NewAfricanWoman Issue 35 - Flipbook - Page 21
A First Lady’s role is a
multi-dimensional role but
IT ’S NOT A
POLITICAL ROLE .
So she ideally shouldn’t get
involved in politics and if she does,
she shouldn’t admit it.
why, if that is true?
I said that at a YALI (Young African
Leaders Institute) conference in response
to a specific question and I did express a
level of discomfort with the wording of
the title First Lady. The title “First Lady”
shouldn’t become institutionalized because in the New Africa we lyricise about,
the political rise of women will usher in
more female Presidents who may have
husbands assuming the role of Presidential Spouse. I prefer terminology which
is gender neutral and which also accepts
that not every spouse will be prepared to
assume an active role.
We don’t know what to call President Johnson Sirleaf’s husband
for example, is that what you are
saying?
It is an opportune time to reflect on
the title and as the role and gender-mix
evolves, we must ask ourselves if First
Lady is an appropriate title.
I have a 21-year-old daughter and I
told her I was coming to interview
you and I asked ‘If you wanted to
ask her a question, what would you
say? Her answer was: ‘Okay, what
does she tell the President if people
are against the President?’ I think
you had, the youth activist Job Amupanda questioning the land issue in
Namibia recently. The land issues, is
important to women as they are the
mainstay of agriculture in Africa, and
probably it’s the same thing in Namibia where there’s the big problem
of access to land going on. What
do you say to President Geingob on
such sensitive, but crucial issues?
My husband went into political exile at
the age of 21 and after a long and bitter
struggle for independence, returned to
Namibia 27 years later. He is a founding member of SWAPO and was a key
influencer in SWAPO’s recognition by the
United Nations as the sole and authentic
representative of Namibia. Sam Nujoma, our Founding President, assigned
numerous leadership roles to him from a
young age. While in exile in Zambia, he
headed an Institute which was tasked to
train Namibians who would take over the
civil service after independence as well
as developing sectoral research for the
government of an independent Namibia.
The Politburo of SWAPO sent him back
to a tense and racially divided Namibia to
prepare for the first elections as SWAPO’s
Director of Elections. He was the chairman of the Constituent Assembly that
drafted our constitution, he was the
first Prime Minister of an independent
Namibia and had to work hard to build a
civil service and democratic institutions
which never existed before. His political
career stumbled after 12 years as Prime
Minister and he found himself out of
Government and out of the Ruling Party’s
Politburo but remained a committed
SWAPO cadre. He used the time to finish
his PhD with the University of Leeds. He
briefly left the country and returned a year
later as a Parliamentary backbencher. He
returned to the Politburo then was elected
as Vice President of SWAPO upon which
he was appointed as Minister of Trade.
When he was re-elected as Vice President
and confirmed as the Party’s Presidential
candidate, he was promoted to Prime
Minister and won 87% of the national
Presidential vote to be elected as a highly
popular President. I tell this condensed
version of a rich history to make the
simple point that it is impossible for me
to add much value or give much political
advice to a man of such political calibre.
He is also fortunate that he was directly
elected with an unprecedented margin of
87% so he has no need to doubt his popularity. Quite correctly, his focus is not on
detractors, no matter how vocal they may
be, but more on utilising his vast governance and leadership abilities to implement his dream of an inclusive Namibia
where poverty and income inequality are
effectively addressed.
The question asked by your 21-yearold daughter on how political discussions
happen in the home makes me think of
our 21-year-old daughter who is equally
insightful and inquisitive. All our children
ask difficult political questions which are
no different to what youth leaders ask.
My husband is known to be a consultative leader politically and he’s also very
consultative at home so he often subjects
himself to lively debates on current affairs
with our children. Some of these discussions his views prevail and other times, he
agrees with their positions on issues.
This consultative leadership was
evident when he engaged Job Amupanda, the youth activist you mentioned,
and de-escalated an angry and volatile
confrontation on urban land. A six-hour
long meeting at State House, between the
youth activists and the President resulted
in consensus on the way forward and the
involvement of youth activists in a massive land-servicing project. Conflict often
occurs because of the lack of dialogue, to
quote my husband, “wars happen when
diplomacy fails”, so what our president is
specifically good at is consultative leadership from negotiating the first Constitu-
F E B / M A R 2 0 16 N AW /
21