A few of us decided to go to the south for spring break. Caity, Colleen, Colleen's visiting boyfriend Shaun, Justine, Britta and I. We decided to stay in a hotel for the first couple days, then go to base camp for a 4 day canoe trip, and stay in a hotel on the way home to Windhoek.
The drive to Canon Lodge was absolutely beautiful- huge random red rocks all around the desert, wild springbok and impala, and huge blue sky with no clouds. After about an 8 hour drive we arrived at Canon Lodge- completely in the middle of nowhere. It was gorgeous- big pools and little condos all over. The condos were built around the desert rocks. Most of our walls were rock and there was a giant boulder in our room. Britta and my bed had a kind of rock border around it. We of course climbed all of the rocks inside and outside of the room and went to the pool with a view of the vast desert all around us.
There was an "honesty bar" next to the pool. It was a fridge filled with beer, pop, juice, cider beer, etc. that you can write your name down on a sheet of paper near the fridge and take what you claimed on your slip.
Then we went to dinner. When we entered we saw all white people. Every single patron was white and the owners/managers were white. Most of us were immediately shocked although we should have expected it. I'm used to being a minority and it feels strange being back in a Littleton-type crowd. Our driver, a Damara man, was clearly uncomfortable as well. He's used to being in the majority and this place was clearly full of older wealthy white people.
Then the manager came up to our table while we were eating. She had a question about Hakis's room because we originally did not have a driver so we rented him a room when we got there. We were all sitting together and the manager refused to look at Hakis and ask him questions. She referred to him as "the driver" and was incredibly rude to both us and him, but especially him. Then I noticed a large amount of staring from the others seated at dinner. I wanted to get the hell out.
Then it got worse. Towards the end of dinner all of the Nama waitstaff came out to sing for the customers. You could tell this was required of them. I looked around and saw that probably 20 old white men were snapping photos and videotaping them- they looked at the singers like they were a different species. Plus the songs were in Nama, which is a click language. The clicking really got the videotapers going. I have no problem with people wanting to perform and having it appreciated. But after seeing how the managers treat black people it was clearly a forced action. And the response from everyone else was just as racist. I was having what we call a "CGE moment"-- where everything we've been taught about the existing colonized/colonizer mindset and racism comes to realization...not fun.
We checked out the next day and I went to the front desk for the first time. Outside, I saw a table with a carving of an African man holding the table up. There was agony on his face and he was hunched over in order to "hold" the table. That was bad enough, but then I looked down and saw that attached to his ankle was a ball and chain. This was clearly not a part of the table- it was added on by someone. Disgusting.
Then I went into the cashier's room/gift shop. There was a book there about how the Germans were cast out of their "motherland"--Namibia. It was about the injustice of their losing power over the country which was so much their home. It ignored the massive genocides and basically took native Africans completely out as if they were not even there.
Ugh. I was glad to get out. As beautiful and relaxing as this place was in some ways, I wasn't excited about supporting them.
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