Tag Archives: Namibia

Wild Wild Windhoek

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Windhoek - Its Off the Hook!

Windhoek - Its Off the Hook!

Windhoek is the medium size capitol of a very small country, – Namibia only has 1.2 million residents – it’s also Namibia’s financial and transportation center. If you are coming to Namibia, at some point you will pass through Windhoek.

Namibia was once a German colony and while it hasn’t been directly connected to Germany since the first World War, there are a surprising number of German speakers here. As a white person walking the streets we became use to people addressing us with “Gutentag” rather than “Hello”.

One welcome example of the German influence is the surprising number and quality of German bakeries in town. There are some high quality pretzels in this town!

It’s not a bad experience, it’s a very walkable city, and crime isn’t that bad here. But, chances are slim you came all the way to Namibia to visit Windhoek. The real sights of Namibia are out in the countryside, go to Etosha or Fish River Canyon or the Dunes as soon as you can. Windhoek is best used as a stopover to these points.

One thing that may stick out is the rather surprising tendency to name major streets after dictators – for example: the middle of town is the intersection of Robert Mugabe Avenue with Fidel Castro Street. Other than that it’s a pretty normal medium sized African town.

The Southern Tour of Namibia

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Big Dunes

Big Dunes

First things first. No, we didn’t come to Namibia because Brad and Angelina did. No, we didn’t see them. No, we didn’t even meet anyone who mentioned them. We were, however, shown the filming location of J Lo’s movie, The Cell, which of course we haven’t seen.

Namibia is a fairly big, relatively unpopulated country with interesting sights spread all over. Given a somewhat limited time frame, the two places we really wanted to visit were Etosha National Park in the north and the Sossusvlei Dunes in the south. Though you can rent a car and drive safely on sealed roads through much of the country, we knew we’d want to head off the beaten path at some point. So instead we opted for an organized tour where changing the tire or seeking mechanical help in the middle of nowhere is someone else’s problem.

Since of course we were trying to organize something at the last minute, out options were limited. We landed ourselves on Wild Dog Safari’s 7 Day Southern Swing. We’d be skipping Etosha NP, but get to visit the dunes and as a bonus take in Fish River Canyon – the second largest in the world.

Now that we’ve been on the road doing our own thing for about 8 months now, you can imagine that being herded and structured 24/7 is not really our style. Nor is riding cramped in a safari vehicle for way too many hours each day watching Kelso and Jackie snog the day away. Seriously, it was Seinfeld’s “schmoopie” meets That 70s Show. But once you get past the handful of “characters” in the group, the trip was really quite nice. And luckily we had several really fun and interesting folks along for the ride making the week even more memorable.

The undeniable highlight of the trip was climbing the sand dunes at sunset. Just as you think you’ve reached the top, you see more dunes cresting again in the distance. The slog up and over what seems to be endless dunes, is absolutely worth it. And with the glow of the late day sun illuminating the dunes, it’s just beautiful. Other highlights of our southern tour were seeing quiver trees, which are actually not trees but aloe plants run amok, hearing cultural music of the Nama people, taking a stroll along the rim of the Fish River Canyon, watching the sunset over the Orange River, and exploring the diamond mining ghost town of Kolmanskoop, where half of the buildings are filled to the roof with sand (and a sign let’s you know that Diamond theft hurst us all…in case you were wondering).

An unanticipated highlight of the trip, though I doubt uncommon, was getting to pack up camp in the middle of a sandstorm so we could shove off to calmer parts where you don’t brush your teeth with sand. Ok, well it wasn’t really a highlight, but it did make things even more interesting.

Black and White and Southern African All Over

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All Your Base Are Belong to Us

All Your Base Are Belong to Us

This is the part of the blog where I get us in trouble. We’ve only been here five weeks or so, but it’s hard to leave here without making a comment about the racial tension in this part of the world, and it comes from both directions. From the white Zimbabwean who corrected us by saying that he was “Rhodesian”, to the Black South African who informed us that when watching a soccer match he always pulled for the team with more Blacks (bonus points if they were from Africa) it’s impossible to escape how much things are defined by skin here.

Don’t Call Me Whitey…

First, I have never met a group of people as humorless and vaguely unfriendly at all times as white Southern Africans. Maybe it’s a result of being a ruling minority for over a hundred years, maybe it’s just the German blood coming out, but it’s hard to get a response from many of them even when you (try) to look them in the eye and wish them a good day – and I’m white like them! Somehow this hasn’t effected our (generally) good opinion of them.

And we’re constantly surprised at how many whites we see here. Everywhere we go, there they are: Namibia – full of Germans, Zambia and Zimbabwe – full of English and Dutch, South Africa – All of the above and a huge number of Portuguese for good measure. Many are members of old families that have been here for generations, and they consider themselves Africans, despite whatever problems they face this is their home.

But for how long will they be there? It’s apparent that there’s white flight, but one person we spoke to was taking it to the next level. One of our drivers in Kruger was a white Namibian living and working in South Africa. When we spoke to him about the future he shocked us by pointing at the back of his hand and saying “This isn’t a racist statement, but I’m just the wrong color for this continent.” Now, that is a racist statement, but what he said next was even more shocking to me. He was living and working in South Africa just long enough to qualify for a South African passport, then he was picking up the family and moving to Australia. It’s much easier to immigrate to Australia from S. Africa than Namibia as S.A. is a member of the British Commonwealth like Australia.

The Cult of Robert Mugabe

Almost as shocking is how Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s leader, is held on high among African governments. Despite the fact that the country is a shambles and it’s estimated that 1/4 of the population has fled into neighboring countries illegally there are a surprising number of monuments to him around Africa.

In Johannesburg, where there are over a million Zimbabwean refugees, the main square in downtown is named after him. It’s not uncommon to look for an address on “Robert Mugabe Street” either. It seems that while most people will admit that he’s a bastard and not helping his country or his people he is “Their” bastard, and that is preferable to the alternative.

I’m not trying to talk anyone out of coming here, far from it. Many of these issues are the same that we encounter in the US, but here unlike the US people are much more open about their prejudices and much more determined to stick to their guns. It’s awful and interesting and familiar all at the same time.