By Hoandi !Gaeb
WINDHOEK – “I have seen so many problems brought about by car accidents. Please, especially the youth, take time. Try to drive safely. Your future is in your hands. I am wheelchair-bound today, because of reckless driving and partying.”
These are the words of the courageous Adam Toesea Baisako, who, against all odds, worked hard to become one of the most influential disabled persons in the country. He is currently one of the commissioners of the Land Reform Advisory Commission of Namibia responsible for the Hardap and Omusati regions. “I was an able-bodied man until 11 February 1990. That was the day when comrade Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was released from prison. On that day I stopped walking, since I was involved in a serious car accident during celebrations of this world icon’s release after spending 27-years behind bars for resisting apartheid oppression in the struggle for freedom. I became paralysed on that fateful day,” he says, but without a tinge of bitterness. Baisako says disability does not mean inability. “When I realized after the terrible accident that I will never walk again, I thought it was the end of my life. I was constantly fighting with the recurrent question: Why me? I am still young. My whole life still lies ahead of me.”
“The situation did not change. More questions came up and needed answers, until I met Reverend Petrus Camm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia. He also became disabled in a car accident like me as he became a blind man in an accident.” Baisako says his life completely changed the day he met the late Pastor Camm. “At least I can see, although I cannot walk,” he reasoned after the first meeting. “After several sessions with the pastor, who was already blind by then, and listening to his encouraging words, I decided to pick up the pieces and to move forward as best as I could. I never looked back again,” says Baisako, who celebrated his 53rd birthday last month. About eight years ago, Baisako married his wife, Hansina, who also became his business partner on a farm in the Maltahöhe district. “Hansina is not only my wife. She is my private nurse, a social worker, psychologist and a pillar for me to lean on,” says Baisako. He was resettled on a farm in the Maltahöhe district through the assistance of the current governor of the Hardap Region, Katrina Hanse-Himarwa. “I don’t know how I would have survived with my wife, had it not been for our governor’s timeous intervention. Because, when she realized my potential, she decided to resettle me and I can only express my gratitude for her profound sense of humanity,” says the father of five and five grandchildren.
Baisako is today an avid farmer on his resettlement farm, where his passion for cattle farming is clearly demonstrated on the more than five-thousand hectare farm. He said he is trying to farm productively, but due to the drought situation in Namibia, he cannot farm the way he used to. Following his accident and numerous consultations with pastors, friends and family, he decided to enter the mainstream labour market and joined the then Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation as coordinator in the directorate of rehabilitation. His primary function there was to assist disabled people to gain expertise in vocational fields such as welding and carpentry. Regarding his job as commissioner on the Land Reform Advisory Commission, Baisako says he would like to see more disabled people joining the agricultural sector, so that they can become less dependent on government hand-outs and contribute towards the development of the country. With regard to government’s resettlement programme, Baisako says he would encourage farmers who are selling their land for resettlement purposes to be responsible for the units until the last minute of the deal in order to avoid destruction of the farms as is the case at the moment. “Farms are deliberately being vandalized during the period when the farms are acquired by government and before the new occupants move in. The only solution is to hold sellers responsible for the upkeep of infrastructure until resettled farmers move in,” he says.