Eenhana - TOY-finalist 2018

Frank Steffen

Having previously been one of the centres up in the North of Namibia, where some of the fiercest military clashes took place before Namibia gained its independence, it seems hard to believe that people these days describe Eenhana as being tranquil. Both, the people as well as the town’s surroundings, which comprise of soft sand and lush green foliage, offer the weary traveller a pleasant place to rest in a unique environment.

Affectionately known by locals as the “green side” thanks to its surrounds, Eenhana is situated near the Angolan border and is strategically located along the B1 main road between the Kavango West region and the border-town of Oshikango. This new road allows visitors to transit northern Namibia from Ruacana across to Outapi, on to Eenhana and further to Okongo, Nkurenkuru, Rundu, and onwards to the Zambezi-Region (previously known as Caprivi). Apart from that fact, it obviously lies very close to the turn-off at Okatope, which leads south to the bigger centres of Ondangwa and Oshakati.

While Eenhana is surely a candidate for the title of small town of the year, it has over time grown tremendously - especially over the past five years - and is in the process of evolving into a town, which has all the right offerings, which allow it to also develop its tourism sector. The town has acquired quite a number of new accommodation options, mainly to serve the business community that requires these types of establishments as a result of the new business complexes and its impressive SME Park. But there can be no doubt that the immediate mainstream income opportunities continue to lie hidden in agriculture and the as yet largely untapped tourism potential.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Town Council, Valde Ndevashiya is convinced that anybody could get up in the middle of the night and stroll around town without running the risk of being attacked or robbed. “That just does not happen here”, is his simple remark. It is exactly this circumstance though, which goes a long way towards ensuring that tourism can become a viable contributor towards economic growth in this region.

Since the completion of the B1, visitors, who come from Kaokoland and wish to transit Ovamboland into Kavango and onwards to the Zambezi region and beyond to Botswana or the Victoria Falls, can drive on a decent road from Ruacana past Okatope, Eenhana, Okongo and Nkurenkuru instead of having to first deviate down to Tsumeb and Grootfontein as had to be done in the past.

In line with these tourism opportunities, Ndevashiya remarks: “Amongst many exciting projects we have in the pipeline, we are at the advanced stages of planning a proposed recreational water park, that would use Eenhana’s unique selling points to draw more tourists to the town. This is only one of the ideas whereby we are aiming to capture more of the tourist market, while also building on our unique attractions, some of which we look forward to showcasing at the upcoming Namibia Tourism Expo.”

The most commonly known attraction in the town is the Eenhana Shrine, which is located on the outskirts of the town and was erected in memory of the fallen during the war for liberation. Many tourists and history fundi come to visit this site.