Alfredo Hengari
Namibians should not lose sight of the fact that the revolution of 1989 was about dismantling the evil infrastructure of Apartheid and colonialism.
The arrival of the first group of 8 senior Swapo leaders and freedom fighters on 18 June 1989, including Hifikepunye Pohamba, Hidipo Hamutenya and Theo-Ben Gurirab, helmed by a certain Hage Geingob, marked the moment of rupture.
It was because we commenced the process of dismantling the brutal Apartheid system to create the qualitatively new in the years that would follow that seminal moment.
The 18th of June 1989 was a day of hope but also anguish, with the New York Times capturing those hours of that day in a pessimistic article, titled ‘Rebel Leaders Return to Namibia From Exile’.
However, as a people, we prevailed and became sovereign in that same year of 1989 when we expressed ourselves in favour of democratic governance, putting behind a century of colonial crimes of genocide and the tyranny of Apartheid, which dislocated values and entrenched racial and ethnic divisions in the people of our territory.
In light of those series of structuring moments, leading up to our independence on 21 March 1990, when we think about today, the past 32 years, and the future that lies ahead for our Republic, our words and deeds should always take into consideration the fact that we were never going to reach our destiny in three decades.
For us to heal from the scars of tribalism and racism was never going to be a stress-free journey.
Correspondingly, even if our country is today markedly better, compared to its Apartheid past; our journey towards inclusive and shared economic prosperity is far more gruelling than our fight for freedom.
Still, in light of the promise of independence, native in our revolution of 1989, the expectations of socio-economic progress over the past three decades will continue to be legitimate.
They should be legitimate in the pursuit of the ideal society, inherent in plural manifestos of the ruling Party, Swapo.
The pursuit of that ideal and perfect society of equal citizenship, which in itself was the basis for the revolution of 1989, is arguably the reason there is impatience in some sections of our republic.
Undoubtedly, in some of these quarters, there is condemnable irrationality that ignores rational explanations about the difficulties the Geingob Presidency had traversed but dealt with great courage over the past seven years (commodity crises, droughts and Covid-19).
We do have the hard data to support the fact that in the Presidency of one man, we have collectively been going through what the Cubans would refer to as “the period of skinny cows”.
Unquestionably, throughout those extended stresses of a commodity crisis, repeated droughts recorded to be the worsts in a century, and Covid-19 has bruised our republic.
The Covid-19 pandemic, not of our making, caused many disruptions in our way of life. Yet, the Namibian House and its republican foundations remain unyielding.
Our success in maintaining the unity of our nation, which we ought to nurture in the continuity of the revolution of 1989, lies in the horizontal and deliberative philosophy President Hage Geingob has advanced as the leitmotif for his Presidency.
Crucially, as the Geingob Presidency is entering the sunset, ordinary peaceful citizens should be proud of their role in keeping the foundations of our republic solid during a period of great distress.
After all, they have hope and understand there are things we should do and should not do to bequeath a better republic to future generations. The question is, what is it should we continue to do?
Our revolution of 1989 and our nation cannot go wrong when we collectively emphasise the dogmata of peace, deliberation and effective governance.
Unfortunately, in this regard, there are blatant failures on the part of the intellectual class, the media, including the political and economic elite in its plural manifestations.
There is a sensational indifference to chaos and violence in the forms of xenophobia, racism and tribalism.
Mistakenly, there are sections of our white population who believe nation-building is a one-way street in which they have little, if at all or no role to play.
Yet, in light of the colonial crime that benefitted them, whites ought to do much of the heavy lifting in the process of nation-building and the fight against inequality.
Mistakenly, by emphasising, instead of de-emphasising tribalism for the nation to be entrenched, sections of the elite are causing chaos and divisions within traditional authorities.
For example, the Genocide of 1904 is a Namibian question and not merely a Herero or Nama question.
By seeking to dismantle authority and the processes, systems and institutions of the state, some are futilely trying to drive through populist and tribal rhetoric of our republic towards a failed state.
For its part, the Geingob Presidency will continue to steer the Namibian ship towards calmer waters by focusing on unity, economic recovery, housing and protecting Namibians against external shocks, of which the most recent emanate from the war in Ukraine.
The reality of war and its consequences are such that peace is not an abstract construct.
It is the lived reality of Namibians, and it is the currency; it allows us to pursue economic prosperity for the majority of Namibians.
Peace is our soft power and an integral part of our narrative as a nation.
All of us, irrespective of our differences, should erect peace to the highest canon of our values.
Without peace, the dreams and aspirations we have been crafting since 1989 will evaporate.
Namibia, from the founding President Sam Nujoma to President Hifikepunye Pohamba and now President Hage Geingob, remains a piece of work in progress.
But, what is important is that we collectively build on the achievements by not derailing the work that is in progress through the reckless politics of tribalism, racism and division.
In safeguarding the revolution of 1989 and in constructing the future of a united Namibia, we all have to conjure up the danger that lurks behind a divided Namibia in which tribalism and racism reign supreme.
It is not the Namibia we want.