Namibia's government "washes its hands" of its own exile orphans
The brutal history of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) in exile has returned to Namibia, with the SWAPO government's forced banishment of between 60 and 100 orphans born in exile to a remote village about 700 kilometres from the capital, Windhoek, as if it were to Siberia under Stalin.
The orphans, aged between 21 and 35 years old, were born to women members of SWAPO in exile. Their parents are believed to have been killed or died in exile, prior to Namibian independence in March 1990. At least 22 of the expelled orphans have no personal identity documents. A number of them are women.
The State Secretary at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Dr. Peingeondjabi Shipoh, said recently that the Government of President Hifikepunye Pohamba had, like Pontius Pilate, "washed its hands" of the orphans, who had previously been living in a State youth camp at Berg Aukas, north of the town of Grootfontein .
Dr. Shipoh stated: "They are totally off. Where they are now, they are not under our care. These young people were told to behave properly and they did not want to do so."
The orphans were forcibly deported on 20/21August on unsubstantiated allegations by the government of "misbehaviour" and "indiscipline".
They claim the real reason for their expulsion was Cabinet intolerance of criticism, after they had spoken out against corrupt practices (mainly nepotism and favoritism) which, they said, characterised the recruitment process to the Police and Army.
The Namibian human rights organisation, Namrights, has pointed out that the state expulsion of the orphans came after dozens of them took part in protest marches to the town of Ondangwa and to Windhoek last year, in an attempt to pressurise the Pohamba Administration to give them jobs.
Namrights has stated that the expellees are "without basic necessities for human dignity such as shelter, food, water sources and ablution facilities".
It has appealed "to the Namibian Red Cross Society, faith-based organizations, opposition parties, the private sector as well as any other humanitarian and philanthropic organizations to render humanitarian assistance for the affected orphans". The deportees "urgently need decent shelter in the form of a tent or tents, decent ablution facilities, food and water as well as sanitary items for especially the female orphans."
The early history of the displaced orphans- who are now living under a tree in a bleak and sandy space at Ekuku village, near Oshakati, near the northern border of Namibia - is to be found in a book published in Germany in 1999, Die "DDR-Kinder" von Namibia: Heimkehrer in ein fremdes Land, edited by Constance Kenna, published by Klaus Hess Verlag in Gottingen. Translated into English as "The ‘GDR Children': Returnees to a Foreign Country", the title refers to the care provided for over 400 of SWAPO's orphan children in the former German Democratic Republic before the fall of the Berlin Wall at centres such as Bellin castle, Zehna and Lohmen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and at Stassfurt near Magdeburg.
Their "homeland", Namibia , was a foreign place to them on their arrival at Windhoek in August 1990, barely a few months after Namibian independence. The book writes of the "culture shock" experienced by the orphans, all of whom spoke German fluently and who were often referred to as "the Germans" by black Namibians, even by members of their own families. "They stand between two cultures, two worlds. What is to become of them?" the book asked.
Now independent Namibia has given its answer.
It is this creation of its own much-vaunted liberation struggle that the SWAPO has now "liberated" from its care, transported to a tree near Oshakati, almost as far away from the residences of the governing elite as it was possible to deport them. Out of sight, out of mind. A banishment of history, and of human feeling.
Known in Namibia as the "Children of the liberation struggle", or as "SWAPO's struggle kids", their treatment is an indication of the failure of the ruling party to cope with matters even the most intimately of its own creation. It tells again of SWAPO's record of suppression of criticism.
The executive director of Namrights, Phil ya Nangoloh, has stated: "After all, this autocratic measure against the aggrieved orphans of the war of liberation is entirely compatible with the autocracy that has been plaguing the ruling SWAPO Party since the early 1960s in exile when SWAPO was a liberation movement in neighbouring countries.
"The ruling party has a well documented history of dictatorial measures against anyone, and, as a result, scores of SWAPO cadres in exile had been subjected to systematic human rights violations. These violations included summary executions, torture, prolonged arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances of thousands of those SWAPO members who dared to criticize the SWAPO leadership under its former leader Sam Nujoma."
Ya Nangoloh insists that SWAPO's struggle orphans should be given a "monthly subvention of N$2500 or more, just like any other former SWAPO war veterans in this country".
He adds: "We find it totally unacceptable for the Administration to claim that there is no money in State coffers to cater for these and other destitute citizens, while millions of Namibian dollars are kleptocratically disappearing, on a daily basis, from the State treasury to benefit a small group of capitalist gluttons, most of whom have personal and or blood relations with former Namibian President Nujoma and/or his political cronies."
The serially displaced persons at Ekuku village have formed their own organisation, the Homeless Orphans and Exile Kids Association (HOEKA). They are looking for donors inside and outside the country to assist them to develop self-help as well as income-generating projects involving gardening, poultry and livestock farming. They hope to establish a permanent home to be known as the House of Exile, consisting of a museum, a conference hall, a printing shop and bed and breakfast accommodation.
House of Exile, indeed, for the returnees in a foreign land.
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