Welcome to Swakopmund!

On Wednesday afternoon we headed to Swakopmund, on the central coast of Namibia. It’s only a four hour drive, but so much changes on the drive. It was so fascinating to watch the scenery change from the green mountains outside of Windhoek to the flat plains to the brown desert to the red sand dunes and then finally the Atlantic Ocean. It was so beautiful. Also, lots of wildlife! We saw a family of baboons hanging out on a telephone pole, a bunch of antelope and springboks or gazelles, and then five giraffes! It was so exciting to finally see lots of African wildlife, and I’m definitely looking forward to going to some of the national parks to see more animals.

Swakopmund is a cute little beach town, and the whole trip felt like a little vacation. At first I was really surprised to see that Swakopmund was like every other beach town I’ve been in: quaint little shops, long strips of beach with walkways, a jetty and a pier, a lighthouse, lots of B&Bs and little guesthouses. After my initial surprise though, I realized that there is no reason why Namibia shouldn’t have a cute little beach town. Just because I wasn’t expecting to see a very European style beach town doesn’t mean Namibia doesn’t deserve to have one. This is just another example of how this trip has been challenging my perceptions of life in Africa.

Thursday morning we visited the Rossing Uranium Mine outside of Swakopmund. I’ve never visited a working mine before, so I had no idea of what to expect. We watched their promotional video about the production of the mine and its impact on the environment and the community. After the video and a question-and-answer session, we were driven to the pit. The Rossing Mine is an open pit low grade uranium mine. It’s the third largest producing uranium mine in the world, and it helps to make Namibia the fourth largest exporter of uranium. The pit itself was massive! Almost 4 km long, 1.5 km wide, and 400 m deep. I have always been convinced that, because of their hugely negative environmental impact, mines are terrible and we need to find an alternative to using their natural resources. While I still think that we need to explore alternative forms of energy, I can now see that the issue is far more complicated than I ever thought it was. Although the Rossing Mine does have an environmental impact, it has a very positive economic and social benefit on the communities of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, as well as on Namibia as a whole. Rossing is the largest employer in the region of Erongo, and one of the largest in Namibia. Over 98% of the employees are Namibians, which says a lot considering that many companies in Namibia import skilled workers. This makes a huge difference in a society with a 50% unemployment rate.

However, due to the Export Processing Zone, Rio Tinto doesn't really pay taxes in Namibia, and the money from Namibia's natural resources doesn't stay within the country.  Namibia does not financially benefit from their own natural resources, except for the 5,000 or so people who are employed.  How is this a just system?

The mine has poured money into developing a town just outside of the mine, including a museum and an institute for training mine workers. Rossing has also financially supported many organizations in Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. We went to an after school program, and their computer lab was completely funded by uranium mine donations.

This information just complicates the issue for me. I need to find a way to reconcile the fact that the mine has an environmental impact, but also an economic impact in a country that needs all the help in this area that it can get. I can’t just sit here and hate mines any more, after I’ve seen the good they can do for the community. Maybe ignorance truly is bliss, but I know that being forced to come to terms with this reality will be good for me in the long run. It’s just difficult to deal with now.

Another interesting aspect of being in Swakopmund was seeing the very different racial population than I have been getting used to Windhoek. Swakopmund has a much larger European population (largely German, but also other Western European countries) than Windhoek does, and the white population dominated the stores and restaurants that were aimed at tourists. We went to Erich’s Restaurant for dinner on Thursday night. It was a German restaurant, and I’m pretty sure that every patron was white. The staff, on the other hand, was mostly black with the exception of the German bartender. Even though I could tell that there were racial issues that I needed to understand in Swakopmund, I didn’t really learn much about them. But I still had fun walking around! It was like a little European city in Africa, and it was really beautiful. Go, if you ever have the chance!

During my walk around Swakopmund I had some really good conversations with Katie, one of my new CGE friends (she goes to Valpo). It was nice to have a good conversation while walking along the beach, and reminded me of lots of similar nights spent walking along the beach in Edmonds. Later that night after dinner a bunch of us sat on the rocks at the jetty. The night was kind of stormy and windy, and the waves were huge. It was so mysterious, but it was really fun to sit on the rocks and just watch the waves crashing into the jetty.