Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/201279
post cards Post-safari sojourn: Namibia on the flipside W ith thumping heart I watch my African guide, Beetle, pour water into the radiator. Steam hisses and rises up around the big man's face framed in dreadlocks. We are deep in the black Township of Mondesa in Swakopmund, a coastal resort city in Namibia in southwest Africa. The sun is dropping, and the possibility of being stranded is rising. Having spent a week lolling in luxury safari camps and exotic game reserves, I had signed up for Beetle's Township Tour, curious to see the other side of Africa. Doubts set in, however, when Beetle arrived in a car with a broken passenger door. Worse, I was the sole patron. As we entered the Township, the car overheated. We sputtered to his parents' home, where Beetle sought water. To my great relief, the car is soon operable and we sputter off. Driving along the township's treeless streets lined by small cinderblock homes and tiny yards filled with sand and a few scraggly plants, Beetle explains that Swakopmund consists of three parts: the mayor Oma Lina, a slim lady with creased black skin and piercing eyes. A nimbleminded octogenarian, she is the first woman to hold this position. Sitting on a threadbare sofa, I listen to melodious clicking and clacking as Beetle and Lina speak in the Damara click language. Through Beetle's translation, she describes the issues she deals with, which frequently concern We share a traditional native meal: spinach mash, millet porridge, beans — and fried grubs. city, where whites live; the Mondesa Township, established for blacks in the 1950s as part of apartheid when Namibia belonged to South Africa; and an adjacent informal settlement offering even fewer amenities, where many rural blacks have recently moved. Children play soccer in the street, their ball a wad of newspapers held together by string. People lounge here and there. Sand blows and the sun glares down, hot and oppressive. Sweat trickles down my back. "There is little crime in the township," says Beetle, "because life is on the street where everything is in view and we all know each other." Our first stop is the home of Township 8 GOING PL ACES p08-09_Postcards.indd 8 >> winter 2013 inheritance and property because most residents don't write or keep records. Driving into the informal settlement, Beetle tells me, "Ninety per cent of the people in this country are black and seven per cent are white, yet the wealth is reversed. This is very wrong." I keep silent, hoping Beetle's tour business will succeed and make a small dent in this vast inequality. Deep in the shantytown, we enter the one-room home of Auguste, a herbalist who treats patients for various maladies using traditional herbs. We sit on a simple wooden bench as she explains the contents of the many jars arrayed on a shelf. She doesn't mention a large voodoo-like doll in the corner, which appears to play an important role in her medical practice. We approach a small, weather-beaten store with peeling paint and the unlikely name, "Saddam Hussein Shopping Centre." As I point my camera, two young men with beaming smiles jump in front and ham it up. We arrive at the Back of the Moon bar with its corrugated tin roof and dirt floor and go behind to a tiny, thatched-roof hut specially constructed for Beetle's tours. Here, we share a traditional native meal: spinach mash, a millet porridge, beans, two kinds of nuts and fried grubs. Putting on a brave face, I try everything. Surprise! The grubs aren't bad. Driving back to the hotel, we pass buses disgorging black men and women, most dressed in the clothes of low-paying, menial jobs, heading home after a day's work in the white sector. Nothing's changed, I think. Apartheid may be outlawed in Namibia, but it still rules in Mondesa Township. Later, in the comfort of my hotel, I nurse a beer and reflect. Touring the township and witnessing poverty up close, I realize, was more important than seeing lions and giraffes. –Hans Tammemagi Hans Tammemagi 13-10-16 9:17 AM T G i T y E • • • F P a P t a n u l i O C h