Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
At the centenary commemoration of erstwhile Ovaherero Paramount Chief, Samuel Maharero’s entry into South Africa, Chief Riruako categorically expressed his reservations at Lephalela about the Von Trothas’ visit to Namibia.
He feared that the ancestors may not take too kindly to their visit to various historically sacred places of the Ovaherero/Ovambanderu and forewarned that the ancestors may send their wrath on the Von Trothas if they dare visit such sacred places without the necessary rituals.
This has been misunderstood and misconstrued by some. Albeit understandably because not everyone is familiar with the Ovaherero/Ovambanderu culture and language, like okusenga, wishing misfortune on someone. Likewise one can also senga, that is wishing misfortunes on someone by appealing to ancestral spirits to visit their wrath on him, her or them. To my understanding, the Chief feared such wrath might befall the Von Trothas. That is, of course, if he did not wish that the ancestors indeed unleash their wrath on the German visitors. “They must bring their bodyguards along, otherwise they may not leave these places alive,” the Chief cautioned off the cuff, diverting from his written speech.
Chief Riruako must have been referring to places like the Ozombu Zovindimba, where the bones of the victims of the German Imperial regime and its war forces led by their henchmen, Lothar von Trotha, are to this day scattered. With the brutal henchmen in hot pursuit of their fleeing enemies, the infirm, women, children were usually left behind to die and they never had any dignified burial. That is why their bones are found scattered, especially at Ozombu Zovindimba.
Certainly if their bones are still unburied and scattered in places the way they are and the graves of those fortunate to be buried are unmarked and trampled upon, they cannot be said to be resting in eternal peace. That being the case their spirits can equally not be said to be reconciliatory, of all people not against the Von Trothas.
In a nutshell this is my interpretation of what Chief Riruako meant. Anyone wishing otherwise then the problem is not Chief Riruako but those who would wish him to mean otherwise than cautioning the Von Trothas against the unpredictable mood of the ancestral spirits. What is ominous about this forewarning is that most people seem to have the same negative interpretation of Chief Riruako’s prayer, thus becoming the agent provocateurs instead.
I for one, like Chief Riruako, believe that the spirits of our ancestors are far from being at peace. However, unlike the Chief, I would want to wait and see if the visit of the Von Trothas and the said “apology” would in any way put their spirits at peace, let alone assuage their descendants.
Please, I challenge anyone to come to me after this visit and show me that the ancestors indeed did smile on the Von Trothas. That they would be ever smiling from now onwards.
Unlike the Chief, I am also deciphering some positive aspect in the coming of the Von Trothas. The issue of genocide seems taboo to the German Embassy to Windhoek. However, I can see with the coming of the Von Trothas someone from the embassy has at last opened her mouth. I hope the self-induced muteness has finally been broken.
It has been 103 years since that apparent apology offered by the German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul. This apology extended at Ohamakari in 2004 in the year of the centenary commemoration of the Extermination Order, is for all intents and purposes now obsolete.
Another omen is that the coming of the Von Trothas and what may have been said or not said seems now to be the issue deflecting from the real issue. Lest we forget the issue here is still the genocide of the Namibian people and the healing of their scars. They have been trying to heal these scars on their own while those responsible for them have been turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to their pleas for healing.
This is because the apparent apology by Wieczorek-Zeul has never been followed up by genuine, concrete and formal follow up action(s). By follow-up action(s) I have in mind a dialogue between the German Federal Government and the affected people.
All of a sudden, we hear voices out of the wilderness from the Embassy on the visit of the Von Trothas driven by an inert instinct to protect own blood in the face of presumed threats by the Chief. Like we have been maintaining all along in the reparation movement, our plight because we are black and Africans has fallen on deaf ears. Soon, a presumed threat against own blood is uttered and the Embassy is alert as ever. Thus if there is one thing making the coming of the Von Trothas to Namibia a blessing in disguise, at least the
Embassy seems to get out of its slumber although for an ulterior motive.
Incidentally or by design if not outright insensitivity to the day, the core group of the visiting Von Trothas arrived on Tuesday, the very same day when 103 years ago Lothar von Trotha announced that infamous Extermination Order. One wonders whether they were even aware of the historicity of the day of their arrival. If the statement on their arrival is anything to go by, certainly they were not. What an unpalatable historical coincidence!
Meanwhile, I see the business of the Von Trothas straight and simple. Take back the message home that the blood of the Namibian ancestors and their descendants are still crying for redemption. Period !
Meanwhile, please dear ancestors do not send your wrath on the Von Trothas.
Please allow them to take the message home to their government in Bonn. The message is dialogue now!