Saturday, 2 May 1987: In Vino Veritas – Hugh Cautiously Talks about Namibia

9:30 PM, Serondela Campground in Chobe National Park, northern Botswana

Hugh and I are sitting around our campfire next to the Chobe River after dinner and a bottle of wine.  We are being serenaded by the howls and growls of wild African beasties out there in the dark night.  Six-year-old Jonathan is asleep.  Hugh and I engage in the following fruitless exchange.

Will:  What message would you like to send to America, Hugh?

Hugh:  Dear Mr. [Amerigo] Vespucci…….

Will:  What do you think that Americans should do about South Africa?

Hugh:  There is nothing Americans can do about South Africa.  There is plenty you can do about America!

Sunset over the Chobe River.  View from Botswana toward Namibia's Caprivi Strip.

Look, Will, you can’t be serious at a time like this.  You get me drunk on red wine, and you expect me to be serious.  I’m a very cautious person.  I’m a Namibian.  I’ve looked at the whole colonial situation.  Namibia is essentially a colony of South Africa.  Look, I’m not telling you anything new…

Will:  Would you say you’re feeling somewhat paranoid now?

Hugh.  Definitely, very.  I’m feeling you hold power or are trying to get it.  You want to impose a certain structure around various issues.  I don’t want to get caught up in that.

Will:  Hugh, are you afraid?

Hugh:  Yes, I am.  Look identity has always been a crisis in my life.  I’ve always found it difficult.  I’ve been exposed to a variety of cultures…

Will:  Yes, I remember.  Mother and father of different religious/ethnic origins.  Growing up in a white minority community in Namibia surrounded by an African majority.  And you spoke both Afrikaans and English at home…

Hugh:  Look, you know what I’m into politically.  Namibia is a post-colonial fuck-up.  The legal system is being controlled by South Africa.  The Administrator-General of Namibia reports directly to the South African government.

Will:  So it would seem to me that South Africa does, in fact, call the shots in Namibia, right?

Hugh:  Definitely with regard to internal Namibian politics.  Without a doubt, one of the real stumbling blocks has been UN Resolution 435 [adopted by the Security Council in 1978] and its provision for democratic elections.  Look, Will.  I’m not into talking politics…  I just know what I don’t like, and it all seems to entail a fair measure of violence.

Will:  Do you think that people in this part of the world have reason to openly avoid speaking their minds?

Hugh:  I don’t think that people can ever speak their own minds even in their own homes.  Look, Will.  I don’t want to do this now…

Will:  I feel that in South Africa, one always has this nagging fear of expressing one’s true thoughts.  Look, I’m sorry for making you feel uncomfortable. 

 

I may have given Hugh too much wine, but you have to understand the mental state of someone who has lived all his life in the shadow of South Africa.  It’s scary in South Africa and even here because the enemy of free expression is so elusive, but it’s out there somewhere.  You never know when they might be listening.      

Will photographing elephant poo in Chobe National Park.  It was shitty work but someone had to do it.  Photo by Hugh Gordon