San people’s mistreatment has young woman in tears during WLC event

RUNDU, 05 OCT  – A young San woman was overcome by emotion here on Thursday while talking about how the San people in the Kavango regions are still amongst the most marginalised in society, 28 years after independence.
Berego Nickie sobbed while she was on stage during the Women’s Leadership Centre’s (WLC) regional dialogue on the ‘Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women’ (CEDAW) and the situation of San girls and women.
The theme of the dialogue was ‘Speaking for ourselves: Voices of San young women’.
“I got emotional because it hurts to still see my people suffering when I know the right people and offices are out there in this country to help them. But my people get mistreated even when they approach certain offices for help,” a sad Nickie told Nampa afterwards.
She said the dropout rate for San children in Kavango East is high due to bullying and name calling by teachers and learners because they are perceived as being “different”.
“It’s making children lose their self-esteem and motivation to want to continue school,” she said.
Nickie, who is from Omega 1 in the Kavango East Region and a facilitator for the Women’s Leadership Centre, further spoke out against the habit of people referring to the San as “Kwankala”.
Kwankala is a derogatory word used by some people to refer to Nama, Damara and San people. It means someone with nothing, someone who uses things up quickly or does not think about the next day.
She said San people have names too, just like all other Namibians, and it would not hurt for people to just ask for their names instead of calling them “Kwankala”.
“As San people, we have our pride and dignity and I would just like to tell all other Namibian tribes to respect that,” she said.
She further complained that San people are ignored when they approach police stations for help when they fall victim to crime.
Nickie alleged that police offers pretend to take down their complaints but when they follow up, they are told the report has gone missing or was misplaced.
“I would like to call on the government to please teach all people in this country to respect the human rights of San people because we also need justice,” she appealed.
The WLC has been working with San girls and young women since 2014 in seven villages across Namibia, two of them in the Kavango East Region – Mutjiku and Omega 1.
This was the organisation’s second regional consultation on the CEDAW and the situation of San girls and women in Namibia.
(NAMPA)