Report from the Field: Namibia & Botswana
from Marcia Brewster, President, UNA Westchester
Three former United Nations colleagues and I had an extraordinary visit to the Southern Africa countries of Namibia and Botswana in July 2024. I had become interested in Namibia, because of a remarkable young Fulbright Scholar who was an intern in my office around 2005-6. She was from Northern Namibia, called Owamboland and had grown up carrying water to the household. We were fortunate to be able to meet her in Windhoek before the adventure started.
Namibia and Botswana have the most amazing wildlife in the world, and both have very low population densities (around 10-12 persons per sq. mi). Each has between 2.5 and 3 million people in vast territories. Although much of their landscape is desert, Namibia has majestic rivers on its north and north-eastern borders and Botswana boasts the inland Okavango Delta. Victoria Falls lies just to the northeast, where the two countries come together with Zimbabwe and Zambia. Both countries seem to be politically stable, especially compared to many other countries in Africa. When the Namibian President died in February 2024, the Vice President peacefully assumed power. The country (earlier called Southwest Africa) has a more complicated history, going back to a German occupation from 1884 to 1915, when the Germans surrendered the territory to South Africa. The country was under a South African mandate (including apartheid) until independence in 1990, even though the UN recognized the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) as the official representative of the Namibian people from 1973. The United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was a peacekeeping force deployed to Namibia from April 1989 to March 1990 to monitor the peace process, conduct elections and supervise the return of refugees. Namibia gained independence on 21 March 1990, following the elections held under UNTAG auspices in 1989. SWAPO won the election, and the exiled SWAPO leaders returned to the country (mainly from Angola on the northern border) and created a new government. I was very happy to meet many former exiles, who now run the country and have become ministers and ambassadors. They remember the period following the UN-supervised election with fondness, and that mission was considered one of the major successes of UN peacebuilding operations. One of UNA-Westchester’s Board Members, Ambassador Francis Okelo, served UNTAG in Owamboland during the transition, and he remembers it as a very exciting time for the country. Our trip was mainly in Northern Namibia, which is the most densely populated part of Namibia. It contains the very large Etosha National Park (proclaimed in 1907), other national parks and privately-owned (by shareholders) nature and wildlife reserves. Etosha includes a huge and dry ancient salt lake called the Etosha Pan, which serves the wildlife. Most of our wildlife viewing was in the mornings and evenings at the numerous water holes in the parks and along the rivers. The numbers of elephants, zebra, cape buffalo, hippos, wildebeest, at least 10 species of antelopes, and birds were incredible. Rhinos and giraffes were numerous at some of the water holes. More rare were the lions, cheetahs and leopards. The local villages contribute to the countries’ efforts to create an ecological balance, where the animals have freedom and space to thrive. At several of the lodges where we stayed, local villagers were many of the staff. We stayed at Ongala Village Homestead Lodge (www.ongula.com) in Owamboland, where the villagers were very traditional, building their small round thatch-roofed huts out of local materials, including making bricks from abandoned termite mounds. The huts are organized into homesteads with a hierarchy of placements. The people grow millet, get oil and fruit from the marula tree, and raise cattle. We sat and watched the women making clay pots in a basement away from the sun, weaving baskets from the grasses, and pounding millet and marula. The Homestead Lodge is owned by two amazing people who had been in exile in Angola during the apartheid regime; the husband became ambassador to the U.K and the U.S. after independence. Then he returned to his ancestral village with his wife and family. They now have a vocational school and training programs for all the local villagers. Everyone was very hospitable, fun and family-oriented. They remember the period when UNTAG was there followed by independence as a high point in their lives. After a short stop in Zimbabwe to visit Victoria Falls, we moved on to Botswana, a beautiful and special country. Since independence in 1966, Botswana has had one of the fastest growth rates of per capita income in the world. Formerly one of the world's poorest countries—with a GDP per capita of about US$70 per year in the late 1960s—Botswana is now an upper middle- income country with a surprisingly high human development index. One of the reasons for this is that the country spends very little on the military. At independence in 1966, Botswana made a decision not to establish a standing military and focus instead on development and poverty alleviation. Thus, it created a small military police force for internal security. Because of incursions from neighboring countries in the mid-1970s, however, Botswana created the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) by an act of parliament on 15 April 1977. There is very little evidence of a military or police in Botswana, and it is obvious that the citizens care more about education than military might. We spent the first few days on a wonderful small boat on the Chobe River, next to Chobe National Park. We were fascinated to watch large groups of female elephants swimming across the river from Botswana to Namibia with their babies hanging onto their tails with their trunks. The wildlife was so close to us, including elephants, crocodiles, hippos, baboons and lots of water birds. We also had a good view of lions on the hunt. Most of the animals were not bothered by our presence in the tiny dingy that we used for exploring. The weather was quite chilly, especially in the morning (it was winter there), and a lot of the animals were just trying to keep warm. Following our stay on the boat, we took a light plane (12 seats) to the Khwai air strip and enjoyed the rest of our stay at the Khwai guest house on the edge of the Okavango Delta and close to the Moremi Game Reserve. Most of the staff at the guest house were from Khwai village. The villagers manage the Khwai Community Concession, an excellent example of sustainable eco-tourism. All the profits from tourism in the game reserve go to the Khwai Community Trust. They are charming people, who are very proud of their schools and way of life, even though they don’t have electricity (except for a few generators). They also use all local materials for building their huts, which are very environmentally sound. We learned a lot about traditional building techniques. A few things we loved about being in Namibia and Botswana were the sunset cruises on the Kavango, Zambezi, Okavango and Chobe Rivers. In Khwai village, we experienced sunset from the mokoro dugout canoes on the Khwai River. Every cruise was filled with wildlife sightings – especially huge crocodiles, elephants, hippos and birds. We also loved the whole non-commercial aspect of both countries. We had no one trying to sell their goods or handicrafts (except in Zimbabwe). In fact, it was almost impossible to buy anything in the lodges where we stayed, except from the vocational school in Ongula Homestead. Our final day before returning to South Africa was spent puddle jumping in the light plane from air strip to air strip across the Okavango Delta. We did not see any human communities from the air – it just looks like a vast river delta with no outlet to the sea. What an incredible sight. Namibia and Botswana are two very special countries. If you are planning to go on safari, I highly recommend visiting these two countries rather than the more well-known destinations. It was a rich experience for us. |