Author: Gerson Uaripi Tjihenuna (Gerson Uaripi Tjihenuna )

This open letter is a follow-up to the one that was published last week (New Era, 12 April 2023). In this second open letter, I want to focus on the milestones that can bring us together.

I enjoy reading Prof. Makala Lilemba’s musings in New Era. His thoughts are always deep and original. His reflections on the Eastern concept of philosophy (New Era, 31 March 2023) were very instructive. 

On 4 March 2023, I was part of a group of about 200 mourners who laid Preskilla Dantago Ngairo to rest at Okahandja. I also had the honour to preach at the funeral.

The phrase “the bull in a china shop” refers to a giant of a man who is, seemingly, slow but who can cause a lot of damage, just like a bull in a china shop. That was how Jaturua Katjitundu was; but much about that later.

The African-American Civil Rights activist, WEB Du Bois, once remarked: “I believe in pride of race and lineage and self so deep as to scorn injustice to other selves.”  

When we buried a dear brother and fellow Pan Afrikanist, Bankie Foster Bankie, on 1 August 2017, a certain Glenory Whatson from the UK said something that has stuck with me forever, namely: “I don’t remember a day in my life when I was not a Pan Akrikanist.” I can as well say, I do not remember a day in my life when I was not a supporter of Brazil’s national soccer team, aka the Samba Boys.

This is part two of the debate with my dear friend Kae, and it is assumed that the reader will have read part one and is thus able to connect the dots.

My former schoolmate at my beloved alma mater, the Augustineum High School, Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro penned a very rich opinion piece in the Windhoek Observer of 13 October 2022. 

Reverend Jan Scholtz published a “mouth-watering” and highly-reflective musing in the 2 September 2022 edition of the New Era newspaper under the above heading. His piece reminds me of our youth activism in the seventies and eighties when we used to call imperialism by name.