WINDHOEK – Nama, Ovambanderu and Ovaherero traditional leaders who were not invited to travel to Germany to receive the second consignment of returned skulls have urged their followers to snub the arrival of the 35 skulls and two skeletons and the subsequent ceremonies that are to follow tomorrow.
Last year a delegation of 65 people comprising of Nama, Ovambanderu and Ovaherero went to Germany at a cost of N$1.7 million but this time the delegation was reduced to 10.
In a strong-worded statement read by Utjiua Muinyangue, the leaders questioned why they should be invited to “decorate” the local event when they were excluded in the planning to fetch the human remains of Namibians slain in the genocide.
“The remains of our people have been spoiled by our own government and we cannot advise otherwise than to tell all our followers not to participate in ceremonies that do not respect our deceased, let alone ourselves as traditional leaders who should have an ex-officio right to be part of such remains,” they lashed out.
They claimed the sentiments expressed were a united expression of their displeasure and anger at the “disrespectful manner” in which they were treated by the Namibian government.
They further expressed their dismay with the government, saying that the latter has taken the route of working in the interest of the German government against the interest of those who were massacred by their thousands through the German extermination orders.
“The whole issue of genocide and reparation is about our own people who were brutalised; it is about us, the direct descendants of these people and it can therefore not be about us and not be with us,” the statement read.
The group said “we might end up committing historical genocide if we refuse to acknowledge the fact that genocide was committed only to the Ovaherero, Nama and Ovambanderu people and not the Namibian people as a whole as argued by our government”.
The statement added: “We cannot see how everybody or the Namibian people as a whole could have been victims of genocide unless one does not know what genocide is and especially as defined in international conventions.” German colonial soldiers did not wage war against other tribes in some parts of Namibia in 1904-1908, the group said.
The leaders said that it was a pity that Cabinet could not see the trick the German government was playing by relegating the repatriation of the skulls to an issue between the Charite Hospital and the Namibian National Heritage Council in order to distance itself from the return of the human remains.
“But we see it and we say that our position that the imperial colonial German government committed genocide against our people is not premised on the skulls because even if there were no skulls at all, other atrocities are in abundance for us to make a case,” said Muinyangue in the statement.
She said that the German government was embarrassed by the previously huge delegation, which nobody in the rest of the world, including Germany, could fail to see, giving rise to questions about the presence of such a delegation.
Meanwhile, the Ovaherero/Ovambanderu Council for the Dialogue on the 1904 Genocide (OCD-1904) appealed to their followers to join them in receiving the 35 skulls and two skeletons despite the controversy.
The OCD-1904 said that after consultation with its people, they broadly decided to accept the offer of participating in the ceremony after an invitation by Deputy Prime Minister Marco Hausiku “in the spirit of national unity and reconciliation and out of respect for our fallen heroes/heroines whose skulls and skeletons are due to touch the soil of the land of their birth.”
“ As responsible leaders, we thought it wise and proper to welcome and pay our last respects to the first fallen heroes and heroines of the very first struggle against the colonisation of our beautiful country Namibia – the land of the brave,” said the genocide group.
They added that the fact that government failed to involve them to collect the remains and perform the necessary rituals befitting them is not reason enough to snub “what is rightfully ours”.
“The unfortunate mistake from our government’s side not to inform us timeously should as well not prevent us from performing the limited rituals upon the arrival of our forefathers/mothers,” read their statement.
By Magreth Nunuhe