Learn to swim or drown - Namibia's unfinished decolonisation

Namibia is still drowning in a system built by Jan Smuts, not because of race, but because of a dual structure of superiority and subordination in land, language, labour and dignity.

Until we decolonise the mind, we keep redecorating colonialism and apartheid and calling it independence. Colonialism and apartheid keep changing colour like a chameleon.

They did not just take our land. They threw Namibians into the deepest sea. The purpose was never to save us, but to drown us.

In that sea, as a nation, we have two choices: we either learn to swim, or we risk drowning. Therefore, the question of who threw us into the deep ocean is a matter of history. Learning how to swim is a matter of survival.

Let us learn from the wisdom of a newborn baby who does not ask about the birth mother.

The origin of the Dual State in One Country

To understand Namibia today, we must return to Jan Smuts. As South Africa’s Prime Minister and architect of the mandate over South West Africa, Smuts perfected what scholar Mahmood Mamdani calls the “bifurcated state.”

Smuts built the Citizen State about urban areas and commercial farms, governed by civil law with property rights and representation, meant for white settlers and the Subject State in the rural areas governed by chiefs and customary law.

The goal was power, wealth and the exclusion of the majority from economic opportunities. The citizen system was declared superior and modern, while the native system was declared subordinate and traditional.

Mamdani warned that colonial structures do not disappear after independence. They reshape into neocolonialism to defend themselves, just as the chameleon changes colour.

After German rule, the South African apartheid regime added "divide and rule" to Smuts’ blueprint. Namibians were restricted to homelands and sorted into categories: Koevoet vs PLAN, territorial forces vs "terrorist," puppet vs freedom fighter, one homeland vs another.

The purpose was simple: make the majority fight each other so they would never unite to challenge the system that enslaved and exploited them, the same system that kept them landless, poor and underdeveloped.

Post-1990: Same structure, new colours

In 1990 Namibia won political independence. The flag changed. The national anthem changed. But the colonial and apartheid structures remained intact.

Citizen vs Subject became ruling political elite vs the majority. Those with title deeds, bank loans and access in towns vs those in informal settlements and communal areas with state permission to occupy land and entitled to mere compensation during township proclamation.

Commercial vs communal land remains. Commercial land is bankable with title deeds and market value. The state and traditional leaders administer communal land that has no commercial value.

Government vs Chiefs remains. The politician holds the state budget. The other is called "custodian of culture." The redline remains. Livestock and red meat from south of the red line move freely, while livestock from north of the red line face restrictions.

The old divide-and-rule returned in new forms: party colour, ruling vs opposition, war veteran vs non-veteran, born in exile vs born in the country, state funeral vs family burial.

Whites no longer colonise us, and we are no longer divided by skin colour alone. We are now colonised and divided by who has access to the "superior" side of the dual system. This is why even many of our most educated people and freedom fighters in the legislature, executive and judiciary cannot imagine beyond the colonial structure to lead the decolonisation of post-independent Namibia successfully. Simply because they were trained not only to hate, but to use and sustain the colonial and apartheid system in a new shape. Bantu Education taught native Namibians to memorise the textbook and never taught innovation and critical thinking.

The colonisation of the mind

The deepest colonisation was of the mind. Colonial education used what Paulo Freire called the "banking system": deposit facts, withdraw them in exams—no critical thinking. No questions. No connection between the textbook and life in Havana, Katutura or the communal areas.

From this background, both pre- and post-independent Namibia learned three lessons.

First, one system is naturally superior to the other.

Second, we must compete in categories created to divide, exploit and enslave us.

Third, liberation and being elected means joining the elite, not dismantling the colonial and apartheid ruling structures.

The only way forward: Learn to swim

If colonisation weaponised education to enslave native Namibians mentally, then decolonisation must start and end with education as the enabler to dismantle colonial and apartheid ruling structures.

We already know who threw us into the deep sea. Now we must teach ourselves how to swim, or we risk drowning in the deep sea of debt, hunger, poverty, crime, unemployment and underdevelopment. To swim means three things:

Teach every child that colonialism and apartheid were not just about white people. They were about a dual system of superiority and subordination designed to enrich a few and exclude the majority.

Second, move your limbs. Replace memorisation with critical thinking and innovation. Take students to read the Communal Land Reform Act and the redline, and ask: Who does this Act or the redline serve? How do we change it?

Third, swim together. Reject the categories meant to divide, exploit and enslave us. The real divide is not party, veteran status or race. It is the majority vs the small group that benefits from keeping two systems alive to exploit and enslave the majority.

There must be no boundaries among Namibians. The boundaries were drawn in 1915 by Smuts to keep us weak.

The only option is to learn to swim through the "decolonisation of the mind." That means one system of Namibianship (one system of rights and one system of land).

It starts when a child learns not to repeat the textbook, but to ask: "Who wrote this, and who benefits if I believe it?"