Discontent unexpectedly boiled over yesterday with the paramount chief of the Ovaherero, Kuaima Riruako accusing government of orchestrated efforts to wipe out the history of the Ovaherero people.
On the eve of the final year of President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s term of office, Chief Riruako described the haste around the erection of the genocide monument, the return of more Namibian skulls from Germany, and the removal of the Reiterdenkmal as steps to confine the suffering and contribution of the Ovaherereo to the dustbin of history. “It was me who spearheaded the search for the Ovaherero and Nama skeletons in German museums, and my government could not even consult me. That is the reason I boycotted last week’s welcoming ceremony,” a visibly angry Riruako said.
On 19 September 2006, Riruako tabled a motion in the National Assembly, in an effort to hold Germany accountable for the genocide committed against the Ovaherero and other Namibian people from 1904 to 1907. The motion received overwhelming support from Swapo and was unanimously adopted by the house. Riruako was joined in his boycott by former Swapo parliamentarian and chairperson of the Nama Genocide Technical Committee, Ida Hoffman, and by the Ovaherero and Ovambanderu Genocide Foundation (OGF),
He added that Chief Hosea Kutako who facilitated the founding president Sam Nujoma’s path to exile, and who happens to be Herero is also not properly honoured by our government.
“He deserves to be on the Nami-bian currency. His contribution to the struggle is so large that the United Nations still have a statue of him at the entrance of the UN headquarters in New York, but they removed those of Eleanor Roosevelt and Winston Churchill,” Riruako added.
According to Riruako, he was against the removal of the Reiterdenkmal, because it is part of the genocide history, and the removal in secrecy and at night was designed to rob the Ovaherero of their memories and is part of the systematic erasure of a history of oppression and suffering at the hands of successive oppressors that started with the imperial German government at the turn of the previous century.
“Now we cannot point out to the world the people that nearly killed us off” Riruako added.
In an even bigger threat of national embarrassment, Chief Riruako threatened to boycott the unveiling of the genocide monument as he does not want to be part of the generalisation of Namibian history by denying the special victim status of the Ovaherero.
Adamant to see through the reparations demands in his lifetime, Riruako said if government continues to deal with the genocide issue in the manner it is currently being handled, then he will be tempted to deal with the German government himself, even if it would require taking it to court.
His first attempt failed when in 2001 he and other Heroro chiefs took the German government to the US High Court over the genocide, demanding $2 billion in reparations.
On the eve of the final year of President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s term of office, Chief Riruako described the haste around the erection of the genocide monument, the return of more Namibian skulls from Germany, and the removal of the Reiterdenkmal as steps to confine the suffering and contribution of the Ovaherereo to the dustbin of history. “It was me who spearheaded the search for the Ovaherero and Nama skeletons in German museums, and my government could not even consult me. That is the reason I boycotted last week’s welcoming ceremony,” a visibly angry Riruako said.
On 19 September 2006, Riruako tabled a motion in the National Assembly, in an effort to hold Germany accountable for the genocide committed against the Ovaherero and other Namibian people from 1904 to 1907. The motion received overwhelming support from Swapo and was unanimously adopted by the house. Riruako was joined in his boycott by former Swapo parliamentarian and chairperson of the Nama Genocide Technical Committee, Ida Hoffman, and by the Ovaherero and Ovambanderu Genocide Foundation (OGF),
He added that Chief Hosea Kutako who facilitated the founding president Sam Nujoma’s path to exile, and who happens to be Herero is also not properly honoured by our government.
“He deserves to be on the Nami-bian currency. His contribution to the struggle is so large that the United Nations still have a statue of him at the entrance of the UN headquarters in New York, but they removed those of Eleanor Roosevelt and Winston Churchill,” Riruako added.
According to Riruako, he was against the removal of the Reiterdenkmal, because it is part of the genocide history, and the removal in secrecy and at night was designed to rob the Ovaherero of their memories and is part of the systematic erasure of a history of oppression and suffering at the hands of successive oppressors that started with the imperial German government at the turn of the previous century.
“Now we cannot point out to the world the people that nearly killed us off” Riruako added.
In an even bigger threat of national embarrassment, Chief Riruako threatened to boycott the unveiling of the genocide monument as he does not want to be part of the generalisation of Namibian history by denying the special victim status of the Ovaherero.
Adamant to see through the reparations demands in his lifetime, Riruako said if government continues to deal with the genocide issue in the manner it is currently being handled, then he will be tempted to deal with the German government himself, even if it would require taking it to court.
His first attempt failed when in 2001 he and other Heroro chiefs took the German government to the US High Court over the genocide, demanding $2 billion in reparations.
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