Kwame Nkrumah wrote in his book, "Africa Must Unite", that each African country when its independence is achieved must do its utmost to develop as rapidly as possible. This is an important step on the road to achieving African unity because African countries with stronger economies are better able to control their own natural resources and if their leaders are believers in African nationalism they will link up with other African countries and further control their sources of income. In addition to this, I have been disturbed at the constant negative images that flood the western media about Africa. It is full of negative images and stories and it seems that outside of South Africa, Kenya and Egypt, there are no successful African nations. Today, I would like to focus on one such country, my own (!!), and briefly illustrate its successes while not running away from its failures.
In the south west corner of Africa, the country of Namibia sits relatively unknown to the world. In this nation of slightly over two millions souls, a new model for African development appears to have the potential of emerging. Winning independence on March 21, 1990 from Apartheid South Africa, Namibia seems to be one of the few African countries on the right track towards economic, social, and political development. Although there is still a long way to go, I believe that there are many positive signs that Namibia is showing on its road to progress.
Namibia is a country rich in natural resources and is one of the world’s leading exporters of diamonds (gem-quality), uranium, copper, and fish. Namibia also has a booming tourism industry that employs thousands of Namibians and of all the previously mentioned revenue makers for the country, offers the most potential for further growth in Namibia.
Although the presence of these natural resources has contributed greatly to Namibia’s current achievements, there is another item that was and still is vital to its success, good leadership. Under the guidance of the SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organization) party, Namibia has managed its independence much better than other African countries. SWAPO was founded in 1960 and was the party that fought for the independence of Namibia from the Apartheid regime of South Africa. SWAPO won the 1990 elections under UN supervision and Dr. Sam Nujoma, President of the party was ascended to the Presidency.
Under the leadership of President Sam Nujoma, Namibia was set on the right path towards development and learned from the mistakes made by other newly independent African nations and avoided them.
For example, unlike other African political parties that came to power, when SWAPO won the first free and fair elections ever held in Namibia, they did not replace the white experts in the country with inexperienced Namibians. Instead, SWAPO left many whites in the previous positions they held and installed black people as their deputies and assistants so that Namibians could learn how to run certain institutions such as the water and electricity stations. This was very unpopular amongst some Namibians after independence as many still harbored a hatred for the white people who only a few months before were shamelessly exploiting and oppressing them. But the correct decision was made and because of this, there was not an immediate collapse of certain important industries and infrastructural agencies within the country. In addition, this helped heal the wounds of Apartheid in the country and promote forgiveness and reconciliation, not hatred of white people.
Furthermore, Namibia did not fall into the trap of accumulating loans from institutions like the IMF and World Bank. This problem has plagued so many other African countries but thankfully Namibia did not fall into that trap. Because of this, Namibia has a very small international debt and international organizations which are controlled by the west do not have the power to dictate how Namibia is to be run. The Namibian government as the representative of the people makes its own decisions and does not dance to the song of the west as some of our other African brothers and sisters sadly do.
Another important decision made by SWAPO was the declaration of all national resources, which includes, water, power, diamonds and uranium (to name a few), stay under national control. There can be no majority private ownership of these resources in Namibia. Government owns at least 51% of a particular industry and the private sector owns the rest. This guarantees that not too much foreign influence can be exerted over these strategic resources and it makes sure that what is produced by Namibians stays in the control of Namibians.
However, although Namibia has a lot of pluses in terms of potential for development there are many problems that face this fledging nation. Firstly, although Namibia has not fallen to the infections of corrupt government, it has fallen to the hiccups of the sometimes ignorant government. An example of this is that Namibia, over the years has tried to empower black Namibians by accelerating their promotion to positions of power. The problem with this is that some of the people put in these positions are not qualified to be ‘Minister of this’ or ‘GM of that.’ They have done honorable things in their past but what they have done has not enabled them to do what has to be done now. This has lead to some uninformed decisions in the management of some industries and ministries within the nation.
Thirdly, there is approximately a 30% HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Namibia which has lead to the near crippling of the working population in Namibia. Because Namibia barely has two million people and our workforce is around 660,000, this death rate does hold Namibia back and is decimating an already small work-force. In order to try and counter-act this, the Namibian government spends millions of Namibian dollars for HIV/AIDS medication and prevention.
Fourthly, Namibia has a high unemployment rate of around 40% and a large discrepancy between the incomes of the rich and the poor. In conjunction with this, Namibia has a large poverty rate which has lead to an increase in crime in Namibia.
All in all, even though there are many challenges for Namibia to overcome, the potential for development is there. Moreover, Namibia has good international relations and through mutual agreement and a recognition that Namibia has potential for good economic growth, countries such as China, Denmark, South Africa and Germany, to name a few, have invested millions into helping Namibia develop. So, although Africa as a whole is possibly seen as this place where everything is bad and HIV/AIDS, poverty, civil war, and corruption reign supreme, there are countries such as Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Mali, and others who have some of the above mentioned problems, but are fighting to solve these problems and continue on with developing their nation.
