EDITORIAL: The human tragedy of the /Khomanin
In December 2022, about 10 street children were swept away by severe floods that swamped Windhoek, leaving several of them dead.
Leaders of the /Khomanin community, speaking on The Evening Review recently, said that almost all of the city's homeless children are of Damara descent. The /Khomanin are a sub-clan of the Damara people who inhabited the central areas of Namibia during the 1930s.
They were blunt in their assertion that the homelessness problem in the Khomas Region is inextricably tied to the landlessness of the Damara people, who were expelled from their native lands by the white minority of the past.
Over the last 33 years, the black government has made very little progress in reclaiming some of that territory and, consequently, restoring the dignity of this sub-clan.
To snooze in valleys and under bridges is evil. But it is tragic when landlessness contributes to fatalities, as we saw in December. Not having access to land for food production is one issue. Being without land on which to live is another, and it is a human tragedy of unspeakable proportions.
This community claims that in its hunt for answers to its fragile - almost deadly - status quo, it has been sent from pillar to post.
A tribe with no land of its own is a tragedy, especially in a big country like ours that measures 824 292 km² for less than three million people.
Leaders of the /Khomanin community, speaking on The Evening Review recently, said that almost all of the city's homeless children are of Damara descent. The /Khomanin are a sub-clan of the Damara people who inhabited the central areas of Namibia during the 1930s.
They were blunt in their assertion that the homelessness problem in the Khomas Region is inextricably tied to the landlessness of the Damara people, who were expelled from their native lands by the white minority of the past.
Over the last 33 years, the black government has made very little progress in reclaiming some of that territory and, consequently, restoring the dignity of this sub-clan.
To snooze in valleys and under bridges is evil. But it is tragic when landlessness contributes to fatalities, as we saw in December. Not having access to land for food production is one issue. Being without land on which to live is another, and it is a human tragedy of unspeakable proportions.
This community claims that in its hunt for answers to its fragile - almost deadly - status quo, it has been sent from pillar to post.
A tribe with no land of its own is a tragedy, especially in a big country like ours that measures 824 292 km² for less than three million people.
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Namibian Sun
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