The Nama have a claim There are many minority groups in Namibia that have a claim but, if there is one tribe or one group of people that have a right to claim, it will be the Nama people.They arrived in this country in the 1200s, roughly 300 years before the massive migration from central Africa into Namibia and South Africa and when the first settlers arrived, the Nama people were persecuted. They fought the Germans and they fought the South Africans. There losses were many. And once the South African government formalised in Namibia, they lost their land, once again, to a government that had no interest in their rights or their plight.
They suffered at the hands of the German colonial regime and fought them, valiantly, where they met them, often times, winning great victories. The erection of Schloss Duwisib came directly as a response to a great victory by Nama soldiers against Hans Heinrich von Wolf, a captain in the Schutztruppe. So despondent was he by having incurred such a great defeat, having to leave his weaponry to flee, he returned to Germany and set up a therapy session with Dr Sigmund Freud who advised him to build an edifice at the site of his destruction. And so Duwisib was erected.
When the liberation struggle for Namibia started, the Nama people did not hold back. They joined the ranks of Swanu and Swapo and fought hard alongside their countrymen. They also suffered at the hands of Swapo in Lubango, more so than most other tribes.
And then came freedom for Namibia. And what did the Nama get? Nothing. The south of this country is so vastly underdeveloped and yes, land reform is a mess. Nothing comes to the south and those people, those Namibians, still have to fight marginalisation.
The reparations talks have not delivered any more rights to the Nama people either. Independence and freedom has not delivered them from poverty or brought them any real joy.
So if there is a people in this country who have a case, who have a claim and who have a right to be angry, it is them.