Casper Tichatonga Bowora 

In some community teeming with traditional, cultural, ethnic and tribal diversity, there arose a need to elect a leader. Located in the central part of Namibia, a vibrant community of five-thousand inhabitants fomented by ethnic and tribal upheaval in home countries, the Refugee Camp is a convergence centre for Angolan, Congolese, Burundian, Rwandese, Cameroonian, Nigerian and Zimbabwean families.  The settlement needed a new leader. A better leader with a vision to bring about better living conditions, hope for a brighter future, one capable of ensuring that every child gets educated to the highest level possible. A leader who could meet the needs of all nationalities, not one who wins simply because he or she comes from a country that has the majority of inhabitants. 

The year is 2013. Not so long ago, you will agree with me. That year, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ refugee administration wing announced the need for the Osire community to prepare to elect a committee that would represent it for the next leadership term, as stipulated in the Refugee Act of Namibia. 

The camp woke up to a biggest campaign the inhabitants had ever witnessed since the first refugees walked into Namibia in the 1990s. The 2013 election’s top position winner was a woman from a minority community of Zimbabweans, Grace Lolo. She became the settlement’s president and chairperson of the joint Osire Community Development Committee. Osire became a shining example and pacesetter of the much-needed and much-talked-about gender balance and women’s empowerment initiatives. Why did the community wish there could be change?

Prior to the entry of Mrs Lolo into Osire’s hot office, most of the people in the community were finding it really hard to go by as there was very little productivity in the community to support their daily needs, apart from the scanty monthly rations every registered asylum-seeker and refugee is entitled to. That seemed normal. It is not.  Namibian teachers were not welcome in the predominantly refugee children’s school; the teacher pupil ratio was, on average, 1:65. The school facilities were in a very bad state of repair. Insufficient furniture too; water was rationed. There was no electricity in refugee and asylum-seekers’ homes. Leaving the camp, one needed to hold a pass, just like the apartheid days when crossing the red line at Oshivelo was punishable; agricultural land lay idle; sponsored projects such as farming were a privilege for a handful. In a nutshell, life for a refugee was nightmarish. It was unbearable.

A woman-led camp woke up to a whole new dispensation at the conclusion of the heavily- contested local elections. The new day was pregnant with ideals, hope and hard work in a corruption-free and enabling environment. True change had dawned in Osire.

The refugee committee canvased and secured university scholarships for all displaced young men and women whose Grade 12 points were good.

Community-sized gardening projects were introduced that could support the people of Osire and beyond. Individual families were allocated plots for agricultural use around the community, a source of self-employment. SMEs within the community were funded by UN and Namibian donors to allow them to grow and support the community’s daily needs. Thanks are due to the refugee committee. Okondjeni Market in Okruyangava overflows with green delicacies that arrive there early every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. Testimony to what the women can do. 

This industrious committee initiated a number of community workshops meant to address the issue of gender-based violence within the local community. The workshops bore fruit, as remarkable strides were seen that bridged the gap between men and women on the job market within Osire, and gender-based violence receded. 

Amongst others, so many achievements made by the maLolo-led committee, orphans were given more support. A youth community centre was built to prevent juvenile delinquency within the community. Namibian qualified teachers entered the school gates, and a lot more developmental initiatives came into effect at Osire. What lessons can we draw from this bold move to elect a woman into a position of power?