Hengari calls me a racist

I have decided to start my own blog. The immediate occasion is an article in The Namibian newspaper of Friday June 17, 2011. It is written by the political columnist Alfredo T. Hengari with the Title:  “On thinking, language and racism”. It is an installment of his weekly column “Post  ̴Scriptum”. I just checked the website of The Namibian  to provide a link to the opinion piece, but there wasn’t one. Maybe the editors of The Namibian didn’t post it (yet), because it is controversial. [here] In this direction hints also that the “editor in transition” Tangeni Amupadhi called me on Thursday evening to warn me about Hengari’s outburst and assured me that I have the right to publish a reply. This way I found out, who will be the next editor in chief of The Namibian. This position was advertised for quite some time, because Gwen Lister, the founder and editor for 25 years wants obviously to move on. I was wondering who would be able to follow this most prolific icon of Namibian journalism.

Hengari’s outburst  was the reaction on my reader’s letter from 10. June 2011, which I submitted under the title: “Post  ̴Scriptum” but was published as:

Please write for the man in the streets

I really enjoy the opinion pages in the weekend edition of the
Namibian, they are actually my main motivation to buy the paper. But I
have a problem with Mr. Hengari. While I mostly agree with what he
writes I disagree sharply how he writes. I think it is really bad
journalism to deliver seminary papers in a newspaper. I know how
excited one can get about one’s education, especially when one comes
from an education hostile environment. But to smear it all the time
into your readers face is more than impolite. I think we all know by
now that he is a PhD- fellow at Panthéon-Sorbonne and he can drop the
public masturbation. This style doesn’t serve the reader, it only
serves himself. I wonder if many of the ‘Doctors’ in State House or
in the August House understand what he is saying.
In my opinion the purpose of writing an opinion piece is to influence
or form an opinion in a population and this is what Mr Hengari fails
to do. Therefore I plead [that] the Namibian replaces him with somebody who
can write for the nation or Mr Hengari changes his style: not more
than 2 words which don’t even show up in the dictionary per article
and no name dropping. For instance, nobody gives a sh*@th about John
Rawls or Amartya Sen. Then he should learn to call a spade a spade
instead of making cryptic hints about a thing.

An example from his 3. June column: there is nothing shocking about
the remarks of Mr. Aochamub. It is perfectly normal Namibian populism
as anybody knows. The shocking scandal is that many Namibians are
‘born’ SWAPO members as they are ‘born’ ELCIN members or Catholics.
The scandal is that most Namibians are doubly brainwashed for the
advancement of the nation and the eradication of the consequences of
Apartheid. Mr.  Aochamub knew exactly what he was doing and he doesn’t
care about Mr. Hengari’s irrelevant formulations.
P.S. from a senior citizen: Please, Alfredo get your PhD, print it on
your business card and become a normal man, who can talk to the man in
the street.
Jochen Becker, Windhoek

It was slightly edited (the underlined part was deleted). My letter was related to Hengari’s last column, but was an expression of my estimation on all his writings. http://www.namibian.com.na/columns/full-story/archive/2011/june/article/waiting-for-common-sense-leadership-at-public-institutions/

Obviously he didn’t like it a bit. My reply, which I submitted already on Friday morning was the following:

A Man Full of Himself

Dear Columnist. (Reply to A.T. Hengari’s Post Scriptum form 17.06.2011)

I am not 100% sure if your reply to my letter was a clever move. You just tried to crucify one of your last three fans in Namibia (hope there are some French girls left). You seem to suffer from one rampant Namibian weakness: you can’t take criticism at all. It is not an admired quality to be sensitive like a little girl when one is a critic. Remember you are not (yet) the president of Namibia or the pope and therefore uncriticizable. But if you ever played with the thought to become a politician, then you should start immediately to grow a thicker skin, otherwise you will make your psychiatrist rich. Confirmation wise your reaction proofs I hit the bull’s-eye! And I know from experience if a black man plays the race card he is out of arguments and this is what I call reverse racism. This time you lost it. You are badly hurt and try to compensate with arrogance but you are only ridiculous.

Your thorough analysis might appear probably not only to me somehow racist and xenophobic. Therefore I dare to edit them into your Wikipedia article for posterity to remember. But let me give you some consolation: when I was studying Sociology and Politics at Hamburg University (admittedly no comparison to 1 Pantheon- Sorbonne) I was also talking like you (proud like a peacock) and pissing off all the hot chicks.  But with age (and an able psychiatrist) I overcame it. I hope when you reach my age and gain some emotional stability a mild grin will play around the edges of your mouth, when you remember our exchange. Hey, man get a girlfriend and some real sex.

Jochen Becker, Windhoek

I guess what infuriated him, was that: “Therefore I plead [that] the Namibian replaces him with somebody who can write for the nation.”  That someone can doubt his ability to talk to his own people pushed a very sensitive button. Hengari is a lifelong overachiever and naturally doesn’t get the deserved recognition and is simultaneously haunted by the question if it was really enough, a vicious circle he is trapped in. The only way out is a vicious attack at the one who doesn’t appreciate him enough. And the easiest weapon lying around is racism. Of course he doesn’t care about the epistemology (one of his favorite words), the truth or justification of his ranting. Here his emotional disturbances supersede his intellectual prowess. IMHO this leads us to the core of the problem. Racism is very much an emotional issue, why it is difficult to discuss it rationally. It is also very basic in terms of human evolution, because it springs from the thread of family, kinship, tribe, people, and nation. Thus it is insufficient to see it in the black and white dichotomy, but it is the topic in question, specifically racial discrimination of people of color by whites. This is indeed an important topic in the Namibian context; I don’t need to mention Apartheid, which is still a very vivid memory of many people and will not be forgotten for a long time. Whoever talks about racism in Namibia has to respect and take into account that people carry deep wounds and scars of the oppression.

The fact of racism in Namibia is seldom discussed openly, usually an ostrich behavior is applied or it is plainly denied. But of course it is very present in everyday life. The severest is economic racism. The core problem of the Namibian society is the wide gap between the rich and the poor. If Hengari would turn his attention on this he would be more relevant.

So what exactly is he accusing me of?

1.      that I want to dictate how he as a black Namibian should write to his Namibian audience and he goes even further to ask for protection of this inherent racism through censorship by the newspaper. Let’s stay for a moment with the explicit, I was saying: “This style doesn’t serve the reader, it only serves himself”. To turn this into a racist dictate on how a columnist (n.b. he is not an ordinary journalist) must address his audience needs already a lot of paranoia.

2.      Of condescending racial thinking, that a white man knows more what the blacks in the streets understand about the black columnist’s writings. Here I dare to say - yes - Alfredo I believe I understand better than you what the man in the street understands of your writings, not because I am white, but because I live with the people and you have lost touch with them long time ago. You are an elitist individual, who hovers high over the hoi polloi, the common people, who even doesn’t mingle with journalists. And here you confirm the very common prejudice of most black Namibians that Hereros are fucking arrogant bastards. (This is of course another colour of racism called tribalism).

3.       He accuses me of intoning “that blacks only pursue doctoral studies in order to put these titles on business cards”. I did not write anything like this! Here Hengari’s paranoia strikes again. When I made the remark he should get his title (and consequently print it on his business cards) I thought about for how long we are reading week in week out, that he is a PhD candidate. Hey, this man is almost 40 years old and still pursues an adolescent lifestyle and mind-set.

4.      He accuses me of criticizing his intellectual honesty by naming the sources of his profound arguments. This is the dishonest try of malicious misunderstanding. I was criticizing him of “name dropping”, which is a technique known by most students and all con-men to impress their audience. If it is necessary in the context of a discourse to disclose one’s inspirators it is naturally OK. But to name Nelson Mandela, Hosea Kutako and Sam Nujoma among many, many others looks to me more like collecting of brownie points than an inherent necessity.

Conclusion:

With this week’s column Hengari stoops too low, he forgot the thinking while he was writing; he is a dishonest person and an intellectual buffoon. He uses the race card out of ulterior motives and tries to slander my name because I criticized his writing style, which he definitely doesn’t want to give up, because this seems to be the only thing he has. He might have read a lot of books and memorized many funny words, but his analyses mostly only scratch the surface (that’s what I meant by saying he should call a spade a spade). He styles himself as a superior intellectual, but I think Namibia has sharper brains (e.g. Hengari will never reach the level of his teacher Joseph Diescho) Another example, where I gave my comment is his opinion on Kazenambo’s morality regarding prostitutes. http://www.namibian.com.na/columns/full-story/archive/2010/october/article/kazenambo-neglected-the-ethics-of-his-ministry-on-prostitution/ and my reply: Give Their Dignity Back: here

Proposal:

I think, if The Namibian would advertise a Weekly Column competition and pay Hengari’s salary to the winner, we would get some more interesting reading and discussion than now. This competition could be open to the general public and ask especially young professionals and students to give their views on pressing matters. A jury of journalists, academics and public personalities could select the winner.  It could become the equivalent of the Namibian Newspaper Cup for critical thinking in Namibia. Think about it Tangeni.