Namibia is bracing for a culture war as Kosie Pretorius, the chairperson and the leader of the Self-Help Trust of Namibia, pushes for Afrikaner traditional authority and a white only museum.
Kosie Pretorius whose Monitor Action Group (MAG) political party failed to gain a seat in last year’s election, has been lobbying hard for the establishment of an Afrikaner traditional authority to be subsidized by the government and be on the same level as other traditional authorities in the country. His group, the Self-Help Trust of Namibia, is also the brainchild behind the proposed white only museum, already under construction, to preserve Afrikaner traditions and heritage.
Pretorius and his group have the law behind them because what they are doing is constitutional. But in a country with fresh history of apartheid and segregation, opponents see the group’s move as insensitive, and they call it as apartheid by another name. Pretorious and his group feel otherwise.
“Apartheid” (a Dutch-Afrikaans term which literally translates as “apartness), a policy of racial segregation and discrimination developed by the white minority government of South Africa relegated (politically, economically, socially and psychologically) black Namibians and their South African counterparts to an inferior position. The pertinent question is will the establishment of an Afrikaner traditional authority and a white only museum serve as recruiting grounds for racism and apartheid? I would hope not.
Frankly speaking, I see no problem because an Afrikaner traditional authority and a museum would serve as resources for diversity. However, the ball is in Pretorius and his group’s hand to use them as tools for bridging cultural and racial gap in the country in stead of using them as walls to separate themselves from the rest of Namibians.
But, for now, all what I can say is that in the overall context of Namibia’s reconciliation project, the call for an Afrikaner traditional authority and the proposed white only museum tests the limits of Namibian tolerance.
