Conservation & Etosha National Park

Week 9

Katelyn and Mia

Throughout the semester we have spent a great deal of time meeting with speakers in different city and town areas, taking classes, and enjoying time and learning with homestay families. While all of this has been tremendously significant, traveling in Namibia feels a bit incomplete without experiencing the country’s rich wildlife! After striking experiences in northern Namibia at our rural homestays we climbed into the kombi for a long ride to Etosha. We camped at two of the campsites, Halali and Okaukuejo, where we spent time together with a braai, game drives, and trips to the watering hole, a place at which tourists can sit and watch animals bathe, drink and relax. We spent hours in the evening by watering holes captivated by the animals, including elephants, giraffes, zebras, kudus, rhinos, and countless indigenous birds. It was fascinating to view the animals so closely, and it certainly puts into perspective that we share this earth with some magnificent creatures (Photo 1: Giraffes by the Watering Hole).

Although there are numerous animals in Etosha, the number of many species, including black rhino, white rhino, and cheetah, has been shrinking over past decades, largely due to human disturbance. Conservation is very important to Namibia; it is even guaranteed by the constitution. In fact, Namibia was the first African country to include protection of the environment in its constitution. We were fortunate to speak with one of the authorities in Etosha, Matt*, who gave us a great deal of information about the park. He discussed one of the most recent threats to the park: a fire that resulted in the loss of 300,000 hectares and a small number of animals, including elephants, giraffes, kudus, lions, and rhinos. The fire was started from coal burning in a nearby farm and spread into the park. This fire was extinguished and the next day, a smaller lightning fire occurred.** We wondered if there was any reaction plan to this event, or even if the government would step in to provide funding to help stop the fires. We learned that Etosha did its best to contain the fire, and it eventually died out.

While fires are sometimes natural occurrences, such as the lightning fire, human interference does need to be countered. Matt informed us that decades ago there were nearly 200 cheetahs roaming freely in Etosha, and today their population is estimated between 30 and 50. This relatively dramatic decrease is partly a result of human interference. As humans have pushed their way further and further into the animal kingdom, they disrupt the balance of nature. The rhino has also become an endangered species due to the increase in illegal poaching in pursuit of its horn. It is easy to get caught up in our daily lives and pay little to no mind to the beautiful creation that surrounds us and how we go about interacting with it. Illegal poaching, excessive pollution, moving into and destroying animals’ habitats, and other harmful actions towards nature need to stop or there will no longer be much sustainability in the natural world.

As inhabitants of the earth, we have an inherent social responsibility to take of nature. Through their work, the employees of the park live out this responsibility. On the other hand, we learned from Matt about the San communities who were removed from the Etosha region before the park was established. The San people once lived in harmony with the animals and moved from place to place when necessary. While we have a social responsibility to protect the land, that doesn’t necessarily need to involve pushing the San people out of their homeland. There is some talk today about reconciling with the San people, but it will never be as it was before for them. How might we all best move forward to take care of our earth? The moment we recognize ourselves as a part of this remarkable creation rather than separate from it is the moment we begin to move forward in harmony for conservation and preservation (Photo 2: Strolling through Etosha ).

Additionally, Matt told us about the intricate link between conservation and tourism, which plays a huge role in Namibia. Etosha alone sees about two million tourists each year, according to Matt. It is a large source of revenue that informs others about Namibia and the wonderful things it has to offer. Tourists come in from all over the world and learn about the animals in the region, the history of the park, and what is going on with conservation in the country. There is also a government funded research center in the park where undergraduate and graduate students from all over the world can come to conduct research in related fields. Hopefully those who come to Etosha, as a tourist, researcher, or anything else, can help to inform others back home about the importance of conservation and taking an active role in protecting our world’s wildlife. We definitely came away with a greater appreciation for the natural world of Namibia and a deeper understanding of the realities of human imposition in the area.

We feel very strongly about the importance of conservation and being educated about the matter. While the space of Etosha is protected by humans, some things are nature-made and will still take their course, like the fire that had swept through Etosha only days earlier. There is much to be learned from mother nature, even if her processes don’t always make sense to us. After such an amazing few days, the drive home was a bittersweet one, with a great experience behind us and the promise of home ahead of us—one night at home that is, and then off to fall break!

*pseudonym

**http://allafrica.com/stories/201110050365.html

Photo 3: Up Close and Personal with Lions

Rural Home Stay in the North

Gloria & Taryn

Week 8

Many of us awoke to the sounds of roosters crowing as we rose with the sun. We spent a total of six days and seven nights in the Omusati Region with Owambo families in Northern Namibia. While there, we had the wonderful opportunity of interacting, learning, conversing, sharing and exploring our families’ unique cultures while examining our own. Our experiences in the North shed light on the differences and similarities between how our Owambo families’ lives, and those of our own (Photo 1: Emma, Rauna and Patrina pounding muhungo).

So much joy, laughter, smiles, and conversation were shared during our home stay. Sharing was a major component of Owambo culture based on our perspective of it. It began on the first day when they opened not only their arms but also their home, their family, and their hearts to us. When sitting down outside of a shop and bringing out a liter of cool drink, cups were not just brought out for immediate family members, but for everyone sitting at the table. Meals are shared together under the moonlight not with individual plates, but a communal bowl that everyone eats from. And sharing goes beyond the nuclear family. One set of host parents willingly paid for their niece’s education without any expectations of her paying them back. Our experiences in the north showed us that sharing goes beyond the family and right into the entire community.

Community holds such a strong presence in our observations of the Omusati region. Time slows down, people take the time to sit down, and talk to their friends and neighbors before hurrying home. A simple hello does not suffice; one takes the time to ask how the other is doing. The families we stayed with showed so much concern for each other- and for other students staying with other families. One afternoon one of CGE’s students was called on the phone by about five families making sure she was feeling alright in comparison to her feeling ill the day before. As much as there is sharing within the community there is certainly a lot of caring that goes along as well.

Many of us were very fortunate to have very caring mothers which allowed us to see the strength of Owambo women within the house hold. Traditionally women cook, clean, sow, harvest, and are the main caregivers of children. Today many take on similar roles, but for some, it is because it is their choice to do so. One of the most amazing things to witness was the physical strength it took to pound mohungo. Young girls as young as four years of age did it with apparent ease. Pounding mohungo is not even the only example of strength, we witnessed and heard stories of Owambo women walking long distances carrying water and wood, and at times even doing tasks like these with a baby on their back. We witnessed and heard of memes or mothers who took on most, if not all, of the responsibilities of the household while the tate or father was working elsewhere or no longer present in the house at all. From our perspective, Owambo women are raised with amazing physical and emotional strength. This reminds us of the strong women we know in our own lives, like our mothers and sisters, friends, role models, and teachers. Many times, these role models serve as influential educators, but not always educators in the western sense. Learning goes beyond the classroom, and what we have learned from our Owambo families is that a lot more emphasis and value is placed on learning within the home. This created the opportunity for us to understand a new concept of education. For most of us in the group, education means to go to school, learn how to speak properly, receive good grades, and prepare for our academic future (Photo 2: View of the sun set at Meme Sarafina's house).

At our rural home stays we learned that education is not limited to just those factors. Most of the kids in our home stays had an idea of how to start a fire, look for wood, get water, take care of the different animals that were owned by the family, pound muhungo and much more. Due to the different lives that most of us have, thinking about learning all these things that are needed at the house in order to eat, live, and coexist with each other are not exactly necessary and therefore not part of our education. These things have a great value when are taught at such young age. By having household duties that need to be accomplished, children learn responsibility and respect to their family which thus gives them the strength that is needed in order to live out their everyday lives. This gave many of us an alternate perspective of seeing education in places other than the parameters of a classroom (Photo 3: At our community farewell in Omusati, North of Namibia).

While learning in a way outside of “classroom parameters,” an interesting topic that was brought up by many people in the group was the idea of feeling connected to our different members of our host family without the need of spoken language. Most of the time we base our assumptions or our expectations on what the other person is going to say within a conversation. However, that is not the only way in which people can describe and share feelings. A look, a smile, a handshake, the tone of voice, or simply silence, can convey more than a thousand words. Communication can happen not only through spoken words, but through a deeper sense of understanding of people’s lives and relationships among each other. The language barrier became instead a door that opened us up to a new way of forming relationships and understanding others.

We also gained a new understanding of what is enough, another topic brought up to many of us. Most of the time we take for granted the amount of things that we need just because we want them and are used to having them all the time. A very simple example can be the way in which we use water when we shower. At home many of us are use to having at least five minute shower where we take our time. After feeling clean and refreshed taking showers using only a small amount of water in a basin outside, we learned how little we actually need to be satisfied. Due to examples like this, most of us reflected on the different things that we do, buy, or consume not always taking in consideration whether we need it or want it. We now have a better understanding of what is enough.

As the sun set on our last day of the journey to the North the moon began to rise in the opposite horizon reminding us of the two worlds we have been caught between. This Symbolizes how we can turn to one side and see the beauty of where we are from, but when we look the other way we learn something completely new which together creates a complex beauty . As we rise with the sun and fall with the moon we take the values of home and those of abroad. And even though we cannot capture the image of the moon and the sun at the same time we can still capture the messages that we learned from our Owambo families which we will forever keep in our hearts.

Heroes Acre: More Than the Eye Can See

Charlotte and Carin

Week 7

Our history class ventured a little south of Windhoek to the famous Heroes Acre, a monument dedicated to Namibia’s liberation struggle. In Namibia, there are still issues with how Namibia’s history is remembered and preserved. As might be expected, Namibia’s process towards democracy, independence, and liberation from the politically and socially repressive government system was far from easy. Commemorating this journey with Heroes Acre reminds all visitors of the sacrifices of the Namibian people, as well as the influence of the political party, SWAPO, throughout the struggle. A grand vision made to represent stability and unity today.

(Photo 1: A section of the frieze at Heroes Acre depicting the narrative of Namibia's liberation struggle)

Through its deliberate design, Heroes Acre presents Namibia’s history in a way that embodies patriotism, pride, and nationalism. Heroes Acre has become an official war memorial of the government of Namibia, designed as a symbol of power and loyalty to democracy. The monument itself has several components that the viewer walks through to reach the final destination that overlooks Windhoek. The journey begins with the eternal flame burning at the foot of monument; this flame burns for all those who fought for the liberation. Then there are several layers of graves, both real and symbolic, of important figures during the liberation such as Dimo Hamaambo and Mose Tjitendero, important and influential SWAPO members during the struggle. Finally at the top, there is the marble obelisk, symbolizing a sword, and bronze statue of an unknown soldier—but one who greatly resembles leader of SWAPO and first president of Namibia, Sam Nujoma. There is also a frieze at the back wall that narrates the history of the struggle and celebrates the diversity of people who took part in the process including Namibians of all tribal backgrounds: the young, the old, women, academics, etc.

Heroes Acre, though honoring the men and women who bravely headed Namibia’s incredible liberation struggle against South African apartheid rule, also indicates SWAPO’s problematic political control over Namibia’s memory of the liberation struggle. During the liberation struggle, SWAPO engaged in torturous treatment against innocent Namibians in what is now referred to as the “Spy Drama.” As Siegfried Groth reports in his groundbreaking account of the SWAPO and the Namibian Churches’ behavior during the liberation struggle Namibia: The Wall of Silence, “SWAPO Security Service developed into a cruel machinery which mercilessly hunted down its victims” (Groth 100). The victims were members of SWAPO wrongly accused of being South African spies who were tortured in terrifying underground dungeons in Angola, Zambia and Tanzania. The accused were forced to admit on video tape that they were spies, the tapes of which were then distributed amongst SWAPO and Namibian Church leaders to prove why the detainees deserved brutal imprisonment and despicable treatment. Former president and leader of SWAPO during liberation Sam Nujoma himself visited one of these prisons and harshly accused the prisoners of betrayal and furthered not only the false propaganda against the prisoners but also validated and authorized their horrific imprisonment and in many cases, death.

So what does this have to do with Heroes Acre? Although people such as Groth have tried to bring the “Spy Drama” issue to the forefront of Namibian politics and have tried to bring recognition and reconciliation for the victims of these SWAPO prisons, the SWAPO government has continuously refused to take ownership of their actions against innocent Namibians, and have thus promoted a “wall of silence” on the issue. This refusal to take ownership of SWAPO’s grave misdeeds and their insistence on promoting a one-sided positive view of the liberation struggle has largely influenced many Namibians historical memory of the liberation struggle and of SWAPO today.

Today, the history of SWAPO’s totalitarian behavior during Namibia’s liberation fight for independence is masked by the grandeur of the monument of Heroes Acre. For the families and victims of the Spy Drama, Heroes Acre’s blatant focus on celebrating SWAPO and honoring Sam Nujoma for their brave efforts against South African rule overlooks the painful truth of SWAPO’s cruel and merciless treatment of many Namibian men and women during the liberation struggle. Monuments arguably cannot do much more than promote one (celebratory) sentiment of a historical memory, but paired with SWAPO’s larger failure to take ownership of the more unsavory complexities of the liberation struggle, the monument serves as a blaring reminder of this political crafting of Namibia’s historical memory. It represents an attempt on behalf of SWAPO to promote a politically pre-packaged view of the liberation struggle, thus changing history and how we view Namibia's progression to independence.

(Photo 2: Heroes Acre Monument - liberation soldier representing all those who fought for independence, but who also suspiciously resembles Sam Nujoma)