The late Namibian president Hage Geingob.
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Hage Geingob’s legacy as a moderniser will live on despite contradictions and unfulfilled promises.
Martti Ahtisaari receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008. Chris Jackson/Getty Images.
Ahtisaari’s role in Namibia was crucial. But he left a major legacy in pursuing peace in various places of conflict in his later life too.
Hage Gottfried Geingob, President of Namibia.
Photo by Hannah McKay - Pool/Getty Images
With a growing number of younger Namibian voters born after independence, the struggle narrative became increasingly anachronistic.
Voting at the United Nations General Assembly special session on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Namibia’s refusal to condemn Russia undermines the credibility of its claims to support sovereignty, territorial integrity, and self-determination of all nations.
Hundreds of Namibians protested against growing gender-based violence in October 2020. The Afrikaans wording on the placard says ‘We are tired’.
Hildegard Titus/AFPvia Getty Images)
The legitimacy of SWAPO, the former liberation movement that has governed since 1990, has been eroded amid growing corruption and a deepening economic crisis.
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The November 2020 local and regional elections have indeed put Namibia’s political culture at a crossroads.
Namibians queue to vote. Fewer and fewer cast it for the ruling party SWAPO.
Photo by Gianluigi Guercia/ AFP) (Photo by GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP via Getty Images)
The hunger, frustration and desperation of ordinary Namibians should be first on the political agenda. But this isn’t the case.
The results of the Namibian election reflect growing discontent among voters with the way the country is being run.
EFE/EPA
For the first time since independence, Namibia’s ruling party has suffered electoral setbacks in the midst of economic and political crisis.
Namibian president Hage Geingob.
EPA/Siphiwe Sibeko
Namibia’s political stability so far has been vested in the dominance of Swapo. Those opposing its control face an uphill battle.
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Swapo remains the dominant party by far in Namibia. But it seems increasingly unable to live up to its promises.
One of the new resolutions on land related to Namibia’s urban areas, like the capital city Windhoek.
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The question of land has been hotly contested in Namibia ever since independence.
Protesters demand Congolese President Joseph Kabila step down.
Reuters/Thomas Mukoya
Too often developments in one country are seen in isolation. In southern Africa events in one affect others in the region.
President Jacob Zuma, left, gets a courtesy visit from President of Namibia Hage Geingob in 2015 in Cape Town.
GCIS
South Africa’s ANC and Namibia’s SWAPO, governing parties, enter crucial leadership elections this year, with presidents Zuma and Geingob both facing challenges.
A mural depicting populist dictators painted onto remnants of the Berlin Wall in Berlin in 2014.
Henning Melber
The legitimacy and credibility of those in power has been eroded by bad governance, patronage and the obsession to claim an exclusive agency representing the people.