Geingob should attend more ‘tribal’ events

Dear editor,

I noticed a media report about a remark by President Hage Geingob that he cannot attend tribal festivities because he is a national leader and that these events expose a challenge to nation-building. The contrary is a fact and underlies my argument. I agree that tribal entities can have an effect on national unity, but in a positive sense. Tribes are cultural and not political entities. Article 19 of the Constitution guarantees the practice of culture and tradition.

The president did not attend a public meeting of a political party but attended a cultural event. Doing this, he acknowledges that Namibia is constituted of different cultural entities (e.g., ethnicities), each making a cultural contribution to the development of a national culture.

I may disagree with the president on other issues, but in this case he fulfilled an obligation that rests on him as the highest office holder, namely to acknowledge the right of a tribe to be a cultural entity. He was not attending and making a (party) political speech, as this was a pure cultural and not a (party) political event. In addition to being the political leader of the Namibian nation, the president is also a person who represents all the different Namibian cultures and traditions. They enrich Namibia, and he can contribute to this by his presence at cultural events.

Gerhard Tötemeyer

Swakopmund