Today I spare a thought for the thousands who perished first during many battles in the resistance against colonialism, and later in the struggle for the liberation of the mother and fatherland.
A thought not only for the dead but also for many sung and unsung, recognized and unrecognised, forgotten and unforgotten heroes and heroines of Namibia. Thus the solemn but equally proud occasion of the re-committal to eternal mother and father earth of the mortal remains of the heroes at Heroes Acre this week could not go unnoticed.
There cannot and should be no longing at all for the olden days of racism, colonialism and capitalism. As much one cannot continue to tolerate the decadence of a free Namibia, and the contradictory rampant squalor and misery.
Certainly this is not what those who paid with the highest and ultimate price, their lives, to be the heroes and heroines they are today, could have envisaged and died for. The reigning President has declared that no one should be left out of his proverbial Namibian House. This house is not only when there’s milk and honey flowing but also when the country is going through rough patches.
However, all of us must bring their dues so that when the milk and honey eventually start flowing, they are justified in having an expectation of equally sharing in this abundance in the true socialist dictum of from each according to his/her abilities and to each according to her/his needs. There is no way that any one cannot have a hero or heroine somehow. Thus Heroes Day somehow has a meaning to all one way or another. Whether in respect of your immediate surroundings, someone who did something meaningful to your community.
That is why on this occasion one cannot but spare a thought to that son of the soil in the Botswana Diaspora, Belpert Kauraisa. As well as distinguishing himself in the teaching profession in Botswana, later he came to distinguish himself in the cause of reparation. Surely, to those to whom such a cause is dear, Brother Kauraisa shall sorely be missed. Because not only did he keep the torch of reparation burning in the Botswana Diaspora, but he was a constant source of inspiration to all the descendants of the victims of the wars of 1896, 1904-1904 unleashed by Imperial Germany, including in neighbouring South Africa. And a harbinger of the culture of his people in Botswana and even in South Africa. Brother Kauraisa surely you were a hero and you shall remain a hero. And rest assured that the torch of reparation shall be burning as long as necessary.
Heroes Day surely has its genesis in the fight against Imperial Germany when, following the return of the mortal remains of the erstwhile Ovaherero Paramount Chief from Botswana in 1923, and his re-interment in Okahandja on August 26, the Ovaherero and Ovambanderu have since been undertaking annual pilgrims to Okahandja. To pay homage to him, and subsequently to other leaders.
One also cannot but hail the reigning Paramount Chief of the Ovaherero, Vekuii Rukoro, for ultimately recognising and honouring, some posthumously, the 154 men sent by Ovaherero Paramount Chief Hosea Kutako into exile to take up arms and fight the apartheid South African regime.
Similarly during the week that we have been marking and observing Heroes and Heroines Day, thoughts must also go to all those at Heroes Acre in Windhoek, in unmarked graves like in the Swakopmund dunes, and elsewhere in unknown graves, home and abroad, where many fellow Namibians perished in many battles and struggles. Even those whose skulls have as yet to return home from Germany. Not to mention the Heroes Acre in Okahandja where the likes of Samuel Maharero, Kahimemua Nguvauva, Jonker Afrikaner, Hosea Kutako, Asaria Kamburona and Kuaima Riruako have retreated into an eternal summit, to strategise over the next cause of action regarding Germany’s unfinished business with their descendants. Strangely no mention was made of them during the ceremony at Heroes Acre on Wednesday. Not to mention the Heroes and Heroines from the 1959 Katutura massacre.