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Politics Sets One Shop Against the Other

But now there are new divisions — political. Listen to Christian Tsai Tsai Mou, who is 78: 'Tn the past there was unity among the people in this village. We lived as brothers and sisters, but today we see Gainachas shattering into pieces, all in the name of politics."

by Kaleni Hiyalwa
Gainachas is a small village in Southern Namibia. At As^b. the railway station 50 kilometres away, you turn off the tarred road and follow a zigzag road that is visible only by its car tyre tracks.
Across the vast stretches of land, vegetation is sparse among the rocks, stones, and dried-up streams and rivers. Dotted about are the gunls and ganu shrubs (thorny bushes) and from time to time there are farm gates.
Some lead to farms that belonged to the whites who left the country after independence In 1990. Others have long belonged to local fanners.
Across the dried River Ganibeb you are in Gainachas. In front, on the road to Berseba, the nearest village 28 km away, are the Burukaros Mountains.
The setting sun radiates pink and gold as it slips below the horizon, turning Gainachas Into a place of great beauty.
Soon after sunset the people go off to bed. Without electric lights, tarred roads and disco clubs, Gainachas is quiet and peaceful after dark.
People use kerosene or paraffin lamps for light and firewood cooking. About 500 live In Gainachas and the surrounding farms. They are Damaras and Namas people — mostly original Ovaherero. The Ovaherero fled south during a war with the Damaras a century ago and settled near the Ganibeb river.
The people spring from one Ovaherero ancestral parent and so are all related. Tradition is to marry cousins and other relatives, and most of the family names of Gainachas people are typical Hereto
names.
All speak the Nama language and have adopted the Nama culture. As a result Gainachas is now emerging as a. dynamic, non-raclal, non-tribal village. It will probably be the first In Namibia with a population of mixed races and tribes. Tomorrow's population will be of mixed parents — Nama. Damara. Herero. Owani-bo.’ Coloured, Basters and others.
✓" But now there are new dlvi sions — political. Listen lo Christian Tsai Tsai Mou, who is
78 : "In the past there was unity among the people in this village. We lived as brothers and sisters, but today we see Gainachas shattering into pieces, all in the name of poll -tics."
Gainachas has two shops and a bottle store. Politics has divided the shop owners. People say It happened because of the activity of unscrupulous businessmen Just before the United Nations -supervised elections in 1989.
The first shop, Gainachas Kontante Winkel, was built in 1988. Before that people travelled 50 km to Asaba to buy their provisions. They say the shop was set up on a dubious contract.
Proprietor Paul Hlgoan acquired a loan to open it tn the name of the village poor. One
villager says: "We were told that the shop was to be opened to help to serve the people. That was not the case."
Soon after it opened, the prices of Its goods soared Complaints got nowhere. The owner showed no sympathy and began refusing to give credit to the poor people.
One man says: if you were not a supporter of the Democratic Tumhalle Alliance (DTA) at that time and especially if you were a supporter of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO), you
could not be allowed to buy anything in the shop.”
SWAPO and the DTA were the two main parties in the 1990 elections. SWAPO won and became the government under President Sam Nujoma at independence.
The shop owner, a DTA supporter, began using his shop to win supporters for his party, so in 1^89 SWAPO supporters decided to raise funds to build a Consumer Co-operative shop. Stock worth 2,533 rand was provided by the Namibian Community Co-op erative Alliance (NCCA).
Then people began to say the NCCA had a hidden political' agenda. They accused it of trying to hijack the Consumer CO-op by financing it with money from the DTA. The shop was also to be used to
win election supporters for the DTA.
Co-op chairman Johannes Oarom said: The NCCA deceived us by pretending to be a non-polilical community organisation." NCCA membership was withdrawn from the ship and the Co-op returned its money.
Paul Higoan defends himself and calls the people of Gainachas lazy and Jealous. He says: They say a lot of things about my business, but they have not been able to do something to help themselves. They say I refuse to give them goods on credit. That is not true, but sometimes 1 have to be hard with those who don't pay on time."
Hlgoan's shop is stocked with a wide variety of groceries. He is also raising pigs and plans to build the village bigger pigsties.
The Co-op. on the other hand, has problems. Most of the time its shelves are empty. Things are taken on credit and not always paid for on time. Prices are lower because it is non - profi tmaking.
Its stock is bought at Kcctmanshoop, a town 100 km away. Transport is a problem because the shop does not own a car. The two women shop assistants are paid R200 a month.
Most Damara/Nama people live in traditional oval huts plastered with cow or goat dung. The rooftaps are covered with reed-mats. Some people have now made homes with cardboard and others have built modern houses.
People have discovered that the dry bed of the River Ganibeb is fall of building materials. Men collect rocks and crush them in brick shapes and sizes. Some quite beautiful modern houses have been built out of rocks and stones.
About 90 per cent of the people of Gainachas are Christian. The village has three churches — African Methodist. Rynse, and Evangelic Lutheran.
Recently, a cold war broke out between the churches and the bottle store owner. Church leaders say people absent themselves from church Sunday mornings because they wake up with babalas — a hangover.
Joseph Isack, the bottle store owner, says: "I have to close at 1 pm on Saturdays because I am being accused of making people drunk."
Many people complain that the fruits of independence have not yet reached them and some, like Oupa Alexander. 89. still do not even realise the country is independent.
— Gemini News