Following the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement’s declaration to have 2 October as Genocide Remembrance Day in honour of the Ovaherero and Nama who died at the hands of German colonial forces between 1904-1908, Nudo has also come on board in support of the idea.
AR leader Job Amupanda on Wednesday announced that Ovaherero paramount chief Vekuii Rukoro had also agreed to the 2 October idea.
Nudo secretary general Josef Kauandenge yesterday joined the chorus, saying Genocide Remembrance Day is indeed a welcome gesture and Nudo supports such a call with open arms.
The Ovaherero Genocide Foundation (OGF) headed by its chairperson Esther Muinjangue who is also Nudo president is on record urging the government to recognise and declare 2 October as Genocide Remembrance Day.
“Since this call, the Ovaherero and Nama people under their traditional chiefs have and continue to commemorate this day at Ozombu zovindimba (Otjinene area) every year on 2 October. This is the day when General von Trotha issued his extermination order against the Ovaherero and Nama people,” Kauandenge remarked.
However, he said as has become customary, this call by the affected communities was and continues to be simply ignored by those in power.
“It is therefore refreshing to note that young people under the AR movement have deemed it fit and proper to make a clarion call to all Namibians that this day needs and must be commemorated not only by members of the affected communities but by all Namibians.”
He argued that the Genocide Commemoration Day should be a mirror that all Namibians should look into deeply, and trace the soul and spirits of those who perished at the hands of the brutal German colonial forces.
He noted it is a day that all Namibians must pledge that their blood and sacrifices must not be in vain and that everyone must enjoy the fruits of independence unapologetically and without asking for favours from those in government.
According to him, nothing can take away the hardcore realities that the two communities were targeted and that they lost thousands of their people at the hands of German troops.
However, Kauandenge said it is time that the affected communities receive support from other Namibians in their pursuit of just compensation and restitution.