Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
Whose Heroes’/Heroines’ Day? This is by no means a rhetorical question but a pertinent one after 35 years of the observation of this day. That is supposed to be not only historic but also sacrosanct, and this year it was just observed, or should one say some observed it, this Tuesday in Katima Mulilo in the Zambezi Region.
Yours Truly Ideologically could not but observe the pre-coverage of the Day in the media a few days leading up to the official observance with keen interest but also trepidation later replaced by consternation. Especially the articles and broadcasts, as well as officially created and sanctioned advertisements. Which was uniform in painting this day more as an Omugulugwombashe Day instead of Heroes/Heroines Day, which many if not most or all should in one way or another identify with.
Long before Omugulugwombashe came to be, 26 August had been observed for over a hundred years – actually 102 years this year, been observed.
Not for cultural and/or carnival posterity but for the same reason that Omugulugwombashe, 59 years later, came to be, and 35 years later, it came to be Heroes/Heroines Day. Which is all about recognising all those who, in their own special and humble but by no means insignificant way, contributed to resistance. First was the imperial occupation by Germany of what was then German South West Africa, as Namibia was first known, during Imperial Germany’s colonial times. Subsequently also the resistance against Apartheid South Africa’s continued occupation and de facto annexation of the territory. Ignoring the United Nations trusteeship over the territory that she was entrusted with.
From 1923, the Ovaherero, following the repatriation of the remains of their erstwhile leader, Samuel Maharero, from Botswana, where he died the same year, have been observing 26 August. Being the day on which his mortal remains were re-interned in Okahandja. When their traditional leader at the time, Hosea Katjikukururume Komombumbi Kutako, divined for the observance of the Day every year onwards. As a means of once again galvanising and mobilising his people, who survived the genocidal onslaught against them as per the 1904 Extermination Order against them by General Lothar von Trotha. Then the butcher of the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu and Nama of Imperial Germany’s armed colonising forces in the territory. Note the term BUTCHER!!!
The reason why Samuel Maharero’s remains had to be repatriated from Botswana was that during Imperial Germany’s genocidal butchering escapades, Samuel Maharero, Katjiikumbua as he was heroically known, led some of his people out of the country to escape their intended genocide.
With independence, rightly or wrongly, the day initiated by Kutako and his people was submerged into Heroes/Heroines Day. This initiative could not have been more noble than it sounded. Surely done to establish one day during which the New Nation would pay tribute to all its heroes and heroines. If not jointly physically, then in memory at the very least.This was not all. Symbolically heroes and heroines of yesteryears, even from the resistance epoch, like Kutako, have been re-interred at the national shrine outside Windhoek. To in eternity immortalise their indomitable spirits, as well as unite them in death the way they were united in resistance action, and make them ONE BIG FAMILY of the torchbearers of the first phase of the Namibian Revolution.
But only, not long after this noble initiative, for the flagrant erosion of August 26 proper. A deliberate and malicious obliteration from the annals of history of the heroic deeds of Samuel Maharero and fellows. And the history of the resistance struggle of Namibia, and the near annihilation of Ovaherero and Ovambanderu by Imperial Germany. A special and by no means an insignificant historic epoch in the Namibian resistance and liberation struggle narratives.
As per the law of diminishing returns, as economists would have it, 26 August, in its broader and all-embracing context, has been diminishing. Not by accident but by design. Increasingly delinked to broader Namibian resistance and liberation struggle. Be it by the mainstream media, especially the public media, with few exceptions, and by officialdom. Because even lately the ministers who have been mobilising and/or educating the public about the day to gear it up for the commemoration and/or observance in the Zambezi Region sublimely or deliberately painted the day in its narrow-armed liberation context. As opposed to its broader and holistic essence encompassing and embracing all the historic epochs. Going back to the national resistance by the forefathers and mothers who eventually came to bequeath and pass on the baton to the latter-day freedom fighters. Beginning with the likes of Jaritetundu Kozonguizi, Gerson Veii, Kephas Konradie , Nora Schimming, Kenneth and Ottily barhams, Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, and Sam Nujoma.
Linking Heroes/Heroines Day to one historic epoch may not necessarily diminish its essence. But more than anything it is giving but one narrative of the historicity of the Day. Likewise, elevating some heroes/heroines at the expense of others. Making the blood watering the Namibian freedom start and end with a singular historic epoch. While it entails a continuum of epochs going back as far as the 1840s to the 1860s, which is the period of the arrival of missionaries and other European settlers. That unleashed the beginning of resistance against colonialism and imperialism and, if you wish, capitalism ultimately.
Hence the distinctive and separate epochs and narratives which are very much also an integral part of the Namibian resistance and liberation narratives, and thus cannot be delinked from the whole and merely depicted as exclusive to any singular group and/or movement.
Assuming and embracing this narrow narrative is indeed not only a gross twisting of the resistance and liberation history of the country but likewise a mockery of Heroes’/Heroines’ Day. It is not only disheartening that 35 years after the attempted and intended nationalisation of the Day so that all and sundry feel part of it one way or another.
But what has been transpiring, and by design, is its erosion and its denigration. Most disappointing and sad is that the highest office in and of the land has been and is part of the chicaneries and shenanigans of the cannibalisation of the country’s resistance and liberation history and narratives. Hegemonic to serve the hegemonic class or cast.
Heroes/Heroines Day is what it is. And it is supposed to be a national day. Where all must feel to be part of and must in one way or another resonate with them. Thus, narratives regarding the Day must not be one-sided but as much as possible resonate and reverberate with the majority, if not most, Namibians. Neither should the keynote address be about self-glorification but about inspiration. Which the address of Her Excellency on Heroes/Heroines Day cannot stand some of these tests, if any at all.
