Staff writer
Evidently 18 August, and its fatefulness, is still very much fresh in the memory of the two siblings, Mutumbe and Njikora Kazenambo.
They are two sons of the firebrand son of the Namibian soil and nationalist, Kazenambo Kazenambo. On this day, a year ago, he bowed out of this world, months after having heavily wrestled with the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic, and seemed to have overcome it. The two were part of a nucleus of the Late KK’s close family members, associates and comrades, who would pass this fateful day for nothing in this world, to reconnect with him by sharing with others their fond memories of him as well as find in such sharing consolation.
Few associates and comrades turned up for a small remembrance ceremony in Windhoek’s Windhoek West residential area where KK abode. His family was pleased to see that like them, there are still those who dearly miss him and what he stood for. Lighting candles to his memories, vowing to keep them burning forever and likewise to keep his legacies forever. A legacy entailing, among others, earning him various such accolades, among others such as, repatriator, petitioner, liberator and fearless champion. Not egoistically but altruistically in the cause of his people, who as yet not only have to overcome the trans-generational trauma from their ancestors who were nearly annihilated by Imperial Germany’s military forces, but also for being a stateless people, if not second citizens of their beloved Land of the Brave. A state of being which KK fought dearly against during the first phase of the Namibian Revolution, the democratic political emancipation achieved on 21 March, 1990. To continue win the second phase o
f the Namibian Revolution, which is about economic emancipation, and against his and fellow marginalisation in the new dispensation.
Present to provide the siblings with a necessary shoulder to lean on a day, which very much resembled the actual day a year ago, were KKs paternal and maternal next of kin. Among them a man of the pulpit, Gustav Mupurua, in his political hey days in Botswana, a mobiliser responsible that many Batswana of Namibian descent, joined the Namibian armed struggle. Mupurua is among those born in Botswana from Namibians who escaped Imperial Germany’s wars against the indigenes in the then German South West Africa, today’s Namibia. Wars which culminated in the final onslaught of the Ovambanderu, Ovaherero and Nama, hence the Namibian genocide which has come to be known as the first genocide of the 20th century. Besides representing KK’s paternal family, Mupurua also spoke on behalf of the Maharero Royal Traditional Authority.
From his maternal side was Kaundja Mbunga Uanivi (Ngombe), also from the same Botswana exile pipeline as Mupurua. Testifying to being a Mupurua recruit for the armed struggle, a trained cadre herself, Uanivi shares that she was the reason KK left Botswana at a very young age, while still in school, to join the Namibian armed liberation struggle, eager to follow in the footsteps of her aunt.
Thus many Batswana of Namibian descent, like KK, did not only sacrificed themselves for the liberation of Namibia but likewise some also their lives. This is for the love of their mother and/or fatherland, that they had not set foot on. But which they knew from their forefathers and mothers who survived the near annihilation of their forebears who sought refuge in the then British Protectorate of Bechuanaland.
The first anniversary of KK’s death in Windhoek today is a prelude to his tombstone unveiling during the Heroes/Heroines Day long weekend of 26th August, which is also Red Flag Day in Okahandja and sees pilgrims thereto. Okahandja and surroundings, like Okapuka where KK has been laid to rest, will thus during the weekend of 26th August sees a combination of KK remembrance of sort through his tombstone unveiling, and Red Flag pilgrim and Heroes Day celebrations. To which the mothers and fathers of the town, understandably has granted the pilgrim goers its freedom.
