It was on this newspaper page, on the 26th of September last year, wherein I delivered a formulation highlighting our country’s foreign policy crisis. I had submitted that since taking over the highest chair in our society, President Hage Geingob has chosen a foreign policy adventurist posture premised on a slogan ‘friends to all and enemy to none’. To astute observers of international politics, this dangerous and timid policy sloganeering means we are not reliable for we are ‘friends to all’ including scoundrels and murderous regimes.  As I had argued then, foreign policy, in pursuant of national interest, generally derives its legitimacy from domestic objective and subjective realities. Geingob’s foreign policy does not follow this logic. It zigzags according to dictates of political expediency. I concluded that article with this paragraph: “we are effectively dealing with a foreign policy characterized by political expediency and dishonesty. Its sloganeering is a tale, to paraphrase Shakespeare, full of sound and fury signifying nothing”.

The unthinking of our politics, particularly those drunk with SWAPO factional politics and those whose Kitchen water is dependent on the moods and happiness of Geingob, dismissed that September 26 clarity, as tribal and factional tirade. They enjoyed their moments of false-consciousness until Jana Hybaskova, European Ambassador to Namibia, called a meeting with Geingob to call him to demand specifics from him. To confront Geingob, she brought with her an army consisting of belligerent German Ambassador Christian Schlaga, Spanish Ambassador Concha Figuerola and Pirkko-Liisa Kyostila for Finnish Ambassador. Hybaskova made it clear that the Geingob regime is not clear on issues and it keep zigzagging on key issues such as land and economic policy. Those who may see this as an exaggeration must listen to answer seeking Jana Hybaskova: “we really are seeking, because Europe is a slow long machine, and we need to understand…  Ambassador Schlaga was trying to retrieve the answer, we would like to get certainty, to understand, whatever your answer is on NEEEF and land…the biggest trouble is that we need to get a clear answer, we can accommodate whatever...”. 

These comments are not only an affirmation of Geingob as a zigzagging and irresolute leader; they also conspicuously meant that to the European Union, Geingob is mumbling and meandering on our position on serious matters such as land and economic empowerment policies. His perpetual speeches and Harambee sloganeering has evidently not provided policy certainty and clear answers to Europeans necessitating diplomats to go to State House and ask the President embarrassing questions in front of the media. It must be immediately pointed out that it was European ambassadors who requested the meeting in order to get answers from a zigzagging president who have not provided 'certainty' and 'clear answers' to Europeans despite the many travels to Europe and America. European diplomats are not only confused and concerned about Geingob’s zigzagging on land and economic policies; they are also confused as in how they can align their development assistance following the scandalous establishment of two plans of government; Harambee Prosperity Plan and the fifth National Development Plan. Previously, they only aligned to the NDPs. For that too, diplomats demanded ‘certainty’ and ‘clear answers’. 

Given this theater that played itself out at State House, a theater between former colonizers and a president who is a ‘friend to all and enemy to none’, it is only zombies who would believe that concerns regarding Geingob Zigzagging on economic policy and unclear foreign policy is part of tribalism and SWAPO factions. If they persist with the same logic, a ‘clear’ and ‘certain’ answer, in the words of Jana Hybaskova, must be sought from them asking; to which SWAPO branch do these European ambassadors belong?

The president squandered an opportunity to provide clarity and answers to European - allowing his emotions and fears to reign supreme. Instead of providing clarity, with clear direction, he reduced himself to a bodyguard of European economic interest. Those who disagree must listen to what Geingob said to straightforward European ambassadors; “there are problems…people are angry there, we stopped them, we had to negotiate and educate them. They want to grab the land. We are seating, I had a meeting here, we had to sit with for 10 to 6 hours in this place, they want to grab the land, they want to get rich. They are saying white people are having everything and we are stopping them.”  The president went further to report by mentioning names, to European ambassadors, of Namibians that want to ‘grab’ the land but assured Europeans diplomats that they are ‘calming them’.

From his response, it is clear that Geingob strategy does not involve giving land to the masses of the Namibian people and dealing decisively with colonial legacy, but to ‘stop them’, ‘negotiate with them’, ‘educating (see brainwashing) them’ and ‘calming them’. Such a response is not only an insult to land activists who negotiated with Geingob in good faith but also an indication that the zigzagging Geingob, whose solution is mere meetings after meetings and ‘stopping them’, has no clear plan to address our economic problems and the land question. Whether ‘stopping them’ and ‘calming them’ has provided certainty to European diplomats remains in the realm of speculation. European Ambassadors must be immediately advised that Geingob, the ‘stopping them’ master, will not be able to ‘stop’ and ‘calm’ the landless and the economically deprived for long. Geingob represents the past and the ending present. Accepting the policy of ‘stopping them’ and ‘calming them’ as ‘certainty’ is like accepting box of juice whose expiry date  is the following week. Real negotiation must be with the future. We are the future and in our future the zigzagging ‘friends to all and enemy to none’ policies of ‘stopping them’ and ‘calming them’ would be fossils. Negotiate with us, the future!

Job Shipululo Amupanda is a Senior Lecturer (political science) at the University of Namibia and a Decolonial Scholar and Activist with the Affirmative Repositioning movement. Email: jamupanda@unam.na 

*An edited version of this article was originally published in the The Namibian newspaper (27 February 2018)