The Real Thing

Life in Luderitz at times can feel almost European: the smart waterfront, rows of shops and unpredictable weather, but I must ask, can this relatively modern town be “The Real Africa?”

         Six weeks ago we left Luderitz and travelled north along the Caprivi strip. Stepping into the Caprivi felt like we had stepped back in time. With each mile the relatively developed world of southern Namibia slipped further away, transforming into the developing world of the northern Caprivi. Bricks and Mortar were gradually replaced with mud and sticks to make circular huts with immaculate thatch roofing. Women wrapped in brightly coloured scarves and layers of beads, carrying impossibly heavy loads on their heads with perfect balance and a kind of graceful lyricism. Collecting water, cooking, cleaning and farming, the sun beats down whilst the men sit and watch, smoking outside Shebeens drinking the dodgy but lethal local brew of Shake-Shake. This is their way of life. It feels like nothing has changed for the last 100 years. The villages of the Caprivi are all utterly different to Luderitz. Here amongst the huts and heat it feels like the real Africa, but what is the real Africa? This idyllically archaic way of life, filled with predominately patriarchal societies and tropical warmth? Surely it is patronising to believe that the entire continent consists of mud huts, sun and colourfully adorned women?

We must return to Luderitz.

As we drive along the poker-cue-straight road between Aus and Luderitz, with the glittering Sperrgebiet stretching as far as the eye can see, I realise that the Caprivi’s lush tropical greenery cannot single-handedly be The Real Africa, but nor can Luderitz’s dry desert moonscape alone be “The Real Thing”. Africa is a tumultuous mix of developed and developing societies side by side, and in Namibia’s case, these societies exist within the same country. Namibia’s beauty lies in its changing faces, the diversity of dunes and tropics side by side. Round each corner you will be faced with a completely different landscape filled with unique people and cultures. Simply cross regions and you seem to cross centuries. A melting pot of time zones, shifting landscapes and clamour of cultures, it is this assorted jumble of old and new all together which, to me, is “The Real Africa.” •