Celebrities in Namibia

There’s a question...remark that gets thrown around a lot in Namibia and that remark is, do we have celebrities in Namibia?” I’m terming it a remark because declaring it a question will legitimize it. Why are we...as Namibians so aspres at times hoeka? “Do we have celebrities in Namibia?” Seriously? How is that even a question?

Maybe we should start with the basics. What is a celebrity? The people with brainpower the size of the Independence Stadium defines a celebrity as someone (or something) who is famous, especially in entertainment or sport. Basically the state of being well known. We’ll take it one step further and define famous for you as well amae. Famous can be defined as something or someone that is known by many people.

If you are guilty of ever posting that remark... either on social or in normal day-to-day conversations, kindly allow me to contextualise a few things for you. Posting that remark insinuates that in this whole Namibia...we do not have people that are well known. Posting that remark means that Namibians that are indeed well known are not worthy of your recognition. Posting that remark exposes how hungry you are for clout. Posting that remark exposes how dense and ignorant you are.

I hate ignorance. Especially ignorance as a result of chasing clout points. It’s annoying, am I surprised? Nah. That remark is a sad reality of how Namibians prefer anything but Namibian. We have no pride as a people. We piss on our identity. As a result...we have people who end up posting such remarks.

We are so bitter as a people and it’s frightening. We downright refuse to highlight our own. An ordinary Kamati...who hides behind his salary, does the bare minimum wants to make it seem that the person who dares to grab the world by its horns, who works tirelessly to get to the deserved celebrity status, should not be acknowledged as such...because well, surely we cannot be having celebrities in Namibia.

Stop it. Just...stop it, it’s not funny. You are not scoring any points of any kind except for desperation for attention, which at best will last for five minutes. To bluntly address that remark... we have celebrities in Namibia. People whose names are synonymous with hard work, intellect, courage mixed with childlike enthusiasm. Let’s stop with this remark and start embracing our own.