“One Namibia, one nation”? Social cohesion under a liberation movement as government in decline

Abstract

Namibia has been widely perceived as a successful case of negotiated independence, governed since 1990 by the former liberation movement. For a quarter of a century the movement turned party expanded its political dominance. Of lately, this hegemony showed cracks. The credibility and reputation, and hence the trust into those in government has been damaged due to a number of contributing factors. This has also resulted in a decline of social cohesion as part of the slippery road in so-called nation building. This article examines the course since independence and the more recent tendencies, pointing at the failures to enhance a social contract, which the ordinary people in the various communities could identify with and honor. Rather, centrifugal tendencies suggest, that the high tide of the former liberation movement as government has entered a phase of ebb.