2008-04-25Staff Report 2 Dear Honourable Chief David Frederick Re: New Era newspaper statements dated 07 and 10 March 2008 We, the signatories of this letter are feeling strongly moved to hereby express our opinion and discontentment as well towards you with regard to the statements as reported in the New Era daily newspaper, 07 March 2008 (in Herero language) and 10 March 2008 (in English), respectively. No translation however was available in the Damara/Nama language. One of the signatories of this letter did communicate his point of view to you personally on 17 December 2007 with the aim to advise you against the political direction you have taken regarding the genocide issue which had caused much suffering to our !Aman people and their countrymen, women and children included. Nevertheless, you have ignored his advice and followed your own way in this regard as you have decided. The road that you are travelling on presently, without the knowledge of our !Aman people, is not acceptable to us at all and we are dissociating ourselves from it because it carries and includes threats, according to the statements in the said newspaper. We do not support these threats since the !Aman clan is unable to take responsibility for such expressions. Regarding the issue of the genocide during the years from 1904 to 1908, including the period prior to these years in the eighteen hundreds (1800), certainly those are very painful history events for us all, because our ancestors who were directly involved in the genocide death had a terrible life experience. Therefore, we will be prepared and ready to support you wholeheartedly and stand beside you only when you act from a traditional platform in cooperation and together with your colleagues, the Traditional Authorities in the Karas, Hardap and other regions in Namibia, with the aim to gain development for your people by negotiating with the Namibian Government on a regular basis. We, however, will not be a part of your current decision, which is to fight for the !Aman clan from a certain individual political party platform. As community leaders in our capacity as spiritual leaders (pastors) who are both descendants from the !Aman clan and therefore due to advise you whenever need be, we would like to kindly advise you to regard our word of advice as honestly and seriously as well. As members and chairpersons of the !Aman History Investigating Committee, that is already providing advice to the !Aman Traditional Authority, we are prepared to assist you with the investigations and assessment of the needs of the !Aman people from the existing traditional platform, in order to uplift our people from the marginal line where they have been left behind by the previous regime, and still remain concerned with regard to their development, which in cooperation with the Government of Namibia only, could be transformed to let them renew their daily way of life. Hendrick Frederik, Bishop Emeritus Pastor Izak Fredericks 2008-04-25Staff Report 2
