User:Jkmutesi/About Kavango Region

Kavango region

The Kavango region forms the north eastern part of the Namibia. It shares borders with the Caprivi region in the east, Otjozondjupa in the south; Oshikoto and Ohangwena in the northwest. The region shares borders with the Angolan town of Calai along Kavango River which stretches from central Angola southwards to the Angola- Namibia border, then through Namibia into Botswana, where it diverges into the swamp area called the Okavango Delta (Maho 1998:36). The inhabitants of this area on the Namibian side are known as Kavango People, although a number of those resides on the Angolan side are also known as Kavango people. Some Kavango people are also found in Botswana around the Okavango Delta. There are wide ranging debates with the term ‘Kavango’ and ‘Okavango’ the former refer to the inhabitants while the latter refers to the geographical area. Early history of settlement in Kavango indicates that the inhabitants entered the current habitat from the place called Mashi along the Kwando River in southwestern Zambia. All the ethnic groups in Kavango namely the Gciriku, Shambyu, and the Hambukushu claim to have originated from the Mashi area; except the Kwangari and the Mbunza that claim to have move downstream from their abodes, but it remains debatable due to contradictory historical accounts. They all settled along the banks of the Okavango river stretch from the east to the west. They were subsistence farmers and supplement their living by hunting game and fishing.

The people of Kavango came into contact with Western civilization and Christian messengers of faith relatively late due to difficult access to the region from the centre of Namibia. There were waterless stretches and heavy sand dunes to overcome and alternative routes via Botswana were considerably longer.

It was only around 1910 that the missionaries managed to establish a permanent settlement in the Gciriku territory under Hompa7 Nyangana. Two or three years later the next mission was founded at Andara in the Hambukushu tribal area. There-after followed the missionary stations of Tondoro in the Kwangari area, Mbunza and in Shambyu around 1930s. These stations formed an inter-ethnic infrastructure not only by Christian faith, but in the perspectives of school instruction, handicraft teaching and health services.

In the meantime the mandated power of South Africa that followed the German Reich established itself first in Nkurenkuru and later in Rundu, which is in the center of the Kavango region; and on the boundary between Mbunza and Shambyu. Rundu, which was initially the residence of the native commissioner with his office and a police station, became the capital of the Kavango region. Today it has government buildings, banks, a hospital, a radio station, several schools, churches, shops, hostels, bars and sports grounds. Naming the station Rundu, “was not a simple affair, but created a series of bureaucratic problems for the colonial administration”; and until today there are on-going controversies over the name.

Since its birth in the 1930s, Rundu as a town has grown from what was the native commissioner’s office and residence to a big town with many people and good infrastructure. The town is demarcated into two political constituencies: Rundu rural east and Rundu urban; the former consist settlements such as Sauyemwa, New Millennium Park, Kehemu, Kings Park, Ndama, Sun City while the latter is made up of Safari, Nkarapamwe, Tutungeni, Queens Park and the town center where the shops and government offices are. It has up to five high schools and nine primary and junior secondary schools, all together making education the highest employer in the region followed by the army and other government agencies such as health etc. Its business sector also employs a lot of low paid people. Such growth has also resulted to the influx of people from different regions and underlying villages in search of greener pastures, while expatriates have entered on the basis of skills improvement and development.

Most teachers, police officers and government civil servants stay in areas such as New Millennium Park, Kings Park, Queens Park, Safari and Nkarapamwe respectively. The elite and the middle class of the town are to be found in Tutungeni8 suburb; before independence it was a white-only residential area. At independence people that were in management and middle management of the government agencies moved into Tutungeni. Other people that are either casual or lower ranking employees, such as cleaners, shop assistants and vendors, are mostly staying in Kehemu, Ndama, Sauyemwa and Sun City informal settlements. The above areas surround Rundu Urban constituency or Rundu ‘proper’ as it is referred to by some local people.

Despite the above demarcations of the town, people of Rundu have common spaces that they occupy such as the media, religion, national events, funerals, weddings and education. The local radio station, which is state owned plays a major role in the public space of Rundu and in shaping the local discourse. Its content programming includes public service and death announcements, entertainment, traditional talks and open-line9.

Languages Spoken in Kavango

Rukwangari is the language spoken by the people from the west of the region known as Vakwangari, while those from the east such as the Shambyu and the Vagciriku speaks Rumanyo. Initially Rumanyo was only spoken by the Vagciriku or ‘Vambongedu’ while the Shambyu people spoke Shishambyu. The two languages are very identical except for some minor differences within and after independence they were all classified as Rumanyo for the education curriculum purposes. Other languages such as Tshinyemba and Thimbukushu are also spoken in the area. Not local languages only are spoken in the region, English, Afrikaans and Portuguese are well spoken. English is the official language of the Republic and that make it compulsory for everyone to speak or learn it. However many adults are more clear with Afrikaans than English because they only started learning or using it at independence.

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