Windhoek sits in a mountainous plateau region, separating the sands of two deserts – the Namib and the Kalahari. Descending into Windhoek's Hosea Kutako airport, I was reminded of similar geography I’ve descended into...Kirkuk, Kandahar, Woomera, southwest Oklahoma. This time, it’s the State Department that has brought me to the desert – and I owe a tremendous thanks to my hosts. I am extremely lucky to have the opportunity to contribute to this work, and to enjoy the people, climate, and landscape of Namibia.
With approximately 400,000 people, Windhoek is Namibia’s metropolis, an urban center with a small town feel. One local described it as sleepy, but I get a sense of something underlying the sleepiness just waiting to be vocalized.
To me, Windhoek feels like a Western town with a Deep South secret. It’s a young country with a challenging past (colonialism, a legacy of apartheid), so I’m curious to see what the next few months reveal as reality. Colleagues and locals have already cautioned that Namibia is not the rosy picture painted by statistics and travel guides. And given the work I’ll be doing, I’m eager to get to know the people and the stories behind the numbers. Namibia has one of the highest GINI coefficients in the world (about .70, used to measure income inequality). The contrast is apparent on Independence Avenue, where locals walk among ritzy leather and jewelry shops that cater to wealthy tourists. Two very telling conversations last week (one with two Namibian women of Afrikaans descent, and one who grew up in a small tribal village in the north) also revealed some of these inherent contrasts in Namibia's history and culture. More on this in a future post.
