After about two weeks of endless tributes, some heartfelt, others which may eventually prove purely opportunistic, the casket containing the mortal remains of a real son of the soil, KK, as Kazenambo Kazenambo came to be known to both friend and foe, was on Saturday, August 28, lowered into the grave to presumably forever commit KK to eternity, and likewise for some his legacy.
Going by the popular comforting Biblical verse often afforded and accorded the bereaved family and loved ones of the departed, if not the departed herself/himself, Yours Truly Ideologically fall in line echoing the said verse: Two Timothy 4:7-8. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
Yes, one can agree that KK fought a good fight. But has he actually finished the race? Indeed he did finish his race, and successfully so as part of a relay team for the demand for reparations. Having been the starter in this relay team, he indeed was quick out of the blocks and first to hand the relay baton to the next member of the relay team. The question is just who is the next member to have taken the genocide relay baton from him. Not only this but who are the other remaining members of the whole relay team and can they make KK proud? Going by the myriads of tributes it seems there can be and there is no doubt that indeed the relay team has no dearth of runners. The only question is whether they would run the remaining laps of the relay as fast, dedicated and determined as KK? And as the entire affected communities would wish them to, and with the requisite courage and endurance emulating KK and other genocide demand torchbearers, long gone?
Because it is now left to many of them to continue the race and good fight as part of the relay team. It is only then that the race can be seen as finished. For the two weeks since KK’s sad, and indeed untimely departure, having left at a very critical time of the campaign and struggle for restorative justice, the tributes pouring in testified especially to his unflinching commitment to the cause of reparations for the genocide of his forebears at the hands of brutal imperial Germany. Which, undoubtedly was his main motivation for him joining Namibia’s liberation struggle from Botswana where we was born, not by choice but because his forebears retreated thereto in the face total onslaught by imperial Germany, as per extermination orders, which the occupying and colonising German military apparatchiks carried out to letter and spirit.
As meaningful and befitting as most of the tributes were and have been, and indeed shall continue to be, against the best wishes of some of his detractors and the detractors of the reparations movement, even sons and daughters of the genocide, his soul must not be allowed not rest in eternal peace but must continue, albeit in the actions, deeds and spirits of most his comrades-in-arms who as a matter of dedication to his continued legacy must now carry the baton and torch of the flame of Genocide, Apology and Reparations (GAR).
A flame which, with the departure of KK, and many others who have been keeping it aflame, by the designs and shenanigans of our Namibian government, and would-be self-styled and self-anointed sons and daughters of the affected communities, stands the risk of being sacrificed on the altar of the Government’s self-ego, self righteousness, and the self enrichment opportunism of the presumed sons and daughters of the affected communities.
Given this, that is why it is incumbent upon all, especially those who have been proudly associated with KK throughout his illustrious dedication to his people and country. And lately foremost his uncompromising fight for reparations, if their myriads of tributes are to have any meaningful sense after KK. A meaning beyond mere memories of him, but truly emulating his heroic spirit delivering his people from the internal yoke of their government, and continued German colonialism.
Yours Truly Ideologically cannot but laud the profoundness and genuineness of most of the tributes in the mainstream media, and in particular those aired on and posted on a special social media group dedicated to the memory of KK. With special note of a clip by Fessy Marenga, ala himself a political friend of KK, who was bold and instructive in his tribute as he was profound in lamenting his departure. “Those of us paying tribute to him and lamenting him that he was quintessential, he had wishes and objectives. And one cannot truly and truthfully pay tribute to someone without then following his wishes and objectives,” says Marenga. Reminding his fellow Swapo cadres, especially those in Parliament, that KK’s position was that the agreement between the Namibian government and Germany, “has not taken them on board”, and thus needed to be rejected.
There’s no denying that indeed with the likes of KK no more, this would be trying times for the cause of reparations. Testified by the very fact the same fortnight the affected communities were mourning him, and were readying to commit him to the ancestors, those seeing themselves as real, equal and worthy sons and daughters of the descendants of the surviving victims of genocide, are the ones who were, and continues to actively undertake nocturnal escapades in the rural hinterlands of the affected communities. Ostensibly to make affected communities wise about the Reconciliation Agreement. This being the signs of the times, how can KK and others really be expected to forever rest in peace as opposed to their spirits continuing living among us and inspiring and imbuing us to soldier on, on the noble and just cause of reparations?
