“Cdes and friends, I just received a sad message from Sister Lovona in the UK that Bro Berrenga passed on in Gambia on Saturday. He will be buried in Gambia as per his wish. May his soul rest in eternal peace. Regards Rihu,” came the message on a Thursday, 10 October 2019 at 12:57:02 CAT (Namibian time) to many of us from Rihupisa Kandando.
Barely three years after that, we must again fathom the sad news of yet another long journey undertaken into the unknown by Rihu. Strong in the belief that he will be re-united with brothers Berrenga, Berry and Koka. Ironically, we never seem to accept our mortality; despite believing that the departed are not actually dead, but have only travelled far to join the ancestors. We are missing their affable selves, as indeed their commendable deeds. And thus, to rather be strengthened and reassured by their joining the ancestors; whose ancestral spirits we so often summon for the requisite inspiration and guidance; as I hope many of us shall be on this instance of seeing Rihu to take along whatever message to them.
Trusting and believing that Rihu has not by any means reached the end of the road, but only the Rubicon. Now taking another direction heading towards a reunion with the ancestors. To engage political and revolutionary mentors, among them Uatjindua Ndjoze, brothers Berrenga, Berry and Koka, during his strategic and tactical retreat.
Rihu has indeed been an active diehard Pan- Africanist. A revolutionary. Not surprisingly so being a protégé of the Pan-African revolutionaries and revolution of the Pan- African school. To rekindle the old flames of Pan-Africanism and the revolution. Solidified by a mutual commitment to Pan-Africanism birthed during the trying years, both ideologically (subjectively) and objectively, of Thatcherism in the United Kingdom, and Reaganomics in the United States of America (USA) when these Babylons were burning. Indeed, those were trying times for all Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora. Not less for us Namibians and South Africans, still questing and wrestling for independence and liberation then.
Brother Berrenga and all the brothers and sisters were pretty much squarely, unwaveringly and uncompromisingly part of our struggles. Because the struggles of the African people on Mother Africa were inextricably linked to those of the African brothers and sisters in the Diaspora.
One cannot but cherish that era in the company of such great African thinkers and doers. Not to mention the indomitable and unwavering Rihu himself. At times, if not all the times, stubbornly resilient and revolutionary daring. With Rihu them spirited by predecessors like Hitjevi Veii, Sondaha Kangueehi and Uatjindua Ndjoze. Themselves imbued by Africanists like W.E.B. DuBois, George Padmore, Kwame Nkrumah and C.L.R. James, Marcus Hosia Garvey, Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney, Steven Bantu Biko, Robert Sobukwe and Nelson Mandela.
“As we enter the new millennium, Africa stands at a critical stage in her struggle for survival and the re-assertion of her heritage and civilisation. The domination and suppression of Africa’s cultural heritage and civilisational achievements was the basis on which Europe asserted herself as a civilised people. Without such domination and suppression, Europe could not have asserted its supremacy and superiority. Europe’s rape of Africa was an inhuman act and continues to be so, as long as Europe continues to be part of the imperialist world, which plunders Africa’s resources to the detriment of its peoples. Africa’s struggle for freedom will continue, therefore, until Europe and the West in general are rehumanised by African resistance against their oppressive rule the world over,” wrote eminent Pan-African scholar, late professor Dani W.Nabudere in a paper titled: TOWARDS AN AFRICAN RENAISSANCE: A RECLAIMING OF THE PAN-AFRICAN HERITAGE that he delivered at the Africa Day conference on ‘The African Origin of Civilisation and the Destiny of Africa’. This was way back in 1999 in Namibia.
Twenty years after, his message has been and is still the message of brothers Rihu, Berry, Koka and Berrenga. Still ringing very much true in this millennium, presumed and assumed millennium of development goals, which in practice has been proving no more than developmental hallucinations.
Their camaraderie, brotherhood and revolutionary spirit, regarding the Namibian and South African revolutions, were born, nurtured and shaped in the Pan-African philosophy of Africa and Africans as their own liberators. A cautionary tale against the usurpation of African liberation by liberal and neo-liberal elements of Caucasian extraction. An unpalatable reality and truism of the liberation and freedom of many African polities today, where flag freedom rules supreme.
We cannot but be gratified that brothers like Berrenga, Koka and lately Rihu are having and have been having their all-important last rites on home soil on the African continent. With brother Berrenga in The Gambia, where indeed he had resettled, reincarnated and reliving the true African spirit and persona practically. The retrogressive and debilitating socio-economic conditions that have been and are still being experienced by many of our African brethren and sisters notwithstanding. Same, this is where Rihu’s soul shall be wandering. Not resting in eternal peace, as we often wish upon the souls of our departed.
As their souls cannot rest in peace while the continent they so much loved continues to bleed from the vestiges of capitalism and neo-colonialism. True African liberation will only be achieved when the masses of the African people own and control the wealth of their naturally-endowed environments in each and every corner of the Mother Continent. Thus, their souls and many others must continue to live, and their wisdom to enrich and imbue us in the still long overhaul for the true liberation of Africa.
To strengthen our spirits and enrich our wisdoms to hold high and carry the baton of Pan-Africanism and the torch of Reparation. For Rihu and others, who all the way till the end of one part of their journey kept the revolutionary torch burning. Rihu was and is indeed one of the few living embodiments of keeping the torch burning. Not in his own cause, but for all, especially the masses.
* Tjiparuro is a retired journalist, associate and fellow activist with late Rihupisa Kandando both subscribing to the of Marxist-Leninism as well as the ideals of Pan Africanism.