Namibia's Bilateral Relations with Germany: a Crucial Relationship
Namibia’s bilateral relations with Germany: A crucial relationship Peter H Katjavivi* Introduction Namibia has traversed a long and bitter road towards independence through a struggle to free itself from the bondage of apartheid and colonialism and accept the challenges of nationhood. It reminds me of the following quotation cited by my friend and colleague, Prof. Keto Mshigeni, who writes that, when an Egyptian King asked Euclid, the famous Greek mathematician of Alexandria in 3 BC, how one could learn his theorems of geometry in a more expeditious manner, the answer given was, “there is no royal road to geometry”.1 What we know for certain is that, as David Jessop states, –2 [e]very nation and culture has a knowledge of where it has come from, an awareness of shared experience and a sense of its place in the world. We have not only willingly accepted the challenges of nationhood, but have also used our experience acquired during the course of the struggle to chart the way forward with regard to all aspects of life, including crafting our foreign policy, as we took our place amongst the nations of the world. As David Jessop continues to write, –3 [h]istory and smallness together have distilled and elevated this into an often intense requirement for ownership and a constant and passionate defence of national identity and sovereignty. This should certainly be seen against the events as described by Dr Henry Kissinger in The new world order:4 In the seventeenth century, France under Cardinal Richelieu introduced the modern approach to international relations, based on the nation-state and motivated by national interest as its ultimate purpose.
[Show full text]