John Ekongo
I was quite surprised to find that my editor was having a rather candid interest in my column. A man of his calibre after such an elongated career as a journo, you’d expect him to have seen all and would not care less about twaddle writing from an inexperienced bloke like me, but I was wrong.
Any way, he approaches me, after reading this other column of mine about Tassenberg. I was told that he indeed does take a liking to the wine and his meat. His complaint was that outlets that sell the liquid are few and far between the suburbs. Forcing one to drive all the way to Katutura apparently.
To say the least, it is not only Tassenberg but also everything that you can culturally associate with in the Location that is not to be found in the suburbs. I have listened indeed with fox ears about this and have heard numerous complaints about life in the suburbs: it lacks culture to be frank.
With that, it brought me to the conclusion that some of our empowered comrades are culturally being stifled in the Hochland Park’s, Olympia’s and Ludwigsdorfs. If in doubt just look over the weekend at the variety of luxury vehicles visiting Katutura. It becomes a paradise of vehicles, compared to the sore eyes we get after seeing hordes of Toyota Corolla’s for the whole week.
Aside from the shebeening that is rare, the likelihood of finding smileys (goatheads) or kapana is virtually zero in the affluent neighbourhood. You cannot even prepare “matangara” – just the smell of them on the pot is enough a reason to warrant a visit by the health authorities. Obviously after being tipped off by your neighbours that you killed some endangered species for supper. Don’t even get the temptation to roast “katali” (men’s best friend) in your barbecue spot in the lapa. The suburbs are the SPCA’s territory – they will have you arrested and thrown in jail faster than a deal that went wrong at the Social Security Commission.
One thing of concern is the lack of neighbourly alliances in the suburbs. You see in Katutura, neighbours are more than friends, they are sometimes enemies but they mingle and drink together, that way you make more friendly alliances. Katutura neighbours don’t wait for an invitation to a party at your place. They come by their own and bring along a cousin, who brings along his friend and his friend brings along his cousin, and midway through the party she will call her boyfriend and his friends to join them at the party.
Whilst in the suburbs, if you are on good footing with your neighbour he’ll tell you that “neighbour my party was a success last night”. But nor did you hear Stanley’s Bobo or Stella’s Kapepo. Or even Tate Buti’s Osuuka is a no-go area.
I firmly believe that something should be done to cordon off this cultural asylum in the suburbs. Who knows perhaps it is the reason why so many of our former empowered Katutura dwellers are suffering from unknown health problems, high stress levels, hundred percent divorce rate, cancers and who knows what else.
So I suggest the following. First the sheebening affairs must be tackled as a matter of urgency. I know that some comrades have private small bars in their homes, but it is not the same, like enjoying a drink seated at a corrugated shack.
Franchise opportunities now exist in the suburbs for entrepreneurial minds to provide alcoholic relief to our empowered comrades. Those shebeen kings and queens who want to expand please do so as a matter of urgency.
Structures must be erected using the traditional cheap building material.
Also, I will put in a motion to the city council to reserve one street particularly Hendrik Witbooi Drive or the open area in Coetzeestraat to be turned into an open area market. Where among others you can sell kapana, oshinkundu, smiley and /irub.
Bare in mind that this is currently the most needed services to make the suburbs at least resemble Katutura in some parts. We did that to Wanaheda so they can do the same. Other business opportunities are likely to approach us in the near future. For example, under the tree auto-repairs and mechanics, public taps and toilet car wash as well as airtime vendors. This time we will go high tech since the majority of those in the suburbs use contracts and you will be issued with laptops to sell airtime in the streets and make prepayments, service invoices and all the things. The company is yet to be established with loans from the Development Bank. In the end we must stop this cultural asylum in the suburbs.
Sorry Ngo