Reluctant returnees: Caprivians face the long way home

This week, a group of 12 Caprivi elders, representing those who directly witnessed the violent Caprivi Strip separatist conflict of 1998-1999, stood at the doors of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) headquarters for the umpteenth time and once again left without recourse.

SADC, bubbling with resurgent democracies, the region-wide mantra of “open for business” and young leaders, is uncomfortably confronting the long-running disputes that pre-occupied heads of State in the post-colonial period. The Caprivians and their grievances is, unfortunately, a vestige from that period, when civil unrest erupted in several SADC states, following the fall of colonialism.