Africa Is a Country

Independence Day in Namibia

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Independence Day in Namibia

By
Tom Devriendt

Not only is it Human Rights Day in South Africa today (read up on its meaning by searching our archive for ‘Sharpeville’), this day 22 years ago also saw Namibia wrestle itself officially free from the same Apartheid claws that were responsible for the massacre in Sharpeville. Which makes it a day both to remember and to celebrate. I’m picking up the Independence Day meme of popular music we started last year. 5 Namibian tunes. First up, Overitje group Ondarata’s ‘Tuvare Tuakapanda’:



Patrick, Deon and Kamutonyo (aka PDK) mix Portuguese, Oshiwambo, Kwangali and Umbundu in ‘Moko’:

The prolific Tate Buti with Kamati Nangolo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPe4dt6j8_E

A bit older: Exit’s ‘Molokasi’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM_Rf0vSppU

And Gazza’s love song to Seelima:

You can dance to it.

Further Reading

Sinners and ancestors

Ryan Coogler’s latest film is more than a vampire fable—it’s a bridge between Black American history and African audiences hungry for connection, investment, and storytelling rooted in shared struggle.

How to unmake the world

In this wide-ranging conversation, para-disciplinary artist Nolan Oswald Dennis reflects on space, time, Blackness, and the limits of Western knowledge—offering a strategy for imagining grounded in African and anti-colonial traditions.

A migrant’s tale

On his latest EP, Kwame Brenya turns a failed migration into musical testimony—offering a biting critique of ECOWAS, broken borders, and the everyday collapse of pan-African ideals.