As descendants of the survivors of the Ovaherero and Ovambanderu, we are today commemorating the Genocide Remembrance Day (GRD) for the fourth consecutive year to show our unwavering resolves not to betray the ultimate sacrifices of our ancestors, who paid the highest price, their lives, to resist colonialism.

Therefore, 2026 with the format of the GRD adopted by the government, should, in a meaningful and consequential tone, mark it as the commencement of the real ‘business unusual’ regarding the cause of genocide, apology and reparations. 

This declaration shall and must for years to come not only guide and inspire us, but also shall be our shield until we obtain true and genuine reparation. 

Business unusual must be duly noted and underlined. Both the government and descendants have been talking about genocide and reparations for long, but only in words without consequent action. 

More importantly, there has and remains a huge gap between the two parties. 

It is time that our government take a moment and reflect on these gaps in approach, and engage us, the descendants, differently now and onwards in a business unusual for real.  This is the only way we can move together to heal the wounds of genocide atrocities emanating from the extermination order issued by General Lotha von Trotta against the Ovaherero and Nama communities of Namibia.

On 2 March this year, the Okandjoze Chiefs’ Assembly on Genocide (OCAG) met President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, to share with her where we stand regarding the noble cause of genocide, apology and reparations. 

We also presented proposed solutions on how we could, together, move the debate on this sacred matter to a broader national platform.

OCAG also used the same platform to share our views on the joint declaration (JD), which came as a result of the negotiations between our Namibian government and its German counterpart. 

Our government appears to have adopted the JD as the only blueprint in our quest for true, fair and honest restorative justice. 

OCAG and many other descendants of the victims, including some Members of Parliament, do not fully align to that view of our government.  That is why, at the same meeting with the President, we reiterated our total, unequivocal and unconditional rejection of the JD.

Now that we have dealt with the elephant in the room, the JD, let us turn to this day and locate its significance as part of the broad process of reparations. 

Researchers say that genocide and memory are inseparably linked, functioning as both tools for political manipulation and vital pillars of truth, trauma and identity. Survivors, perpetrators and societies construct collective memory through memorials, trials and historic narratives, transforming traumatic loss into an enduring social inheritance.

So, today, we have an opportunity to hear historical narratives from the descendants of the survivors, importantly, for us to start the process of creating that enduring social inheritance. 

It is important to note here, though, that this cannot be achieved with this one event.

 It must become a deliberate and structured process supported clearly to create a collective national consensus.

Between 1904 and 1908, the German colonial administration established concentration camps in present day Namibia during the Ovaherero and Nama genocide, where thousands of victim communities, men, women and children were subjected to forced labour, starvation, disease, torture and inhumane conditions that led to mass deaths.

Following the extermination order and military campaigns that drove communities from their ancestral lands, survivors were stripped of their livestock, dispossessed of their land and property and reduced to a system of racial oppression and servitude that devastated their social and economic foundations.

The closure of the concentration camps on 28 May 1908 is, therefore, commemorated as Genocide Remembrance Day, honouring the victims and marking the end of the

planned genocide for both the Ovaherero and Nama. However, further impact of displacement and dispossession on these communities continued for many decades thereafter.

The Cabinet Resolution, which enacted 28 May as the Genocide Remembrance Day, also calls for the review of our school curriculum to include the teaching of this genocide. 

It also called for the erection of memorials to mark the sites where these horrific crimes were perpetrated. 

The OCAG is very happy today to share with you that we have already structured ourselves to engage the relevant offices and ministries to make these

two aspects of memorialisation a reality. 

We look forward to the speedy implementation of these aspects of that resolution but, with full participation of the

descendants of the victims to do justice to the exercise.

Acknowledging and memorialising the lives lost helps reclaim the humanity of the victims. 

Restorative justice often extends beyond monuments into memory justice, which includes the repatriation of human remains. 

This is highly relevant to our cause in Namibia, where our ancestors were beheaded and their skulls shipped to

Germany for experimental purposes. 

Our government and policy-makers must, therefore, become very sensitive to things like the repatriation of human remains, which they now want to treat like objects. 

These remains must be returned in a dignified manner with the requisite participation of descendants, and also received as such by those closely associated with them. The psychological scars of genocide reverberate long after the violence ceases. 

Individuals affected by mass trauma as well as subsequent generations born long after the events wrestle with memories that define their societal contexts and personal identities. 

This is true for the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu and Nama communities in Namibia today. 

One is not sure if this reality is evident to or appreciated by our fellow Namibians. 

That is why to us, at OCAG, this day cannot be viewed in isolation from the broader restorative justice objectives and programmes, hence our reference earlier to the JD.

In March this year, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution pertaining to the transatlantic slavery trade, tabled by the Ghanaian president John Mahama. 

This is a matter close to us as descendants of genocide, and thus of utmost interest. 

Indeed, this offers us a window of opportunity to further ventilate and articulate our reparations cause.

We have noted with pleasure that our President added her voice to the groundswell voices of African people all over, including in the diaspora, to this nascent movement.

The OCAG cannot but hope that the government has learnt and is learning a lot from engagement with the descendants so that future commemorations are worth the memory and honour of those to whom the Genocide Remembrance Day is dedicated. 

It is of equal importance that we should not lose sight of the fact that Remembrance Day should always carry a strong message regarding the unfinished business of true and honest restorative justice.

May the spirit of our ancestors continue to inspire and guide the reparation movement!

*Okandjoze Chiefs include Chief Hoze Riruako, Paramount Chief Aletha Nguvauva, Chief Turimuro Hoveka, Chief Manase Zaraeua, Chief Tjinaani Maharero, Chief Sam Kambazembi, Chief Rikurura Kukuri and Chief Mbura Mureti.