Learn to swim or risk drowning: Namibia’s unfinished decolonisation

Lazarus Kwedhi

Thirty six years after independence, Namibia is still drowning in a system built by Jan Smuts. Not because of race, but because of the dual structure of superiority and subordination in land, language, labour, and dignity.

Until we decolonise the mind, we keep redecorating colonialism and apartheid and calling it independence. Colonialism and apartheid keep changing colour like a chameleon.

They did not just take our land. They threw Namibians into the deepest sea. The purpose was never to save us, but to drown us.

In that sea, as a nation, we have two choices: we either learn to swim, or we risk drowning. Therefore, the question of who threw us into the deep ocean is a matter of history. Learning how to swim is a matter of survival.

Let us learn from the wisdom of a newborn baby who does not ask who the real mother is. The child is hungry and immediately latches on to survive. Namibia must do the same.