Namibian Time Mechanical or Cultural ?

Air Namibia Flamingo Magazine February 2011 Text by Tim OsborneIt 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.