Jessica Kahere (the first Namibian to join the Friends of Namibia Committee) has been in touch with the Namibian music group Scorpion and confirmed that a 2-week visit is planned in October, probably now from 16 to 30 October to fit in with a possible performance opportunity in Manchester on 18 October. Four members of the 12-member group will be coming to UK and they plan to bring CDs of their music to use in performance, to minimise the number of instruments to be carried. Speakers and mikes will be needed at all performance venues (possibly Manchester, Chesterfield, Birmingham and London). The musicians will charge no fee but accommodation and subsistence will need to be provided for the duration of their visit. Jessica is confirming dates, names of group members and other details with Liz, so that letters of invitation for visas can be arranged through the High Commission.
The Friends of Namibia Committee had its second meeting this year on 10 May in Chesterfield. Two Namibians (Philip Nehale and Maria Naukale Mashina) currently on work experience in Chesterfield were fortunately able to attend the meeting and speak of their experiences. After the usual matters of business of the meeting there were updates from members on current and planned activities:
The High Commissioner was to visit Manchester and Chesterfield in the week commencing 11 May, to meet the Mayor in Manchester, and the First Secretary (Politics, Economics and Trade) would also be meeting with the Chamber of Commerce in Chesterfield.
Sarah Adams gave a report covering the many activities of the Namibia task group of the Diocese of Manchester, including students teaching in two villages, forthcoming visits from two priests in Namibia to Manchester, the planned visit of 10 Manchester clergy to Namibia in July, links with the church in the North covering youth exchange visits (the head of a local primary school has drawn on DFID funds for this) and various highly successful fundraising events by the parishes in the diocese. Sarah said she hoped to attend future meetings of the Friends, although she would be in Namibia when the August meeting was held.
Mary Stead said in addition to the High Commission visit, other more social events were planned for the summer. It was noted that Tsumeb also has active links with Canada and Norway.
Ryn reported the American Community School (ACS) was ready to ship the next container to Oshakati later this month, containing bikes, clothing and school supplies. The shipping company is paying it for. Ryn and Ann will be visiting the school in June. The focus is now on the feeder schools for the boarding school in Oshakati.
Jean Burns-Thomson said the Grantham parish link was currently on hold.
Margaret Lipscomb gave a report: Tuvoye Hishikushitya, who has just graduated, is visiting the UK in June [she is here from 16 June until 6 July].
Dick Chamberlain, fundraiser for UNAM, is involved in a history project looking at British influence in Namibia over the last 100 years. It is planned to hold a conference in UK, followed by a seminar in Namibia at the end of the year. There may be a preliminary meeting to discuss this in Oxford in June.
Margaret Lipscomb had represented the Friends of Namibia at two memorial services recently – one for Garfield Todd and another for Nadir Dinshaw – and attended a seminar on NEPAD at the Commonwealth Centre in London to celebrate Africa Day on 23 May.
Please get in touch with Margaret Lipscomb if you are interested in taking part in a group visit to the Powell Cotton Museum, which holds a collection of Namibian artefacts, in late July/early August, before the next committee meeting. The address is Quex Park, Birchington, Kent CT7 OBH tel 01843 842168, and it is located on the north coast of Kent, near Margate. The website address is: www.powellcottonmuseum.co.uk
It is recommended that any visits be arranged in advance with the Museum, as there are items of interest, which are not always on display.
Directed by Mariama Conteh
'AFRICA', what does the word conjure up in your mind?
‘ Kultcha Express’ is a documentary that looks at this question through the eyes of two young Black British women from south London - Katie and Natasha - who experience one month in Namibia. Both had learned little of Africa through the British school system and came with the preconceptions they had picked up from different areas in their life.
They visit a village in the north of the country, working with young children, spend two weeks working at a youth centre in the capital city, Windhoek, and finally spend a week taking in the wildlife and trekking through the sand dunes, living with the basics, few showers, no shops, no TV, and they survive!
Throughout their stay they meet young people of similar ages, and discover that even so far away, the similarities do not just end there. These young women are British, but they find an affinity with a country and peoples that they have no direct affinity with. After one month they can sing the Namibian National Anthem - although at 26 years and 17 years, having been born and bred in the United Kingdom, they are hard pushed to sing more that the first few lines of the British National Anthem.
'Kultcha Express' is about their journey; the physical one they make from the UK and all around Namibia, and the spiritual and emotional journey they make through their encounters and experiences.
Mariama Conteh, who filmed and directed 'Kultcha Express’, is a 26-year-old Sierra Leonean who has lived in London for the past 14 years, first studying and now working. She was a student of politics and international development with a keen interest in issues facing young people, particularly black young people, and she is now working on the West Africa Programme of ‘Conciliation Resources’, an organisation that deals with countries emerging from or going through conflict.
Of the film she says: 'I have had no background in film and 'Kultcha Express' is my first film, but I have always seen the value of the visual image and wanted to use this as a medium to share experiences that could allow people from different parts of the world to learn from each other. My move into the field of documentary making has followed a keen interest in still photography through which my work is mainly documentary.'
Mariama was a volunteer in Namibia herself, through the Daneford Trust, and below she describes her own experiences of Namibia and how she came to make the film.
The film is available on video and if you would be interested in seeing it or showing it to your local group, please contact Mariama: mariama_conteh@hotmail.com
Mariama Conteh
My first introduction to Namibia began in October 1999. After completing my Masters in Development Studies I wanted to do a voluntary placement somewhere where I could perhaps gain some practical experience. I liked what the Daneford Trust did; they offered flexible placements that were based on cultural exchange and not charity, and I started fundraising for my trip a year and a half before I finally went. My first choice had been St. Vincent, then Eritrea but as war erupted on the Ethiopian /Eritrea border close to my departure I chose Namibia because it was the country I knew would offer me the most challenges. I love geography and had travelled fairly widely before, but this was a country that I knew very little about in every respect - and I also knew no one there.
Altogether I spent six months in Namibia starting with about one week in Windhoek as a sort of orientation. I did have culture shock, in particular regarding the remnants of apartheid that were still alive. It was quite hard for me to come to terms with the segregation, not just physically, but also in people’s attitudes and outlooks. Nonetheless I still enjoyed my time.
I moved on to Ongwediva in the North (Ovamboland), which is near Oshakati and spent another 2 weeks in this small town waiting to reach my final destination of Onayena, a small village nearby. We were simply waiting for a car to be repaired and my Namibian hostess to be able to take some time out to introduce me to my new home in the village. However, this delay ended up giving me one of some of my most rewarding experiences as I was able to shadow a teacher (my hostess’s daughter) at a school for the deaf and blind. I learned so much from those students. I remember one of the most striking experiences was when one class of blind students was told that I had come from England. As they were touching me to get acquainted, they refused to believe that I was from England. They told me that I was one of them; they could feel it in the texture of my skin. Being from West Africa, essentially they were right.
Two weeks later I finally reached Onayena where I was going to teach a kindergarten class for the next 6 months. I lived in a small room on the school premises - an experience, which was so rewarding and one I will never forget.
I taught a class of about 25 students whose ages ranged from 2 to 7 years old. This was my first challenge; to be able to teach the varying abilities and age groups. I was also surprised by the amount of responsibility I was given. By the time I left I had helped structure the curriculum and timetable for 2002. My hostess who was the headmistress of the school was impressed that the children were learning so much from my classes although my timetable was less rigorous than the one that they had previously used.
I learned so much from the teaching experience and was definitely a better teacher in the second term than the first. In the mornings we had our classes outside in the shade of one of the walls of the house and in the afternoon we moved to the shade of the big tree. We were able to present a Christmas play to the parents as well as perform some songs for church by the end of the year. I think these were my major achievements. I feel really proud of the work I was able to do and humbled by how much I gained from my young pupils. I think the main lesson I learned was that language and speech are a very small part of communication.
The social aspect of my experience was where I had to do more adjusting. The village is remote, and sparsely populated and there was really nothing to do. I did enjoy this, though, despite times when I wished there were people who knew where I was coming from. I think if I had to work it out, I must have spent months under the shade of one of the trees in the schoolyard, talking, listening and napping. It was always cooler in the shade than in the rooms. I was sharing the house with two other teachers who were just a bit older than me so I really learned a lot about Ovambo youth culture and traditions. Eventually I made some friends and ventured more around the village.
On the other hand there were things that were harder to adjust to. Going to the outdoor toilet at night was never something I could master by the end of my stay, especially as on the first night I was greeted by a community of cockroaches everywhere. I learned that day you need to get there while there is still light! We also cooked outside on wood. Although I had no problems with the actual cooking it was lighting the fire that was always an experience. The other problem with that was if there was rain or sandstorms we went hungry if we had not cooked in advance. Luckily this only happened a few times!
My other experience of Namibia was through travelling around the country. I spent time in Soussesvlei, saw the sand dunes, camped in the desert and also visited the coast - Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. I found Namibia stunning. It is one of the most beautiful countries I have come across and I have managed to capture a small element of this in my film. I later hitchhiked North through the Caprivi Strip, into Zimbabwe, Botswana and then back again to Namibia. So this trip also provided me with the opportunity to visit other countries
It’s so hard to put an experience like this into words. I don’t feel I’ve done justice to it and I don’t think I can fully explain how much I learned every day I was there. I learned about human relations, about life, about myself, and I relearned things that I thought I already knew. But most of all I learned that I could overcome challenges that I never knew I had the strength to overcome. After that experience I feel I can achieve anything and I’d rather try and fail than not try at all.
This is the background to what took me to Namibia for the second time to make ‘Kultcha Express’. I wanted to share what I had learned with others. I also knew that many young Black people were missing out on this opportunity for a multitude of reasons. I felt that if I could go with just 2 young Black women and film their experience I could use this both as a tool to encourage any young person to take up such an opportunity, and specifically to illustrate to Black youth that this opportunity is also open to them. In addition it would just provide some information on a country we hear little about.
I kept this idea in the back of my mind and when I gave talks at schools and colleges I was able to see who might be interested in coming along with me. That’s how I found Katie and Natasha, two strangers, to embark on this experience with me. We met regularly before we left, raised funds and then began the journey. I had made the decision to simply film their experience whether it was positive or negative, and see what could become of it!
It is with great sadness that we note the recent deaths of two long-standing friends of Namibia - Nadir Dinshaw and Quentin Keynes - both of whom were founding members of the Friends of Namibia Society in 1997.
Nadir Dinshaw was born in Karachi in 1925 but was educated in England and made his home in Jersey in 1959. He was a liberal Catholic Anglican who had a strong commitment to justice for the oppressed and marginalised in society. He was a generous benefactor to many charities and causes working for the dispossessed, including the Namibia Peace Centre, set up by the late Bishop Colin Winter in the 1970s to cater for the needs of Namibian then in exile. Since 1997 he has been a generous supporter of the Friends of Namibia Society. Nadir died at his home in Jersey in December 2002.
Quentin Keynes was born in London in 1921 but his passion was Africa where he spent much of his life as an explorer, safari leader, photographer and film maker. In 1950 he moved among the nomadic Ovahimbas of Kaokoland in Namibia and photographed the wreck of the Dunedin Star on the Skeleton Coast. The wildlife of the country interested him particularly and he went on to make a number of films which have continued to inspire interest in Namibia, particularly among young people. Quentin died in February 2003 and his wish was that his ashes be taken to Namibia and scattered there on the Skeleton Coast.
We extend our sympathy and condolences to family and friends of both Nadir and Quentin.
ATLAS OF NAMIBIA: A Cartographic Profile of Modern Namibia
by John Mendelsohn, Alice Jarvis, Carole Roberts and Tony Robertson
* illustrated throughout with colour maps and photographs
Published by D Philip, 320 x 245mm Hardcover 198pp. ISBN 0-86486-516-3
£30.00
According to the publicity supplied by the Africa Centre 'This authoritative and up-to-date atlas of Namibia is a milestone in atlas production in southern Africa. Beautifully produced and designed, and illustrated throughout with colour maps and breathtaking photographs, this atlas is meant both for the serious student and for the general reader and traveller.
This is a work that will last for many years - it won't be replaced for decades - and contains a wealth of recent information rendered in graphic and cartographic form. It is comprehensive in its coverage: in addition to a series of topographical maps of the country, it deals with the climate, geology, fauna and flora, land ownership and uses, human demography, the economy and social services. The text is accessibly written and not jargon-laden, and the maps and photographs (many taken from satellites) are fascinating to look at.'
Distributed by Central Books Ltd, 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN
Tel: 020 8986 4854; Fax: 020 8533 5821 E-mail: orders@centralbooks.com
Also available from good bookshops, including the Africa Book Centre Ltd, 38 King Street, London WC2E 8JT. Tel: 020 7240 6649; Fax: 020 7497 0309; orders@africabookcentre.com
JOHANNESBURG, 11 June (IRIN) - HIV-positive Namibians could soon be able to access cheaper anti-AIDS drugs after the government announced plans to support the local manufacture of generic medication in the country.
Speaking during discussions between visiting UN Special Envoy on AIDS, Stephen Lewis, and a group of ministers, Namibian Health Minister Dr Libertinah Amathila said cabinet had last week given a local pharmaceutical company the go-ahead to produce antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. According to a report on the meeting, Lewis said he saw no reason why a plant to manufacture ARV drugs in Namibia should not succeed.
The AIDS Law Unit of the Legal Assistance Centre welcomed the move. "For the many thousands of Namibians who are HIV positive and who, in many cases, already desperately require treatment, this announcement provides hope that Namibia can finally begin to turn the deadly tide of this epidemic", the lobby group said in a statement.
Despite a recent spate of price cuts, the cost of ARVs remained "way out of reach" for most Namibians. "You can expect to pay between 1,600 and 2,500 Namibian dollars (US $203 to $317) a month, depending on the regimen", Michaela Clayton, project co-ordinator of the AIDS Law Unit, told PlusNews.
While generic medication had only recently been obtainable in government medical stores, it was still difficult to determine the extent to which they were broadly available to the public, Clayton pointed out. Local manufacture of ARVs would make a "huge difference" in access to affordable treatment - not just for Namibia, but for the Southern African region, she noted.
"Producing generics locally is a bold step, and this will serve as an example to other governments", she added. Few Southern African countries have taken advantage of the World Trade Organisation's Doha declaration, which allows developing countries to use generic drugs in times of health crises, overriding the patents held by major pharmaceutical companies.
[ENDS]