Basic HTML Version
RAILROAD
M;Jp
by
Roo Gravo
8/G COUNTRY, SPARSE POPULATION, MANY PEOPLES:
Less than one milfion
people live in Namibia, but they are divided into twelve distinct ethnic groups with
diverse origins, languages and cultures. The traditional homeland areas of these
groups are pictured here, although thousands of Ovambo, Herero, Kavango and
Damara men and women continually migrate to lar-off towns and farms in search of
work. Transporta/Ion lines are afmost excfusivefy linked with !hose of neighboring
Republic of South Africa, which also provides much of the market tor Namibia 's
products, as we/1 as the bu/k of investmenl capital. No tuture Namibian government
can cut the South African connection without incurring perhaps irreversible econom–
ic disaster.
of these further divided into impor–
tant tribes and subunits.
1
n the northern part of the territo–
ry live the major black Bantu-speak–
ing groups such as the Ovambos, the
Kavangos and the Hereros. The
Ovambo people alone make up nearly
one-half of Namibia's population.
In the southern part of the territo–
ry live the Namas, a brown-skinned
people earlier known as Hottentots,
who migrated northward from the
Cape region. The few remaining
Bushmen in Namibia are also non–
Negroid brown people.
The second-largest population
group, at about 100,000, are the
whites. Yet even here there is a cul–
tural-linguist ic breakdown. About
6
seventy percent of the whites speak
Afrikaans (a derivative of Dutch) as
their mother tongue, seven percent
speak English, a nd nearly a quarter
speak German, the language of the
territory's first colonial power.
Namibia 's complex ethnic divi sion
does not stop here, however. There
are also two important groups of
mixed Eurafrican descent, the Col–
oureds and Rehoboth Basters, both
of whom speak Afrikaans.
"Culturally," reports the pamph–
let
South
West Ajrica-Namibia,
by
Peter Duignan and
L.
H. Ga nn ,
" Namibia is equally varied. Wind–
hoek, the capital, is a modern town
with growing manufacturers; it rep–
resents the most modern sector of
the economy, a nd is part of the jet
age. Yet in the remote interior there
is still a handful of Bushmen (San)
who make their living by hunting
and by gathering wild herbs and
fruit. An entire book- perhaps a
whole shelf-would be required to
do justice to Namibia's ethnic di–
versity."
Andas far as politics is concerned,
no justice will be done if a formu la
for independence overlooks these
fundamental human and historical
factors- as well as the remarka ble
progress made in recent
years lo overcome deep–
seated cultural differences
and prejudices. For in Na–
mibia, everyone is part of
a minority. Yet despite
these facts there is now a
very c lear and present
danger of a politica l solu–
tion being imposed upon
all the people of ami bia
from the outside- upheld
by Communist-made ma–
chine guns and rockets.
Who Will Rule?
For over thirty years South West
Africa has been the subject of
lengthy and usually acrimonious de–
bate within the chambers o f the
United Nations.
There is a cocktail mix of parties
involved in the dispute at the moment:
South Africa, present authority in the
territory under an old League
of Nations mandate; the United
Nations, which claims succession to
the League's mandate responsibility
and declares Pretoria's a uthori ty to
be illegal; SWAPO, the militant
South West African People's Organi–
zation, whose externally based guer–
rilla bands launch repeated night–
time raids on the local population
from bases in neighboring Angola
and Zambia ; the neighboring so–
caBed "Front Line" states who pro–
vide terrorist sanctuaries as well as
moral support for SWAPO; the
Western powers "contact group"
(the United $tates, Great Britain,
Canada, France and West Germa–
ny) , who represent the U.N. as a
broker between South Africa and
SWAPO, but clearly lean in favor of
(Continued
on
page 40)
The
PLAIN TRUTH June-July 1979