When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Namibia recently, on his way back from the G20 summit in Brazil, he was received warmly, and awarded the country’s highest civilian honour. Namibia was celebrating not so much Modi as India, the country that had steadfastly supported the South-West Africa People’s Organisation as it fought for freedom from Apartheid South Africa, and allowed the liberation army to open its representative office in New Delhi in 1986, four years before South-West Africa got freedom and became Namibia.Modi drew on the ministry of external affairs’ institutional memory, spoke of Swapo leader Sam Nujoma and India’s desire to partner Africa as it treads the path towards development. He, however, did not broach a subject that would have been of keen interest to Namibia and a host of other nations in Southern and Eastern Africa—filling the gap, in fact, deep gash, created by President Trump’s decision to defund the foreign aid agency USAID, in general and, in particular, PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, started by President Bush in 2003, PEPFAR has been quite successful in containing the AIDS epidemic in the region, by distributing anti-retroviral drugs and prophylactic means and advice in 15 countries of the region.
.png)
