working out. That is why I’m asking our government to consider our concerns, because I know this land is for my ancestors – from the Kavango river to the Kwando River, and along our borders with Angola and Botswana, within this is our area, where our ancestors left us,” said one of the Khwe elders, Rondekop Ngugwe.
He maintained they are only claiming their land – not land from another ethnic group.
“Since our tribe is the minority and not powerful, another tribe is coming to overpower us in our own land. That is why we are putting our concerns to the government to really intervene to get us our land. Other tribes have representatives in Windhoek in high places, and they block us every time we try to claim our land,” Ngugwe noted.
Another reason why they are claiming this land is because all ethnic groups have their own traditional authority where they are settled, and Bwabwata is theirs. It is where they could be recognised as a traditional community with its own cultural activities.
He further said claiming their traditional authority or constituency does not mean they are going to deny other people from coming to live with them, but rather that they are going to collaborate as they usually do with others.
Ancestral land
Another elder, Jack Govagwe, said upon the independence of Namibia, they heard that every ethnic group was going to have their traditional authority recognised, but they have not been recognised.
“We want it to happen this time. Those who are claiming that it is their land are not being truthful because there are elders who are still alive who know the truth. Approach them,’’ he said.
Smith Muyatwa, a youth in the Khwe community, said, “As far as I am informed, our elders have been here since 1930. From those years on, the Germans were here, and they drilled boreholes for our people. And then the South African regime took over, and they at least developed some infrastructure here, but our tribe is now under the new government,” he said.
“Our ancestors were here during all these periods, and we were allowed to stay here even when this area used to be Caprivi Game Reserve because they recognised us as the hunter-gatherer community, and were conserving the wild,’’ he noted.
Muyatwa pointed out that previous demarcation and delimitation committees did not consult the Khwe community.
“And then today, we are landless. We always communicate our landlessness to the government, but we are ignored. It’s only the environment ministry that recognises our settlement in this area. They work with us. In other parks in Namibia, there are no people living there, but here we are recognised to stay because they know this is our ancestral land,” he said.
“As a Khwe community, our concern is that we don’t have a recognised traditional leadership. That is why other tribes are dominating us. These communities that are migrating to the area are grabbing our land. They are settling in our graveyard. That is why we are asking the government to recognise our traditional leadership. We want the government to do like how the Botswana government has recognised the minority groups,’’ said another elder, Mayinga Kwala.“Why is the government excluding us? If we have any problems, may our government please forgive us,’’ she said.
“Currently, as it stands, it looks like we should be subjects under the Hambukushu traditional authority, but we are a distinct tribe on our own. We speak a different language. We practice a different culture. It does not fit us to be subjects under a different tribe,’’ Sophia Samboko, a youth at Omega One, said.