Air Namibia Flamingo Magazine February 2011 Text by Tim Osborne
It doesn’t take visitors to Africa long to realise that the continent
runs on a different sense of time. Rather than actual time as related
to GMT, this is cultural time. When the first European settlers
arrived, they were used to running time according to a mechanism
called a clock, but Africans relied on the sun to dictate time and
managed very well without specific terms such as hours, minutes
and seconds
Text Tim Osbourne
To accommodate the differences, the use of the
word ‘now’ was modified in Namibian English.
Whereas in Europe ‘now’ means immediately,
here in Namibia it means sometime soon. When
a person wants something done immediately, it becomes
‘now now’. Mechanics often ask their assistants
to bring a tool ‘now now’. And when you want it fairly
soon, it’s ‘just now’. You hear this in a shop when the
salesperson is busy with another customer, and says
to you, “I’ll be with you ‘just now’.” However, if the
need is less soon, it is merely ‘now’. So when in Namibia,
remember to use the correct form of ‘now’, and
that if you say you want your meal ‘now’, the chances
are it will take a while.
Another phrase that might confuse you is ‘I’m coming’.
This is often said by a salesperson, waiter or individual
whom you have just hailed to ask a question or
request help. Their pronouncement as they walk off
is, “I’m coming.” This is actually a contraction of the
sentence. “I have to do something else ‘now now’ but
I’ll return ‘just now’ to help you ‘now’.”
As for mechanical time, after independence it was
announced that during the winter months, clocks
in Namibia would be moved an hour forward. This
takes place on the first Sunday in April and clocks are
turned an hour back on the first Sunday in September.
Back in the nineties when Sam Nujoma and Nelson
Mandela were presidents, the time was known affectionately
as ‘Sam time’ or ‘Nelson time’. The reason for
the change was that Namibia was further west from
the rest of the Southern African time zone, and that
during winter, schoolchildren had to walk to school in
the dark, which was not necessarily safe.
Namibian businesspeople dealing with businesses
in South Africa don’t like the change at all, because
they lose four hours of business communication each
day. When they go to work at 08:00, South Africans
have already been at work for an hour. In South Africa
the lunch break is at 12:00 Namibian time, and when
the South Africans come back from lunch, Namibians
are on their 13:00–14:00 lunch break. At the end of
the day, should something important arise in Namibia
after 16:00, South Africans have already knocked off.
When travelling in the Caprivi Region, you’ll find
that there is no wintertime once you’ve crossed the
Okavango River bridge. Because it is so far east, the
sun sets at 16:00, to which the local people object.
Once in a while you hear rumblings
about doing away with wintertime. This
could be accomplished without affecting
student safety by having the
schools start 30 minutes later in the
winter. I like to have an extra hour
of sun after work, so doing away with
wintertime would suit me fine.