Namibia: The Language We Learned to Dream In – Opinion

Picture two children sitting the same national examination on the same morning. One is in a classroom in Windhoek. She has grown up hearing English on television, in the shopping centre, at the dinner tables of friends.

When she reads the question, the words arrive already familiar, and her answer flows from thought to page in one motion.

The other is at Okongo. He walks to school past homesteads where nobody speaks English because nobody needs to.

He reads the same question and he…