Namibia is something of a rarity in Southern Africa. I mean ‘southern’ as defined in the dictionary, not as the word is understood by the fellows at SADC House, in Gaborone, Botswana, to whom distant islands such as Seychelles and the Comoros are located in Southern Africa.

The country was the only one in our neck of the woods to be picked by the Germans at the 1884 Berlin conference, where European powers partitioned Africa among themselves. Of course, this would be disputed by the Southern African Development Community crowd, as the Germans were also the overlords in what is now Tanzania, a founding member of the bloc, before they were replaced by the British after the so-called Central Powers lost the First World War in 1918.

The defeat of the Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire – by the Allied Powers alliance of Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan and the US also marked the end of German rule in Namibia, known as South West Africa at the time, with the replacement being South Africa. So, loosely speaking, Namibia is the only Southern African country to have been colonised by a fellow African country.

Now Namibia is poised to notch up another regional distinction – the next occupant of State House in Windhoek, the capital city, will likely be a Madame President. Again, the SADC crowd will scream inaccuracy, pointing to Joyce Banda, who was at the helm of Malawi from April 2012 to May 2014. But who else regards Malawi as a Southern African country? Isn’t it that even the British at some point cobbled together something called the Central African Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland? For the uninitiated, Nyasaland was the colonial name of Malawi, and the Rhodesia component of the federation, which endured from 1953 to 1963, comprised two countries: Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia, which are present-day Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Back to Namibia’s Madame President-in-Waiting. Her name is Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and she currently serves as the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Number Two in the ruling party, the South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo). With current party leader and State President Hage Geingob ineligible to contest in elections due next year, having been in office for the maximum two five-year terms, Nandi-Ndaitwah was unveiled earlier this month as Swapo’s Presidential candidate in the 2024 elections.

Nandi-Ndaitwah’s ascent to the top job hinges on Swapo winning next year’s elections. The party, which waged a decades-long bush war against apartheid South African rule, has been in power since independence in 1990. However, its support has been waning in recent times. It lost its two-thirds majority in the last general elections, held in 2019. It also lost control of major municipalities, including Windhoek, as well as the port towns of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund and several regional councils.

While there is widespread disgruntlement against Swapo, especially among young voters, Namibia watchers appear to be in agreement that the party’s electoral support will not dip below 50% in 2024. This strengthens the prospect for a Madame President Nandi-Ndaitwah.

A Nandi-Ndaitwah win would boost the push for equity between men and women in African government leadership. To date, there have been only three executive heads of State on the continent – Banda, Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who governed from 2006 to 2018, and Samia Suluhu Hassan, the current Tanzanian President.

There have been figurehead appointments as well. But we need more women to wield real power for there to be equity.