EDITORIAL: Douse the flames of tribalism
In March 2021, Bank Windhoek fired its sales manager, Riaan van Rooyen, who caused a social media racism storm by equating black people to monkeys.
Van Rooyen fell on his sword when he remarked that "black people and monkeys are exactly the same; black people have the same manners, IQ and discipline as monkeys do".
The bank’s decision to rid itself of him was noble – and a turning point in how employers should deal with employees who can’t tame their hateful tongues.
In South Africa, Vicki Momberg made history in 2018 by becoming the first person in that country to be imprisoned for racist speech.
She became a poster girl for racism when she referred to police officers assisting her after a robbery as ‘kaffirs’.
Namibia has not had a shortage of tribalist and racist attacks, but the offenders have often apologised their way out of trouble, some while drowning in crocodile tears.
We tend to forget that all the wars fought in Namibia, first between tribesmen wrestling for territorial control and then against German and later South African occupiers, had their origins in tribal and racial hatreds.
If there is no decisive action to douse the flames of similar behaviours in the post-racial era we are living in today, history will repeat itself. Unfortunately, this time we will have no foreigners to point fingers at – especially if all our fingers have not been chopped off by our neighbours in vicious tribal wars.
Van Rooyen fell on his sword when he remarked that "black people and monkeys are exactly the same; black people have the same manners, IQ and discipline as monkeys do".
The bank’s decision to rid itself of him was noble – and a turning point in how employers should deal with employees who can’t tame their hateful tongues.
In South Africa, Vicki Momberg made history in 2018 by becoming the first person in that country to be imprisoned for racist speech.
She became a poster girl for racism when she referred to police officers assisting her after a robbery as ‘kaffirs’.
Namibia has not had a shortage of tribalist and racist attacks, but the offenders have often apologised their way out of trouble, some while drowning in crocodile tears.
We tend to forget that all the wars fought in Namibia, first between tribesmen wrestling for territorial control and then against German and later South African occupiers, had their origins in tribal and racial hatreds.
If there is no decisive action to douse the flames of similar behaviours in the post-racial era we are living in today, history will repeat itself. Unfortunately, this time we will have no foreigners to point fingers at – especially if all our fingers have not been chopped off by our neighbours in vicious tribal wars.
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