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Pioneering local activism: the Namibia Association of Norway http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.naip100035 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Pioneering local activism: the Namibia Association of Norway Author/Creator Østbye, Eva Helene Publisher Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (Uppsala) Date 2000 Resource type Articles Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Norway, Southern Africa (region), Namibia Coverage (temporal) 1980-1990 Source Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (Uppsala) Relation Eriksen, Tore Linné, ed., Norway and national liberation in Southern Africa. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2000. 359-378. Rights By kind permission of Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (The Nordic Africa Institute). Description Part of a study on National Liberation in Southern Africa: The Role of the Nordic Countries, hosted at the Nordic Africa Institute Format extent 21 page(s) (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.naip100035 http://www.aluka.org Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Pioneering Local Activism: The Namibia Association of Norway, Eva Helene Ostbye Why Namibia? Why Elverum? The Namibia Association of Norway was established in 1980 to provide humanitarian assistance to the Namibian people, with the ambition to also support other oppressed peoples in Southern Africa. From the start as a one week's solidarity campaign in Elverum, a town of 17,000 inhabitants in the southeastern part of Norway, it became the principal Norwegian non-governmental organisation (NGO) devoted to the independence of Namibia. During the years of the liberation struggle, it co-operated closely with South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) and with the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN). From the start, the scope of the activities ranged from directly supporting Namibian refugees in Angola through products and projects to giving financial support to CCN-and informing the Norwegian public on the situation in Namibia. The largest single involvement was from 1983 to 1990, when the association was the main contributor in the building and running of SWAPO's first secondary school outside Namibia, the Namibia Secondary Technical School in Loudima, Congo. After the liberation of Namibia in 1990, the activities changed focus, from solidarity work with emphasis on relief aid to more regular development aid projects inside Namibia. Why Namibia? After the liberation of Angola and Mozambique in 1975, the recent changes in Zimbabwe had left Namibia in 1980 as the only remaining colonised-or rather occupied-country in Southern Africa. There was no sign of a South African agreement to implement the UN Security Council Peace Plan for Namibia (Security Council Resolution 435/78) and 1 This chapter in based on The Narnibia Association Annuals Reports: 1982- 1995, information material from The Namibia Association, newspapers and documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, interviews have been conducted with Dag Hareide, Steinar Ssetervadet, Mait Setervadet, Bente Pedersen, Uazuvara KatJivena, Hans Dieset and Oddvar Oierenr After this chapter was completed the history of the Namibia Association has been written by Trond Andresen and Steinar Saetervadet (Fra dugnad til bistand, Elverum: Namibiaforeningen, 2000). the condemnation of the South African occupation was widely shared. At the same time, this did not get much attention in the Norwegian media. The point of departure was the church, and through the International League of Christian Socialists and the Lutheran World Federation, political activists within the church were well informed about the oppression Namibia was experiencing through the occupation: war, racism, poverty and exploitation. Two of these activists living in Elverum, Ellinor Hareide and Dag Hareide, knew the Namibian struggle well through their friendship with Namibian church leaders. They were engaged as catechists in the church, and wanted their confirmation courses not just to be theoretical, but also to teach about Christianity in practice. Having so often been used to legitimise apartheid and other injustice, religion was also a basis for one of the main forces in the anti-apartheid struggle, the churches. The candidates for confirmation were taught about the reasons behind the need for support. By learning about apartheid and imperialism, they were encouraged to see the relationships between people in Southern Africa and Norway: "we need this as much as they do". To avoid falling into the tradition of charity, they were taught about the struggle, led by SWAPO, the only organisation recognised by the OAU and by the UN General Assembly as the authentic representative of the Namibian people. They learnt that more than 80% of all Namibians belonged to churches that were engaged in the fight against the occupation. With SWAPO receiving support from the World Council of Churches, the confirmation course leaders saw SWAPO and the churches as providing readily accessible channels that would make sure that the support would reach the people it was meant for. The liberation struggle in Namibia was a "good cause" to which the church could contribute, and there was no doubt about its justification. It could also serve as a good example of how lives in Norway and Southern Africa were interconnected- and how a "good Christian" could show responsibility in practice. It could be used to illustrate imperialism-and in the case of Namibia it seemed to be possible to make a contribution that could actually make a difference. Besides, there was no other Norwegian NGO exclusively dedicated to the Namibian struggle. And why Elverum? In 1980, dean Gunnar StAlsett, central in the antiapartheid involvement of the Norwegian Church headed the local church in Elverum, and with him worked another prominent anti-apartheid clergyman, curate Finn Huseby.2 Being dedicated to the anti-apartheid struggle themselves, they supported the untraditional confirmation-courses and the campaigns. The Namibia Association could rely on the strong support of the church. 2 Regarding the role of the churches, see chapter 7. In addition to this, Elverum was a school centre with a folk high-school, a school of nursing and a teachers' training college, in addition to a number of primary schools and one large junior and one large senior secondary school. The schools have played a very important role for the Namibia Association. Being a centre for the forestry industry, the trade unions in Elverum have historically had a position that is atypical for Norwegian rural towns. The Labour Party had a stronghold there, and the Centre Party (with its agrarian roots) was more radical than in rural Norway in general. There was a potential for political mobilisation. Right from the start, the Namibia Association at Elverum received the support of the labour movement, both financially and through practical assistance. The typographers' union, for instance, in 1981 voluntarily printed 10,000 books and 40,000 passports for Namibian refugees. Norway's own experience of being under foreign rule for centuries, and especially the German occupation during the Second World War, provided a motivation to show solidarity with another small state deprived of its independence. This connection opened up for the inclusion of groups otherwise unfamiliar to the solidarity movements. Elverum was one of the towns in the southern part of Norway that was hardest hit during the wara great number of houses in the centre of town were destroyed after heavy bombing. Thirty-five years later, in 1980, this was still remembered, as were the more or less mythical stories of the resistance movement-which had a stronghold in the Elverum area. When Norway was invaded on 9 April 1940, the Norwegian Government and King left Oslo. At Elverum, King Haakon received an "offer" to co-operate with the German occupation power, which he declined before going into exile in England. When Sam Nujoma visited Elverum on the Norwegian National Day, 17 May 1983, he laid a wreath by a large monument in the centre of Elverum picturing the king saying "no". From confirmand training to a broad local community action campaign From its basis in the church, the concept of learning about Namibia by doing solidarity work was spread to other institutions. The catechists got in touch with school teachers at various schools in Elverum, and together the schools and the church became the main forces in initiating a "Namibia week". The objective of the campaign was not solely to provide support for the Namibian refugees, but also to promote solidarity in the local community, if not in all of Norway. This was sought through defying indifference by showing that a difference could be made, challenging charity through information about imperialism and the struggle against apartheid, and by using cultural exchange to oppose racism. It became a remarkable arrangement: in the last week of April 1980, 7,000 persons-almost half of the population of Elverum-devoted 20,000 working days to learning and teaching about Namibia and apartheid and to providing humanitarian assistance to the liberation struggle.

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