What’s in a name?

The ‘Wag Biekkie Bar’ west of Ondangwa in northern Namibia entices customers to pause whatever they are doing and ‘Wait a bit’.

‘Wag ‘n bietjie’ is a popular Afrikaans name and has been used as the name of a band, settlement and song; café, campsite and farm. It is also a name given to the swarthaak (blackthorn) tree – which hooks you with its thorns if you are not careful – and buffalo thorn (blinkbaar wag-‘n-bietjie), which hooks and scratches (‘haak en steek’) you in double measure with its combination of hooked and straight thorns.

Things are much more relaxed and friendly at the Wag Biekkie Bar, one of the many colourful and creatively-named shebeens of the North.