A day ondry landthat criesfor rain By ElísioMuchanga

A day ondry landthat criesfor rain

By ElísioMuchanga

Every day we hear stories about war going on almost everywhere, people killing people, for no apparent reason, but not every day we hear and care about people thirst to death, struggling to survive a terrible drought.

It is what happensin a sub-Saharan country called Namibia with 2 millions of habitants, which I got to know as a journalist in journalism Summer School 2013 I was fortunate to be selected to take apart by OSISA.

After one intensive week of training in journalism we decided to take a day on dry land that cries for rain, to get to know real Namibia.

It was on Saturday morning whenwe left forOkahandja a municipality area about 40 km away from Windhoek west, where we stayed, it’s a hot day very hot,and water and food were packed in the bus.

We drove to our destination, on the way, was possible to see the  effect of climate change .it was one of the themes of our 15 days  course  at the journalism Summer School. As long as we drove we could only see dry land, all dry, all around, no green, no pocket of stagnated water, no pond, nothing.

 When we were taken at the airport the day we arrived in Windhoek, Mrs. Emily Brown a co coordinator of program told us that the country is facing one of the worst droughts of the 30 years. Well, nothing funny on the scene, I wonder, less than an hour from the capital we have this sad scenario, what about the rural areas, are there people dying from this catastrophe? The answer was yes people are dying for the droughts.

 BerthaAmakali,explained us on a lecture about climate change, the impact of global warming for the development of the country.She is of the opinion that climate change should be an election issue, in fact from the scenario I have seen Amakali was quite right the governments of all around the world should do something seriously about this.

Still on our way to Okahandja, was possible to see in the middle of the roads some animals who are still surviving the terrible impact of the drought crossing from one side to another in a dry and hot environment where nothing can be seen for them to live with. 

Its about 40 degrees we have already drove 30 km, another scenario called for my attention, I look from the window of the bus, I could see far away a ramshackle houses, tin houses, in a typically dry environment, no shadow, no electricity, no road in could be seen, a very isolated community, I asked one of the native in the bus,she told me that the place is called five Rands, yes five rands!, like south African currency.

An hour later, the bus turn left, we could see from the placard written in capital letter saying OKAHANDJA, and Mrs Emily announced our destination,and in a brief, she told us what we were there to do, well stories, we already knew but we needed some instructions, the place was unfamiliar to many of us, though same Namibians colleagues already knew the place.

 We got off the bus, and spread out to collect as much as possible information we could, to write stories, well I did the one you are reading now. Okahandja, a very dry place,althoughthere are some green trees, but I can’t say how long they will still shinning their greenness as less than 100 meters is quite visible the impact of the droughts, eating up all  form of life around, even people of Okahandja can’t get rid of this catastrophic curse. 

Having  all spread out to collect information for stories, my first source is a woman sitting in a hot tent made by canvas andselling sculptures,I got close to her, she looked at me strangely, I got embarrassed, than she smiled, it was when I got confident that she was the one I wanted to talk to, I greeted her and Introduce myself, I told her I was a Mozambican journalist, it was when she started speaking some Portuguese them she told me her father is Angolan of Kuandukubango, and she was born there but moved to Namibia to join with are family mother in herearly 14 years old due to the war in Angola , through this I got much confident that we would have a got conversation.

I started asking her name she told me she is NangulaPaulos, 33 years old and a mother of 4 boys which she is the only bread winner for them. without giving me details about her private lifeI go slowly down the conversation I got to know from her about the business, as she is one of the fewest women in that business dominated by male  she told me the hardship she faces to sell a single piece of wooden made ornament.

“As woman in this business you have to be strong, sometimes forget you are woman give all your best to survive otherwise you are not fit for this business,”she said.

Nangula a woman struggling for survival and to bring up her 4 children, told me that, sometimes she makes 400 Namibian dollars a day, and in other days she sellsnothing, because in most cases shedepends on tourist, no tourist, no business and no food on the table, because she can no longer go to her small land swept by the droughts nether depend on are 4 cattle eaten up by the drought.

She is a woman breaking down all the gender barriers set by the society, and do a males job to bring up her children in a very thirst land that faces one of the terrible droughts but with a river of hope inside.

I leave Nangulanow; I move head and come across a blind man in his small shop selling air time, starter packs and cigarettes, I greeted him, he responded, so I introduced myself as I use to do every time I meet new people, we started talking, but before he told me his name, NbundoPedrosMassinga is how he is called, 42 years old and father of 8 kids, wow what a urge number, I said that to myself.

Actually with him I didn’t take much time, he told me about how his 10 cows were taken one by one by the droughts leaving him no choice but selling airtime and cigarette to raise his family of 8, who can all study through the business Nbundo is running beside the street.

  Atypically scenario of poverty worsen by blindness, droughts, 8 children on the shoulder to be fed trough a poor and risky business undertaken by Nbundo, who instead depends on a small pension 60 hundreds provided by the government for blind people.

Well I wanted to carry on talking to him but a someone from a distance called me, it was one of my Summer School colleagues I had to interrupt the conversation with Nbundo, and went there. It was Mrs Browns calling everybody for a short brief with Mr ISSI KarikoaOkahandja municipality worker who was to tell us all about the village.

I was taken by enthusiasm and curiosity to know more about Okahandja, then we started with the briefing, first question thrown by Mrs. Brown about the current state of the caving business in Okahandja and MrKariko confidently answers it was all ok, but comparing to other years things have not improved quit satisfactorily.

Kariko,carried on telling us about the challenges the village face in almost all fields, starting with shortage of health center, doctors and land to practice agriculture.

 In spite of his apparent confidence about what he was saying Kariko showed not to be sure about the answers he was giving, a half a dozen of questions he answered yes or no, maybe he was not used to be exposed to journalist we have dealt with this kind of source sometime.

The briefing is over, then we moved to the monument where Namibians laid to rest their independence struggle heroes such asHosea Kutako.

Former chief executive officer for Municipality of Okahandja, Regina aljuiwas the one who talked  about the history of okahandja  telling  us that Hosea KomombumbiKutako, his full name,was Herero Chief  born 1870 at Okahurimehi near Kalkfeld, and  died 18 July 1970 in the Aminuis Reserve.he was an early Namibian nationalist leader and member of the South West African People's Organization.

according to Aljui, Kutako,alongside Rev. Michael Scott led petitions to the United Nations which eventually led to the recognition of Namibia's status as a sovereign country under colonial control by South Africa.

“In 1920, Hosea Kutako was officially appointed as leader of the Herero by FrederikMaharero. Frederik had been empowered to transfer power by his father, Herero chief Samuel Maharero, who had been exiled after the Herero War and was since banned from entering the country by the South African Mandatory Administration.” She explained.

 Hosea Kutako, took over his role as a commitment to preserve the memory of the glorious times of the Herero before and during the German colonization as well as of the atrocities in the battle of Waterberg. He is the national hero of the dry grounds crying for the rain.

Around 3 in the afternoon, the driver of our bus switched on the engine and my brief visit to a dry land that is seriously crying for rain ended.

END