Abolish Monarchies in Namibia!

URBAN AND rural development minister James Sankwasa has said that traditional chiefs are appointed from royal bloodlines, and are only accountable to royal families. This was after the IKhomanin community voted to remove their chief for selling land and for keeping donations. While Namibia is a republic, it has many traditional monarchies, kingdoms, chiefdoms and royal houses: Ovambo (Ondonga, Oukwanyama, Ongandjera, Uukwambi, etc); Herero (Ovaherero, Ovambanderu); Witboois; Bondelswarts; Zambezi (Mafwe, Masubia, etc); and Kavango (Kwangali, Mbunza, etc.) Namibia’s monarchies are political actors, not neutral cultural institutions.

They control land, influence local governance, shape social norms and receive state funding. They are part of the power structure and must be analysed like any other institution. Culture does not exist outside politics.

Traditional authority is a form of political authority. ‘ROYAL’ ROOTS Monarchies emerged from pre‑colonial societies that also had social class divisions and often sat at the top of those hierarchies. Romanticising them hides the reality that many were systems of labour extraction, patriarchal control and unequal access to land and cattle.

German and South African colonial administrations empowered certain monarchies to control populations on their behalf. This created new colonial‑aligned chiefs, hereditary power where it had not existed and chiefs who enforced colonial labour and taxation. They were reshaped to serve colonial administration, not community liberation.