That Anti-Damara Rant, Neh…

EVA MARIA NANGOLO has made herself well-known for the wrong reasons.

This week she lost her right to appear as a legal aid counsel in the Ministry of Justice’s legal aid directorate after making comments on social media that stereotyped the Damara people as violent and foul-mouthed.


Prejudices based on stereotypes are as old as humankind and will persist no matter what contrary evidence might be presented.


Nangolo’s public and seemingly unprovoked attack on the Damara people should, therefore, be an awakening incident that building a Namibian nation is a lifetime project that needs to be driven at policy level and sustained throughout different levels of society.


Several years ago, Nangolo also railed against the Damara, accusing the entire tribe of being beggars.


Racial and ethnic ridicule has often been used to inflate people’s sense of superiority over other groups. Sadly, perpetrators forget that there is no growth or progress in parochial attitudes.


Lack of appreciation that unity in diversity is what has made nations successful for millennia can only keep Namibia backward in a village mentality.


People like Nangolo and, especially national leaders who rant against other ethnic groups using all sorts of racial and tribal biases, should be roped in to promote diversity.


We all need to learn and understand that pigment of the skin and language are inconsequential differentiations of what human beings really are. Grey matter and blood in the veins are substantially what makes us people.

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