INSIDE JOB AMUPANDA’S PSYCHE By Phil ya Nangoloh Radical youther and Affirmative Repositioning kingpin, Job Shipululo Amupanda, can be one of the greatest philosophers Namibia has ever produced. He can also be a racist if some of his statements below were taken as indicators, including: 1. STATEMENTS But before I and I attempt to substantiate the preceding observation, first a tour to some of the statements Amupanda makes in his “Truth is Truth” book. Citing among others [white] German and American philosophers, Martin Heidegger and Noam Chomsky, respectively, Amupanda describes “truth” as “the revelation of that which makes a people certain, clear, and strong in its action and knowledge”. The key words here to me are “the revelation”, “a people”, “its action and knowledge”. Applying these terms to the situation at hand, can Namibia be described as “a people” as such? If so, what is Namibia’s action and knowledge”. Assuming that Amupanda is the revealer, what is he revealing? Let us to go on tour of some of the philosophical pronouncements Amupanda is making. 1.1. Truth in short Supply in Politics First, he says that his book focuses on “truth” because truth is “in short supply” in Namibia and “in our politics”. 1.2. Lack of or Weak Intellectual Production After trying to expound on what “truth” is like, Amupanda says that Namibia is one of the SADC countries that “are very weak in intellectual production”. Here it is not clear whether by “intellectual production” he means the production of intellectuals themselves or the production of intellectual property. 1.2.1.Vanity Academics But I assume he means the latter because he goes on to claim that most—not all---of Namibia’s academics are mainly concerned with clothes traveling and entertainment. That is why, according to him, six months can come and go without any notable book published by any academic. Most of our academics are just “academic celebrities and academic-by-circumstances”. 1.2.2. Vengeful Civil Society Bringing his point much closer to home, Amupanda also claims that much of Namibia’s Civil Society (Organizations?) is no better than its academics. He accuses Civil Society of being “compromised” and of having been “deliberately set up to oppose the ruling party instead of serving interest of society”. Many of those leading Civil Society organizations, he says, “are those with personal historical scores to settle with those in power”. This, he says, is why Civil Society actors, have “no regard for intellectual production”. 1.3. Dictatorial Liberation Struggle Amupanda turns to the liberation struggle in or by which intellectuals are despised or hated. He says the nature of the liberation struggle was dictatorial, requiring only one line of command. He says: “The nature of the liberation struggle required one line of command: no questions no debates— see anything say nothing and do as told. This culture was imposed into the new Namibia.” 1.3.1 Character Assassinations Amupanda then drops this bombshell: that when it became difficult for those in power to wish intellectuals away, “a new method was found” to “character assassinate” intellectuals and presenting them to the gullible and brainwashed masses as “enemies” of the government. He therefore blames the absence of “intellectual production” to political intolerance coming from those in power. 1.3.2. Government by Charlatans Saying that “entrenched intellectuals” in Namibia are being held “at ransom through democratic centralism”, Amupanda says the “only direction and perspective given” to the masses that the one coming from government “and its subjective institutions run by its charlatans”. 2. PURPOSE OF TRUTH IS TRUTH So what is the medicine to cure the above then, I and I would ask Job Amupanda? He says his “Truth is Truth” is such medicine. 2.1. Revolutionary Anti-Oppression Struggle He says: “..Truth is Truth seeks to turn the tables; who as god becomes dog and who was dog becomes god”. He says in the face and presence of the oppressed and oppressors and “haves” and “have nots” there can be no neutrality. That is why Truth is Truth is biased in favor of the oppressed and against the oppressors. 2.2. Beneficiaries of Truth is Truth Amupanda says that Truth is Truth is meant for those youths who are “ready to fight, ready to transform, learn and unlearn”. 2.3. Pan Africanism and Black Consciousness Amupanda says his Truth is Truth is unapologetically “critical of whites, black elite, liberals and all forms of oppressors” because of their “historical and present role in the suffering of the black people”. It does so in a “Pan Africanist” context and in a “Black Consciousness” approach.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 11:28:21 +0000
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