A Namibian Canvass

Taking place during pre-, mid- and post- the first Namibian democratic elections, this title tales an intimate peek into the author's personal journal. However, the privilege of hindsight and the passage of time between the actual writing of her journal and the present has allowed the author a process of distillation, which has imparted a perceptive beauty and human-ness of insight to the title. From her base at a farm-school just outside the limits of Windhoek, she travelled throughout the Country, surviving a nail-biting foray into war-torn Angola, joining in the revelry of election celebrations, introduction to Tarantulas, the death of a friend, a nearly disastrous bush fire, and more. She describes her encounters with the indigenous peoples; the Bushmen, Damara, Herero, Nama, Basters and the Himba, listed as one of the most primitive tribes on Earth, as well as the global fruit salad of imported local residents and UN soldiers.