By Prof Earle Taylor
I recently had an exhilarating opportunity to visit and experience, first hand, by driving and walking, the developmental status and drought situation in six regions in northern Namibia. Starting from Windhoek, I passed through three other regions that by comparison are much more endowed. The exposure was both humbling and instructive. It taught me a number of lessons – some directly by the cows that lay idly in the blazing sun and the severely parched mahangu fields along my route. The northern trip took me from Oshakati to Nkurenkuru in the west and from Oshakati to Uukwaludhi in the east. I also picked up a few messages in my exchanges with a number of communal farmers in the areas who had about reached the negative peaks of their hope for any change.
Like the genuflecting cows, I was grieving and bleeding inside – grieving as I passed and overheard their unspoken conversations about their plight. I was bleeding profusely internally as I watched some of the desperate animals fight for the remnants of dirty clothes and left over skins, presumably of smaller animals that had earlier succumbed or scraps that dropped from or damaged by the passing vehicles. But their silence and sadness were loud and clear. They were convinced and complaining that help from men, their masters, and from government was either not forthcoming or was useless.
Then it occurred to me that this perennial cycle of famine and flood, drought and downpour has not seeped into the conscious instincts of our agronomic experts, nor the urgent agenda of our chattering local scientists and the prattlings of our leaders and politicians. Or is it that they are completely oblivious or unaware of what is happening on the ground because they choose to lead and manage by flying from point to point when they ought to be on the ground, leading and listening by driving and walking.
Among the things the poor cows told me was that even though their cousins – goats and sheep – were facing the same dilemma, but due to the flexible body design and head and neck construction, they are able to pluck the necessary vitamins and proteins from the hanging trees and leaves and to survive. Unlike the goats and sheep, the cow’s head and neck are not flexible and so they cannot eat up. Given the recurring drought situation, the cows told me that if only someone with sense and care could come to cut down some of the hanging leaves and branches for them, they, like the sheep and goats, would not be starving and dying in the numbers reported in the Press.
Turning to most distressing problem of all – water access, the cows told me that they have to walk for miles and miles in search of water only to find empty and dried up water holes. Their hooves and hearts hurt and pain when they return home to find that nothing has changed at all for the better.
I learnt from them that water is not very far below their feet and if man, their master, and government were to use their head and brain to care, they could easily have harnessed and stored water in canals from the perennial floods, or at least established water holes at closer spots, even in every five kilometres. As the animals lamented, they whispered to me in confidence to say that any so-called engineer, scientist or farmer or politician would augment the dried up water holes with water from boreholes. They told me that the technology for building canals is very simple and that canals are already built on the other side of town from Okahao to Ruacana.
It then occurred to me that the fourth National Development Plan (NDP4) and those to come as well as our much-lauded Vision 2030 goals and MDGs might be slipping farther away than we thought, at least for those that live and work outside of Windhoek, Swakopmund, Walvis Bay. The slippage is bound to escalate unless our leaders, politicians, farmers, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, administrators and researchers change course, change strategy, revamp programmes and make massive transformations in funding, resource priority and reallocation for infrastructure to provide water, skills, jobs, roads and factory opportunities to create real value adding employment in regions other than Khomas, Erongo, and Omusati.
The animals reminded me that the year 2030 is coming up fast and if we are not careful and strategic, it will come and pass like so many things. It will leave the majority of the Namibian people and their animals, especially those in the countryside with empty dreams, unfulfilled promises and lasting nightmares.
Lastly, the animals shared with me their pride, gratitude and delight at government’s recent decision to upgrade Nkurenkuru to city status and that they are hoping to see the evidence on the ground, and the necessary transformations within their lifetime. They asked me to thank especially HE, the President, for this bold move and hope that the subsequent developments will include waterholes, grass and animal feed supply, factories and products for all the cows and their cousins, and food and employment for their masters and neighbours.
If the cattle could talk, this is what they would tell us. Man, their master, and government must talk less and do more. Water is life, animals are your wealth and pride. You must do more for them; you, our master and government must walk the talk, and in times like these, walk and drive more often to see what’s happening on the ground and in their surrounds.
*Prof Earle Taylor is a scientist, a development Economist and Deputy Vice Chancellor of the International University of Management (IUM).