Traveling through Southern Africa (Part 6) –Windhoek and the Other Africa

Windhoek is the largest city in Namibia and its capitol.  As such, it attracts a great number of Africans looking for a better life, but most will never find it.  They’ll end up living in a township built of found and bartered scrap.  These places aren’t on most travelers’ agendas and they’re not the sort of area you enter on your own, but while staying in Windhoek, as happenstance would have it, we had the opportunity to experience for ourselves this other side of Africa.

It all started when our overland driver and her co-pilot came down with malaria.  Without a truck, there was no possibility of moving on, so we settled into a nice backpacker’s lodge while the two recovered in hospital.  One evening we met a couple of volunteers from The Netherlands that were looking for ways to bring jobs into the townships.  They had struck on the idea of township tours and asked us if we would be guinea pig tourists on their first dry run.

We went into the local market, a hairdressers and a shabeen (a ghetto pub).  One woman invited us into her home.  Her family built it from tin roofing.  Inside, they had covered the walls with old carpets for insulation, and it was complete with pirated electricity to run a small television.  Water came from an area well a few blocks away, dug by the city.  I apologize for the lack of photographs, but it was inappropriate and somewhat dangerous to have a camera around my neck.

Not all was grim.  They also showed us some start-up companies.  One made African print textiles, while another made ceramics.  The concept is to help local people own and operate their own businesses in a hope that success will breed more success.




In the end, the experience was an education that brought a new perspective to our travels in Africa.