White privilege, tribal privilege must end
By Victor Angula |
There are three types of “privileges” in Namibia which have been around since 1990.
The “white privilege” stems from the year 1885 when an authority known as “German South West Africa” was established as the government of what we know today as the Republic of Namibia.
At the end of the First World War in 1915 a new authority known as Apartheid South West Africa took over the territory of Namibia.
The main aim of both the German SWA and the Apartheid SWA was to promote and advance the economic privileges of white people in the territory to the disadvantage of the indigenous people.
At Independence in 1990 the “white privilege” was done away with. But another “privilege” started: “political privilege”. Political privilege came together with its twin brother known as “tribal privilege”.
But while it was easy to identify “white privilege” during its time because it was institutionalized, openly promoted and legalized, the same cannot be said about the political and tribal privileges which came after 1990.
Political privilege means that people who are affiliated to the powerful political party do have it much easier to access economic opportunities in the Namibian society.
Then tribal privilege means that people from a certain tribal group do have it much more easier to access economic advantages.
Both political privilege and tribal privilege cannot be compared to white privilege which was practiced in the past because unlike in the past when white privilege was officially promoted through racist and apartheid laws, political and tribal privileges of today are a byproduct of a broken society.
The Namibian society is broken because most people are only after their own interests, so that they try to achieve their goals through political and tribal advantages.
The irony is that even white privilege is well and alive today although it is no longer legalised.
With that said, it is time to fight both the political privilege, tribal privilege and white privilege. Fighting these evils may be done through various methods. The first method is to speak out and condemn any of these privileges.
These privileges continue to perpetuate economic inequality. And economic inequality is an enemy of nation building.
Anyone who is interested in building the Namibian nation, he or she must roll up his or her sleeves and start to fight white privilege, political privilege and tribal privilege.
