Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
IS this a dream, I am sure many of us must have been thinking, imagining and hoping against the best of hopes . A dream from which one shall soon awaken to see among us the commanding figure of Chief Kuaima Riruako.
In the commotion of the times in the scramble, pushing and shuffling to give this giant befitting vigils, memorial services and subsequently burial, there has also been little time for the reality to sunk in. Especially given it is now exactly 26 days, only five days short of a whole month, since the sad and shocking departure of the Paramount Chief.
Then when he was all of sudden hospitalised, the thought that this might be the beginning of the end of his journey on this earth was hardly entertainable, let alone tenable.
For in the eyes of many an Omuherero, he seemed bigger than death. Or perhaps the mere thought of life, let alone the Ovaherero without this towering quintessential African and Omuherero, was just unimaginable.
But slowly the reality seems to be setting in. Today and the day after tomorrow, Sunday, in all reality Namibia shall be committing to Mother Earth, and to eternity, this giant that many of us thought was an immortal.
And many of us cannot help but slowly being walloped by this frightening sense of being orphaned as orphaned as many us many may have been already, and for many years. While many have been so orphaned, having lost their parents years ago, here has come a man who have been more than a simply a leader of an ethnic community. Indeed to many the Paramount Chief has come to not only resemble a leader, but a leader in reality and in deed.
But more than that he had come to fill the parental void many orphaned may have been filling. And that is why there has, since committal to hospital, there have been this ominous fear of him bidding us farewell, never to return, thereby leaving many an orphaned who have found solace in his parental self, once again orphaned.Yes, one cannot but admit indeed the Ovaherero, and of course to a degree, Ovambanderu, and certainly also the whole of Namibia as recently evidenced by the sheer number of mourners who lined up the streets of cities and towns, even the roads connecting regions, to pay homage to him while on his last rite to his roots at Otjongombe in the Aminuis Constituency.
What Namibia has so far witnessed, surely testifies to the fact indeed the Late Paramount Chief was Paramountcy in its essence and being. Interestingly, he has become everyone’s Paramount Chief, even quietly so to some their ever continuing intransigence notwithstanding. But the hour is here, and it is only a matter of hours before Sunday, when he will be committed to eternity in Okahandja, the shrine of his ancestors, nearer to none than erstwhile Ovaherero Paramount Chief, Hosea Kutako. Nearer to none than many an Ovaherero and Ovambanderu leaders. And indeed nearer to none than erstwhile Nama leader, Kakuuoko Kuamumuku Wouye.
There together they shall be joining forces. Because there’s no way that they can and must be said to be gone but they have retreated, and together they shall now continue to be spiriting the last struggle.
This struggle obviously includes getting the German government to account and atone for the commissions, omissions and excesses of its predecessor colonial governments, which visited untold miseries, including mass killings of the forebearers of the Late Paramount Chief.
The Late Chief became the heir apparent of the struggles of his ancestors for justice, an epitome of the movement towards REPARATION.
He may have finished his journey and campaign in this regard but this in no sense means the end of the campaign. Simply the undying spirits of the ancestors are multiplying and reinforcing to counter any thought of the end of the road as far as the campaign for justice is concerned.
Unlike many a detractor, especially Germany would be hoping that this is thje end of the road for REPARATION, a fresh spirit, that of the Late Paramount Chief Riruako, has just been added to the unvanquished spirits of the likes of Maharero, Kahimemua, Witbooi, Marenga.
And the target is unmistakable, Germany and all her retrogressive, intransigent and arrogant malfeasants that she represents in this era and age. Unknown to Germany, the Late Paramount may have represented a moderating force in the groundswell movement for REPARATION who offered a olive branch to Germany. True to the spirit and memory of Late Paramount Chief Riruako, we shall continue to offer Germany this olive branch, for how long, remains to be seen. But marching on for REPARATION we shall be marching on!