Revolution movement for reparations!
Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
When one hears and talks of and about the October Revolution, what ordinarily immediately comes to mind historically and ideologically is the culmination of popular sentiment directed against the provisional government, which was achieving little for the majority of people to change Russia from its Tsarist past.
Indeed events this October in Namibia, pertaining especially to the vexed question of Genocide, Apology and Reparations (GAR), a matter that has been dragging on, and deliberately dragged on by both the Namibian government and its German counterpart, at last looks destined for a beginning of what would go down in the history of Namibia. If not that of the Ovaherero and Ovambanderu and indeed their fellow descendants, the Nama, as the October Movement. With October witnessing the remembrance of the 2nd of October, the day on which, 121 years ago in 1904, the commander of Imperial Germany’s armed forces in the then Deutsche Südwes Afrika (German South West Africa), as Namibia was then known, issued the infamous extermination order against the Ovaherero.
Likewise, the beginning of October each year is dedicated by a section of the Ovaherero for the annual pilgrimage to Omaruru, when and where the White Flag, also known as Erapi rOtjizemba and/or White Flag, under the auspices of the Zeraeua Royal House, pays homage to their forebears. An event rooted in the history of these people, manifesting the heroism of the ancestors against Imperial Germany’s penetration and occupation of their land. In this vogue last week, on the day itself, the 2nd of October, last Thursday, a section of the Ovaherero under the stewardship of Paramount Chief Mutjinde Katjiua unleashed what can be seen as the beginning of an October Movement by the descendants of those who were nearly annihilated by Imperial Germany, as evidenced by the extermination order of the 2nd of October, 1904, against the Ovaherero.
When they marched through Independence Avenue up to the Alte Feste. Which was a colonial-era fortress headquarters of Imperial Germany’s colonial army, the Schutztruppe. Proceeding from there to the nearby Christuskirche, a German colonial church, which is to this day still immortalising officers of the Schutztruppe with their pictures hanging on its walls. Handing a petition to the head of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia, Frank Schuette. Followed by other petitions, notably to the Speaker of the National Assembly, who did not only ignore but showed utter disrespect to them by not turning up nor delegating anyone to receive the petition. Which reportedly was later picked up from where it was left by an unknown parliamentary operative. It must be made clear that the Speaker is not in the National Assembly on her own behalf and for her own sake. She is there as a messenger of the people and as a conduit and conveyor belt of the aspirations, wants, needs, desires and ambitions of the people. That must be vented and expressed by the representatives of the people in this House. The content of the petition is by no means intended for her but for the whole House, of which she is by no stretch of any imagination not a gatekeeper but a servant, especially of the people, among them the very originator of the said petition she seems to have deliberately chosen to receive. If not in person, at least delegate someone to receive it, not on her behalf but on the House’s, as it was and has never been intended for her personal attention. Needless to say, the National Assembly, being the place where the motion on genocide was adopted, is not and could not have been the best place for the petition. Which is doing no more than drawing the attention of the House to its responsibility to the question of Genocide, Apology and Reparations (GAR).The petitions were clear: how long is the hide-and-seek and pussyfooting by both the Namibian and German governments to continue?
Not as long as the descendants are determined, as manifested by the spirit of the Revolution that spilt over into last weekend in Omaruru at the annual White Flag pilgrimage as well as in the Otjinene Constituency at the Ozombuzovindimba for the annual remembrance of the issuance of the Extermination Order against the Ovaherero on the 2nd of October, 1904.
This Tuesday, the Windhoek High Court is starting to hear the application in which the German government is being asked to be a rejoinder in the case in which the descendants are challenging the Joint Declaration (JD). With the Namibian government apparently opposing the challenge. Needless to say, this is a case in which each and every descendant of genocide, of whatever size, hue and creed, has a direct and substantial interest. And must support and should support unconditionally in whatever way, materially, financially and morally. Because the revolution in the quest for genocide, apology and reparations has started properly. It shall never be stopped nor reversed.
