Hertta-Maria Amutenja
Leaders from the Ovaherero and Nama communities have announced they will not attend the official Genocide Remembrance Day on Wednesday, 28 May.
They say the government failed to properly consult them and excluded them from the planning process.
The commemorative event follows the Cabinet’s proclamation last year, declaring 28 May as Genocide Remembrance Day.
The event will take place at Parliament Gardens in Windhoek.
In an open letter dated 25 May 2025, co-King Sir Welcome Kazondunge of the Tjipumbu Traditional Authority called on all Ovaherero and Nama traditional authorities to stay away from the national event.
“Genocide memorialisation should be about the Ovaherero and Nama victim communities. But here, according to the government programme that is on social media, only two out of 13 speakers, which is a 1.5% representation, hail from the Ovaherero and Nama genocide victims,” he wrote.
He said that even if the government amends the program, the damage has already been done.
“A depiction of insensitivity and tribalism in the highest order. A clear manifestation that, should reparations be paid in the current format, the government would do with those reparations as they wish,” Kazondunge stated.
He said the boycott will continue until three conditions are met: the day must reflect its proper historical context, all Ovaherero and Nama communities must be fully represented in talks with Germany, and ancestral land must be returned.
Damara King’s Council secretary general, Abner Xoagub, raised similar concerns. He said affected communities were not properly included in planning the event.
“We have been working with the government and partaking in the decision-making with the government delegation. So when the government declared 28 May as the day of remembrance, we understood that the day would be celebrated in remembrance of genocide and its people,” he said.
Xoagub said they only received an official invitation on Wednesday last week.
“We had a different proposal, but then we were told the event is going to be at Parliament Gardens and the program is going to be about 45 minutes. We told them the affected communities need their people to speak; even for other Namibians, they need to know what the day is about,” he said.
He said the Damara community will hold its commemoration at A. Shipena Secondary School on Tuesday.
The program will include lighting a sacred fire and performances to share stories about genocide.
On Wednesday morning, they will visit the Katutura cemetery.
Community member Sydney Gawaxab from Katutura said she only found out about the event through Facebook.
“It’s supposed to be a day for our people, but no one came to talk to us about how we want to remember our ancestors. I will go to the school event because that’s where I feel connected,” she said.
The ministry of information and communication technology’s executive director, Audrin Mathe, said the event will recognise the atrocities committed by Germany more than 100 years ago.
“The planning for this inaugural event has been ongoing for weeks, if not months,” he said last week. Mathe said the government has been in talks with traditional leaders of the affected communities and encouraged citizens to reflect on the significance of the day.
On Friday, the ministry announced that the event will take place without an official logo or theme.
The commemoration follows continued criticism from affected communities that they were left out of the genocide agreement between the Namibian government and Germany.
Germany officially acknowledged the genocide of the Nama and Ovaherero people in 2021. It pledged €1.1 billion (about N$22 billion) over 30 years to support development in affected areas.
Reports indicate that the Cabinet directed the joint proclamation to be signed by March 2025, but the signing has not yet happened.
During her State of the Nation Address last month, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said Germany had committed to providing more resources beyond the €1.1 billion in the ongoing talks.
During Africa Day over the weekend, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said Namibia remains in discussions with Germany in pursuit of reparatory justice for the genocide and stressed the need for national unity.
Genocide Remembrance Day is now a public holiday observed on 28 May. Traditionally, Ovaherero Genocide Remembrance Day has been held on 2 October.
