Recently in Namibia there has been some discontentment and controversy surrounding the annual Namibia Music Awards, NAMAs. The reason: Stefan Ludik. The former Big Brother Africa 1 housemate who is now pursuing a music career has a new album called Burn This Town. Ludik received five NAMA nominations making him the artist with the most nominations for 2011. This news was received by the music listening Namibian public with disdain. Comments rolling around the ball park of “he should not have gotten more awards than the other artists because he’s white, what does he know about Namibian music?” I thought these were irrelevant arguments because nationality of a type of music is based on the music originating from that country as well as the artist being from that country, in both cases Ludik has proved his credentials.
Understandably, there exists racial tension in Namibia because it is a racially diverse nation on account of the former apartheid administration that is a precursor to the nation’s identity. Often times in everyday situations people of color are discriminated against be it in a store or at a restaurant with the service industry giving preferential treatment to the minority racial groups. In these instances people keep quiet and perpetuate a situation where the occurrence of such behavior is common place and tolerated. Certain racial groups have come to believe that they are entitled to be treated as superior and in turn treat people of color as beneath them. In these instances the affected people do not speak up. And then, at the most inappropriate time and for something comparatively frivolous, they vehemently speak out and unjustly project their anger at the wrong person. Some critics of the album Burn This Town claim that songs like ‘White Boy/Black Girl’ are particularly unappreciated because they feed into the discourse of predation of old presumably Western men on economically challenged young girls of color in an arrangement that is both frowned upon and coveted by members of the Namibian society. I think this is a misidentification or misinterpretation if the song which quite clearly is about mutual attraction playing on the multiracial context in which Namibians live. My response to this is that after so many years of independence it would appear that the mind is a hard thing to ‘uncolonize’.
As an African such incidences are disheartening because as a people there are so many odds against us already what with being from the developing third world. History has proven that divisions serve only as an enemy of progress. You would think that with Nelson Mandela as a shining example and patron of unity and the beauty of ethnic and cultural diversity, countries with similar histories would understand the importance of unity for development and progress. What is even more disturbing is that the outraged cries come from the youth often heralded as the future leaders by politicians. This begs the question, what has changed from the bad days of old? The future it seems looks to be the spitting image of the past with clear divisions re-appropriated along with other tools of the former oppressors.
