National reconciliation is an imminent forerunner and prerequisite of unity, peace, stability and democracy.  BWS believes that the following steps are essential for conflict resolution leading to effective national reconciliation:

1.     Truth and honesty about events/causes leading to the conflict

2.     Admission of wrong-doing and showing of remorse by perpetrators

3.     Apology

4.     Acceptance of apology on the part of the victim

5.     Analysis and assessment of the impact these human rights abuses have on victims/survivors and families of the missing persons for effective intervention and remedy

BWS wants to see ruling party SWAPO begin these steps in regards to the ex-detainees from the liberation struggle.  (If you haven’t read my previous post on the historical background of BWS’s founding, you might want to now).  As of this point, SWAPO leadership has never admitted wrong-doing in its abuse and torture of the detainees, let alone the fact that many of the victims were entirely innocent.  However, it is getting closer.  Just yesterday, this story appeared on the front page of the Namibian, announcing that the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs will consider ex-detainees from SWAPO’s spy crisis to potentially be eligible for war veteran status.  The Minister, Ngarikutuke Tjiriange, made a garbled statement about the detainees, saying that SWAPO did have suspected spies, and “In the process, you may have arrested people who you suspected, but who may not have been as active (as initially thought).  So the answer is easy.  If someone was not convicted of any offence, but was caught in the crossfire, they will be associated with the struggle.  They will be treated as a veteran.”

To encourage SWAPO to begin the steps toward true reconciliation, BWS lobbies SWAPO party officials, Parliamentarians and other politicians; conducts a public relations campaign through the national media; and works to get the word out internationally through partnerships with international organizations.  BWS has also conducted a painstaking campaign to record the testimonies of all ex-detainees or their families, and to reach out to Namibians in all regions to ensure they know about the detentions.

A few weeks ago I interviewed Samson Ndeikwila, who was one of the founders of BWS and also its first chairperson.  I asked him what he thought were the most significant achievements of the organization, and also its importance to Namibia.  He spoke eloquently about the need for national reconciliation and BWS’s part in that:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzppm9fdXI4

Later I asked him whether he thought national reconciliation would actually happen, whether SWAPO would ever admit what it had done, and he said, “It will be resolved but I don’t know when.  I hope in my lifetime.”  I hope so too.

A little historical background will be helpful in understanding BWS’s roots and Pauline’s experience. During Namibia’s struggle for independence from South Africa, which was ongoing from the 1960s through the 1980s until independence was finally achieved in 1990, many Namibians left the country in order to train and fight in the struggle.  The South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) was the leading voice of the liberation movement, and it was training soldiers and leaders in camps in Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.  Starting in the 60s, tension developed between the older leadership of SWAPO and young people coming from Namibia.  In the 80s, the SWAPO leadership became convinced that there were spies for the South African government among the new arrivals.  They began jailing and torturing suspects in underground prisons.  No one knows how many people were imprisoned overall, but the number is somewhere between 1000 and 2000.  Many did not return.

In 1989, as part of the UN agreement that ended hostilities between South Africa and Namibia and granted independence to the new nation, surviving prisoners of war were repatriated to their respective countries.  Just 169 men, women and children were repatriated to Namibia from dungeons in Lubango, Angola.  The whereabouts of the rest of the detainees remains unknown.  Breaking the Wall of Silence was formed in 1996 by the survivors of the spy crisis to advocate for the human rights of the ex-detainees and their families.  SWAPO was elected as the ruling party after independence and remains the ruling party after 19 years.

The rest is best said in Pauline’s own words:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te430LAKiLE

For more information on the mission and programs of BWS, please go to the new website at: http://sites.google.com/site/breakingthewallofsilence/Home

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Every year in June, IANSA sponsors a Global Week of Action that highlights the negative consequences of gun violence around the world.  This year, one part of the Global Week of Action is Disarming Domestic Violence, a campaign to raise awareness about the link between guns and domestic abuse (I talked about this link in an earlier blog post).  Organizations in 28 countries are participating in spreading this message, and I am honored to be part of Namibia’s campaign.  You can read about how Advocacy Project Fellows are contributing to the campaign worldwide here.

The other week, the NANGOF Trust (the umbrella organization that represents Namibian NGOs, including the one I work for, Breaking the Wall of Silence) held a campaign launch event.  It was a panel discussion at a big hotel in downtown Windhoek, and we had four distinguished speakers, including two Members of Parliament and two representatives of civil society organizations.  All the speakers discussed the need for women to feel safe in their own homes.   Rosa Namises of the NGO Women’s Solidarity Namibia gave a particularly moving speech about women’s rights in Namibia and their continuing vulnerability to violence.

Pauline and the parliamentarians talked about how the firearms law here could be amended to improve safety – for example, by instituting a competency test that all gun owners would be required to take and renew.  One important part of any legal changes would be harmonizing the firearms legislation with the domestic violence legislation that they have here.  Harmonization simply means that the gun law prohibits ownership by domestic violence offenders, and the domestic violence law requires the removal of guns.  So far, harmonization has only been accomplished in four countries: Canada, Australia, Trinidad & Tobago, and our next-door neighbor, South Africa.  We’d like it to happen here in Namibia too.  It was great to see the two parliamentarians supporting these potential changes to the law.  Pauline hopes that debates in the relevant government ministries to institute the amendments could begin later this year.  It could definitely be an uphill battle though, as the gun dealer lobby and some in the hunting and farming communities are wary of any changes to firearm legislation.

Member of Parliament McHenry Venaani officially launches the campaign while MP Kaveri Kavari and Pauline Dempers listen.

Member of Parliament McHenry Venaani officially launches the campaign while MP Kaveri Kavari and Pauline Dempers listen.

Connected to the launch, Pauline and I were invited that same day to be interviewed on the national TV network, NBC TV.  We got up bright and early to be on Good Morning Namibia, the daily show that starts at 6 AM.  The anchor interviewed us for about 10 minutes live, and we talked about the problem, the legal side, and announced the launch event later that day.  It was a great opportunity to get the word out, and my first appearance on live TV!

We’ve also been working on getting the message out to the Windhoek community more generally through the Gun-Free Namibia campaign.  We visited two schools last week and talked to their staff to encourage their schools to become Gun-Free Zones.  Goreangab School in Katutura took on the challenge, so we’ll be returning soon to talk to the students and have an official ceremony.

It feels like the NANGOF Trust has a lot of momentum going with the campaign to end gun violence here in Namibia, and it’s very exciting for me to be here for it.  More updates soon.

One of the legacies of apartheid still visible in Windhoek is the different characters of the various “locations” – what would be called townships in South Africa.  In 1959, residents of the Old Location (a segregated area of Windhoek set aside for black people by the Germans in 1913) were forcibly relocated to another location outside of Windhoek, which the people called Katutura, or “the place we do not want to stay.”  On December 10, a protest against the removal in the Old Location turned bloody when 13 demonstrators were shot and killed by police.  December 10 is now recognized in Namibia as International Human Rights Day to commemorate the tragedy.

Katutura is still here.  In fact it has grown significantly, and now about half of Windhoek’s residents live here.  It remains the poorest location in Windhoek.  Although there are some nicer areas, a lot of the houses are just tin shacks erected by squatters too poor to buy or rent a house.  But Katutura is also a vibrant part of this city.  There are nightclubs, shops, markets, even a court, and teens walking home in their school uniforms.   I work here every day, as the NANGOF building is here (NANGOF stands for the Namibian NGO Forum, an umbrella organization that represents Breaking the Wall of Silence as well as many other organizations).  It is still an overwhelmingly black neighborhood; I have never seen another white person here, and people often look surprised to see me.  Recently, a taxi driver taking me home from the office joked that the longer I worked in Katutura, the browner my skin would become!

High school in Katutura

High school in Katutura

Kids at the school, in between classes

Students (called "learners" here) at the school, in between classes

The other locations all have their own character.  My host, Talita, took me to visit with some of her family in Khomasdal.  The houses there are obviously nicer, better-built and bigger.  She told me that it used to be the location set aside for the “coloured” people, or people who are mixed-race.  Now people of all races and tribes live there.

I don’t think the neighborhood where Talita and I live, Dorado Valley, used to be an official location, but it also has a mix of people.  There are black families of different tribes, “coloured” ones, and apparently even some white families.  I take this racial mix, perhaps somewhat naively, as a good sign of healing after the years of abuse and harassment under apartheid.  All is not perfect, however.  Talita told me that I will never see the white people in our neighborhood.  Apparently they only come out in their cars, never walking to the local taxi rank like others do.  And it’s true – at least at this point, I still haven’t seen them, whereas the other families all have children out playing in the yard or people hanging out on their front steps, listening to music.

My neighbor, Junior, in front of his house in Dorado Valley

My neighbor, Junior, in front of his house in Dorado Valley

Pauline Dempers and Felix Muchila on his NBC Radio show, "The Ninth Hour"

Pauline Dempers and Felix Muchila on his NBC Radio show, "The Ninth Hour"

I had just met my new boss, Pauline Dempers, the national coordinator of Namibian NGO Breaking the Wall of Silence, at one of the central taxi stands (or ranks, as they’re called here) in Windhoek.  It was my first day in Namibia, and I had come directly from the airport – Pauline was picking me up downtown to take me to Talita’s house, where I would be staying for the next three months.  We sat and talked for a moment as we waited for Talita to drop off the keys: mostly small talk and getting-to-know-you chat.  Then she surprised me:

“I’d like you to come with me to the national radio station tomorrow.  We’re being interviewed on the IANSA campaign.”

And so the next day at 9 AM I found myself walking up to the NBC (here, it stands for Namibian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio building to begin the first task of my internship.  Inside, I met Pauline and Felix Muchila, host of English-language radio show “The Ninth Hour.”  NBC has radio shows in English, German, and Afrikaans, as well as several different indigenous languages, and it is broadcast throughout the entire country.  Felix informed us that we would be talking for about 45 minutes and would take calls from listeners as well.  This is where I started to get nervous: 45 minutes?  On my first day?  I hoped I had all the answers to the questions that would be asked of me.

I shouldn’t have been too worried.  Pauline took the lead, discussing the national Gun Free Namibia campaign that her organization has spearheaded as well as the link between guns and domestic violence that is the focus of the Disarming Domestic Campaign that we are launching here in Windhoek as a partner in IANSA’s Global Week of Action against Gun Violence.  Felix asked me how gun violence compared between the US and Namibia, and also what was being done to combat gun violence in the States.  I was not able to compare the level of violence in the two countries, especially as I did not have access yet to Namibian statistics.  But I did highlight that there are several organizations working on this issue in the US, and that IANSA is partnering with many of them.  We had one caller at the end of the show who commented on the difficulty of reducing gun violence, and the importance of ensuring that guns are stored safely.

Perhaps the best part of the whole experience was that since then, I have encountered two people that heard Pauline and me on the radio.  One of them is a freelance reporter, and we had an interesting discussion about gun violence in Windhoek.  It’s exciting to know that the campaign is already visible and sparking discussion.