Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
Most recently, Yours Truly Ideologically stumbled on social media upon a video interview with an Afro-American granny-sister, Samaria Bailey, now 75-years-old, reminiscing about her childhood.
When as a child she was made to follow her mother, who had a bag on her back, in the cotton field during the days of slavery. A bag in which the little Bailey had to throw in cotton picked from the field. The interesting thing about her is that in her reminiscence she found nothing wrong with this, nor with her mother and/or parents, enslaved as they were by the American system of the times.
A forerunner to the capitalist system of today. Condemning them and to being the wretched of the earth. Perhaps a far cry away from today about the illusion of the American dream. To them, then, that has been a way of life. Besides the fact that few of her people at the time would dare talk and/or speak about such, which, in today’s perspective, is none other than her abuse and child labour.
The interview could but make Yours Truly Ideologically reflect on the plight of children back home in Namibia with the sad and unfortunate everyday spectacle of children roaming our streets and flooding our malls selling traditionally crafted utensils. Which are, in the first place, not crafted by themselves but obviously by the elderly, if not the parents of these children themselves. While the children are simply reduced to selling pawns. This cannot be anything else other than another form of child labour. While they are supposed to be in school.
Ashamed of this shameful spectre, the Namibian government has been trying to pass on the buck and/or deflect or hide this phenomenon. Shifting the responsibility to its northern neighbouring sister country, Angola.
From where the children and their parents apparently hail. As if, nevertheless, being from Angola therefore, they must be condemned to child labour and/or abuse. Thereby deliberately and neglectfully, if not altogether indifferently and obliviously, the situation of apparent neglect and exploitation of the children.
Following their initial impulsive reaction when the children and their parents were taken and dumped in Angola. Only to resurface. Still, the two sister governments of Namibia and Angola have yet to constructively deal with these matters.
The problem is only a tip of the iceberg of the plethora of socio-economic plights many Namibian children find themselves in.
Be they in the streets and/or from a despicable socio-economic situation to which they have been condemned. A cause factor, needless to say, of the capitalist mode of production that the country has inherited and seems to have adapted and adopted without any circumspection and/or reservation, let alone review. Not as long as the indigenes are now; at best, as seen and/or believed, at best, no more than just gatekeeping overseers. Overseeing it on behalf of their capitalist overlords in the name of development, investment and all fancy and progressively sounding jargon. Hiding the invisible hand and face of capitalism.
As much as the vulgarities and viciousness of this system cannot be hidden, as it is and has been there for all not only to see but equally to feel. Without any exceptions or any means of ameliorating and/or lessening the heavy burden of capitalism on the so-called poor and vulnerable. Who are in reality exploited, neglected and eventually discarded and left to the mercilessness and rigours of capitalism.
Likewise, it is a plight not only confined to would-be children from Angola, but in many ways, Namibia and/or the world may realise or be aware of childrenbeing made to perform one or the other exploitative economic function. But dictated by their need to supplement the income of their parents, if not being the prime means of income and sustenance for them and their parents. Even the government sometimes makes itself guilty of this, wittingly or unwittingly. It is not unusual to see children performing at official government events under the guise of cultural performance. Something strangely akin to African governments. Yes, it is important to teach children to love their cultures and to promote such. But where does one draw the line between a profound engagement of the children in their cultures and traditions?
Namibians may have noticed children being drafted for some cultural performances in our mushrooming malls in our towns and cities. Which are, in the final analysis, more than just cultural engagements but a means of economic livelihood and sustenance. Not for cultural aesthetics but as a means of economic survival for them and their families.Much the same way as the would-be Angolan children, who these days are back on their beats and rounds for economic survival for themselves and their parents and/or their custodians.
Reliable figures are not available as to how many children may find themselves in such situations, but they are said to be in the hundreds of thousands. With estimates of 87,000 in 2016. But all indications are that poverty, exposing children to child labour and finding themselves in the streets, have since persisted and potentially worsened. In view of the persistent droughts Namibia has been experiencing the past few years and subsequent to Covid-19.
An extended drought and economic downturn in northern Namibia and southern Angola are said to be likely to have affected children’s vulnerability to child labour, including its worst forms. With children from rural areas moving to urban centres, such as Windhoek, for supplemental income for their families. Some of them are forced into selling drugs, begging, and commercial sexual exploitation. Children of the San, Ovazemba, and Ovahimba cultural groups have particularly been vulnerable to forced labour on farms and in homes. One cannot but also be aware of hordes of able-bodied young men patronising street corners of many of our towns and cities, waiting for piece jobs. Some of them may be underaged.
As much as primary and secondary education are free by law, many children are deterred from attending school, thus increasing their vulnerability to child labour. Hampered by the difficulty in securing identification documents, which sometimes results in delays in enrolment and school admission.
This is not to say the relevant Namibian authorities and partners have been silently idling by. Reportedly this academic year, 2025, 425 children have been reintegrated into schools. It is another question, given the respective socio-economic backgrounds, if many of them are still finishing this year in school?
But the long and short of it is, granted the inability of Namibia’s political system, marked by debilitating incompetency and inertia, compounded by meagre resources, whether, in the final analysis, the prevailing situation is not only a manifestation of capitalism but its very embodiment. The solution thereof, thus, cannot be neither piecemeal, remedial and incremental but fundamental, ideological and holistic, looking at the root cause and dealing with the source of the cause. Which is capitalism!
