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Home / Dr Shikalepo’s indiscriminate bashing of Onyaaanya unfortunate
Dr Shikalepo’s indiscriminate bashing of Onyaaanya unfortunate
2018-08-03Staff Report 2 Dr Elock Shikalepo, in an opinion piece titled ”McHenry Venaani’s visit to Emanya Senior Secondary: The resistance uncovered”, characterized the whole Onyaanya community as “back-ward thinking”, “intellectually poor”, and being “at a periphery of development,” “lacking education” and many other unsavoury adjectives. If it is true that Dr Elock Shikalepo taught at Emanya Secondary School, he knows that Onyaanya Parish Church has some 14 000 members. The Onyaanya community members who objected to the visit of Honourable Venaani were a handful, probably not even a hundred. Dr Shikalepo, who calls himself “Namibian academic”, chose to generalise his insults against the whole Onyaanya community. If these are the type of academics we have in Namibia, God save the students! For the sake of the public, allow me to tell the story of Emanya Senior Secondary School. The school was for many years a Combined School. The learners are day school attendees. Many of them walk up to five kilometres back and forth to school. For many years, Emanya had been a star performer at Grade 10 level. Despite the fact that there is a boarding Uukule Senior Secondary School just a stone-throw from Emanya, the Oshikoto Region education authorities decided to upgrade Emanya to Grade 12. Probably there was no adequate preparations done to equip the school properly. Probably the same teachers who have been teaching grades 1 to 10 were used to teach at grades 11 and 12. The library and laboratories could have been inadequate. We had a similar experience with Daniel Namuhuja Senior Secondary School near Oniipa, which was also upgraded to Grade 12 a couple of years ago. It used to be a poor performer at Grade 12 level. I hope it has now improved. Upgraded former combined schools always face difficulties initially. With time they improve gradually. As to the claim by Dr Shikalepo that Onyaanya community is at the periphery of development, this is not factual. The Onyaanya area is known for self- development. If Dr Shikalepo is a Christian, I invite him to Onyaanya Parish Church. He will enjoy the comfort of a modern building. If Dr Shikalepo has a car, a petrol station is available at Onyaanya. For shopping he will find a Woermann supermarket there. The ABC milling factory will provide him with fine mahangu flour. Currently a solar power plant is under construction near Okatope. Onyaanya area is a growth point. Yes, the people in Onyaanya area may be “resistant in nature” as claimed by Dr Shikalepo. Onyaanya is part of Oshitambi area. From 1896 to 1906 Oshitambi was ruled by Nehale lya Mpingana. During that time, they resisted the Germany colonial encroachment during the famous Amutuni Battle. They were part of the anti-colonial resistance. With such a rich tradition of resistance the community of Oshitambi, Onyaanya included, would not tolerate any thing smelling reactionary. If Dr Shikalepo is a true academic as he claims he should apologise to the Onyaanya community. Nahas Angula is a native of Onyaanya. 2018-08-03Staff Report 2
