Kae MaÞunÿu-Tjiparuro
“On one occasion I saw about 25 prisoners placed in a small enclosure of thorn bushes. They were confined in a very small space, and the soldiers cut dry branches and piled dry logs all around them men, women and children and little girls were there when dry branches had been thickly piled up all around them; the soldiers threw branches also on top of them. The prisoners were all alive and unwounded but half starved. Having piled up the branches, lamp oil was sprinkled on the heap and it was set on fire. The prisoners were burnt to a cinder.” Witness account by Hendrik Fraser, a Baster who accompanied German troops from Hauptmann Kuhne to Waterberg. (Source: An Annotated Report of the 1918 Blue Book)
Monday, January 12, marked exactly 111 years since Ovaherero Paramount Chief Samuel Maharero declared an outright resistance against the continued occupation of the mother- and fatherland in Okahandja, hence the historicity of Okahandja to the Ovaherero. On this day 111 years ago close to 150 of colonial Germany’s servicemen succumbed in the battle that ensued against the Ovaherero warriors. The beginning of the war of resistance followed a day after a German ploy to kill Samuel Maharero who was invited to Windhoek to the house of the German Governor. However, an indigene working in the Governor’s home tipped Samuel Maharero off that he was targeted for killing. He escaped the very same night on his horse and the following day he declared war against colonial Germany’s occupation.
Not only did the Chief take a stand against such an occupation but also declared that no longer shall his people continue to endear the interminable oppression, dehumanisation and degradation they were subjected to in their native land and the attendant alienation of their property, foremost their land and their alienation from it through dubious and devious protection peace treaties and the plunder of their cattle. These outbreaks in Okahandja eventually culminated in many battles fought all over Namibia in 1904, and the infamous Extermination Order of October 2, 1904, which proved the final onslaught against the Namibian peoples’ resistance against the capture and occupation of their land. This was preceded by the German onslaught on the Bondelswarts in 1903.
Thus, besides the launch of the resistance, the year 2015 marks many epochs of the Namibian peoples’ resistance. The various battles fought by our forefathers, severally and separately and at times jointly in their different kingdoms, which equally mark 111 years since the historic resistance of our ancestors. These are battles which laid the foundation for the latter day liberation struggle. All these battles, most of which took place between the years 1903 and 1912 and are thus this year 111 years, or and more preceded in early years by many battles by the indigenes like the Battle of Hoornkrans in April 1893 when Curt von Francois marched on the Witboois with the intention to destroy them.
Later in 1896 there was a joint Ovambanderu and Gei-/Khauan resistance. This was to be accentuated on June 11, 1896 by the summary execution on trumped-up charges against Ovambanderu Paramount Chief, Kahimemua Nguvauva and Nicodemus Kavikunua.
But following the declaration of war on January 12, 1904 by Samuel Maharero against colonial Germany’s occupation and intransigence, a series of battles ensued severally driven by different Namibian communities, especially the Ovaherero and Ovambanderu like at Ovikokorero (March 1904), Okandjira (April 1904), Oviombo (April 1904), Otjunda (May 1896), Ohamakari (August 1904).
The historical battle of Sam Khubis took place on May 8 1915, when the German colonial army attacked the Baster community who had fled to their last stronghold of Sam Khubis. The fear of total annihilation by a better-equipped German army created a strong sense of common destiny. The battle turned into a miraculous survival, which is celebrated every year to remind the Baster people of the threats faced. This year is also the fourth anniversary since the first return in October 2011 of the skulls of Namibian war victims from Germany. But since the return of these skulls, which has come to be punctuated by another return last year, it has been ominously quiet as far as the broader question of reparations is concerned. The only semblance that things may not have been all that quiet in this regard is the Namibian German Special Initiative purported to have been designed for communities whose forebears were affected by German colonialism. But even this initiative has failed to impress some of the communities, if not the communities whose forebears were grossly affected by Imperial Germany’s atrocities in colonial Namibia, and today the main proponents of reparations, the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu and Namas.
Since assuming leadership of the Ovaherero as Paramount Chief, Advocate Vekuii Rukoro has given none other than the German Ambassador in Namibia, His Excellency Onno Hückman, until October to attend to, or in the least convey to his superiors in Berlin, the unfinished business between successor governments to Imperial Germany, and an independent Namibia, especially the affected Namibian communities.
Similarly October 2 is the day when Imperial Germany’s chief henchmen in the then Deutsche Südwes-Afrika, General Lothar von Trotha, issued the infamous order for the extermination of the Ovaherero. This October, the extermination order turns 111 years. By then Rukoro would like to have seen Germany having come to some seriousness in terms of dialoguing with the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu and Nama on the vexed question of Germany’s historical and moral responsibility towards the affected Namibian communities. This is a message that the Ovaherero Paramount Chief has conveyed in no uncertain and unambiguous terms to Ambassador Hückmann. Not as his own but for transmission to his superiors of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany.
And as the affected communities this week mark 111 years of active and uncompromising resistance to the occupation of their land, the German Ambassador is kindly reminded of the October D-Day. And one cannot but wish he has by now sent the message home. Not only this but one cannot but believe that the Paramount Chief and his people, as indeed all affected communities, are awaiting the return message with all alacrity. And they do not expect any other feedback other than a positive one.