Euro-African Life in Namibia

    Locus: Windhoek, Namibia ( 22.5609 S, 17.0658 E)     With the exception of its north-eastern regions, Namibia is, predominantly, a hot, dry country with a climate second only to the Sahara desert, in aridity. Due to losses in rainfall as a result of high evaporation, the country is classified as a drought-prone region. It is estimated that more than 90% of  annual rainfall is lost to evaporation.    The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF) manages water resources in Namibia, and NamWater, a state-owned enterprise under the purview of the MAWF, operates the reservoirs, dams, pipelines, boreholes and water-treatment plants, throughout the country.    Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, is situated in a basin between the Khomas, Eros, and Auas mountains on the great Central Plateau of southern Africa. The city lies 1,680 m above sea-level and is home to, approximately, 400,000* inhabitants.      As the economi...

    By all accounts, Sylvia* had been a normal child with a normal childhood. She hardly had physical ailments and had never been hospitalised. She spent a few days in bed, in a dark room, with measles, and that had been the extent of her experience with illness.     After her thirteenth birthday, her life changed, profoundly. It took a turn for the worse with t he onset of puberty, a precursor for a life marked by severe and debilitating pain, every month.     The pain was  so severe, her legs and hands trembled, her jaw clenched, her hands balled into fists, her appetite disappeared, dark circles framed her eyes, she suffered nausea, vomited, had  diarrhea, lower back pain, could not concentrate at school, at work, on anything, but the pain. Without pain medication, she would lie on her bed, on her stomach, and groan tonelessly, like a wounded animal, for hours on end. It consumed her being, entirely, and affected her outlook on life....

Omba Gallery is delighted to host ‘Kemanguluko’ a mixed media collaborative exhibition by four (4) Namibian artists exploring the complex and often politicised term of ‘freedom.’ Internationally renowned artist, John Sampson, opened the exhibition on Friday, 4 September 2015. Kemanguluko means ‘towards freedom’ in Oshiwambo and describes a process or movement, physically, emotionally or spiritually, in the direction of liberation or freedom. The group of Namibian artists embracing the dictum of ‘kemanguluko’, collaborated to present discerning viewers with four different perspectives and explorations of freedom using photography and paint.  About Tuli-Mekondjo Mbumba ‘I want the freedom to create without being categorised; I want the freedom to create whatever I want as an artist.’ Self-taught Namibian fine artist, Tuli-Mekondjo Mbumba, was born in a refugee camp in Angola during the Namibian-Angolan Border War. It is therefore not surpri...