Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
Does the Swapo Party of Namibia and the Namibian government truly, honestly, and forthrightly believe in the genocide of the Ovaherero and Nama as they have been pretending and acting, and as is generally erroneously and ignorantly assumed and believed?
Let alone being convinced about the historicity of this genocide, an integral and intrinsic part of this country’s colonial history as much as it is. Perhaps all the more reason for the party and government believing in this genocide, more incidentally and accidentally and by default.
As a descendant of this genocide, I cannot but pose this relevant question, which I am sure is a question each and every descendant is asking and has been asking.
Because there is and has been nothing for the Swapo Party and its government to show, besides its consistent, persistent, and terminal political rhetoric on this genocide.
More often than not, the party and its government have been maintaining that the 2006 National Assembly Resolution on this genocide of the Ovaherero and Nama saw its eventual adoption in the National Assembly in 2006 because of Swapo.
Yes, but only as far as Swapo being the majority party in the National Assembly then, granted, the motion could not have been adopted without its support, sanction, and good will, or ill will, if one wishes.
But on the contrary, did the Swapo Party then have any reason to oppose the motion? I believe not, because this would not have been politically expedient, let alone good for its image as a liberatory formation.
Thus, letting the said motion pass and be adopted by the National Assembly was then the best expedient and politically sound thing to do for the Swapo Party and its government.
The adoption of the motion was preceded by and was a natural progression of the seed planted in 2004 with the centenary commemoration of the Ovaherero genocide, as transpired on 2 October 1904, with the announcement by then Imperial Germany’s armed forces in then South West Africa of an Extermination Order against the Ovaherero.
With reflection, and to say the least, the Swapo Party, let alone its government, was conspicuously absent in the build-up to the centenary commemoration, except for a surprising show-up by a sprinkling, if a handful, of its high-ranking office-bearers, notably President-elect then, Hifikepunye Pohamba, who delivered the Swapo and/or government message.
But with hindsight, there is nothing informing, if only the position of Swapo, and thus consequently its government, on this genocide.
Since the adoption of the 2006 resolution on genocide, both the Swapo Party and its government have been relatively mute.
While on the other hand, the descendants have, ever since the 2004 centenary commemoration, been campaigning to put the matter on the country’s political agenda and beyond.
It was not until 2015, during the tenure of President Pohamba, that matters on the said motion started to show any visible signs of movement. Until today with the announcement in 2021 of the Joint Declaration (JD).
Much has been said about the JD, the controversy surrounding it, especially its rejection by a section of the descendants of the genocide survivors of the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu, and Nama.
If indeed the Swapo Party and its government believe in the historicity of the genocide, and as a corollary what a section of the Namibian people, particularly the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu, and Nama, endured as a result, the question begging is what the Swapo Party and its government have been doing to restore and rehabilitate the descendants?
Because there is to this day little if anything at all for the Swapo Party and its government to show for the descendants.
Needless to say, if this genocide is what it has been declared to be internationally, certainly this must have equally been accepted by the Swapo Party and its government for the descendants to be classified as a special category of people needing attention from the government here and now, in terms of resettlement, rehabilitation, and healing.
Transitional justice, as far as the descendants of the survivors of genocide are concerned, is a matter that cannot wait and cannot be solely dependent on when Germany one day decides to recognise, truthfully and meaningfully, its historic genocidal deeds and atone for them.
Needless to say, the Namibian government is obligated, in terms of transitional justice, to attend to them, even in a marginal sense.
But something that is and has not been clear in this regard makes the Swapo Party and its government’s championing of the reparations cause just a gimmick.
Not to mention that being a champion of the cause of reparations of the descendants, as the Swapo Party and its government has been pretending and arrogating to itself, is just not enough, unless it starts to do something meaningfully and practically for the descendants.
One impact of the genocide is landlessness. Namibia has land reform and resettlement programmes. Who else could have been a priority in these programmes than the descendants?
Does the Swapo Party and its government have empirical evidence of how many descendants, if any, have hitherto benefited from these programmes?
“May I also request that jointly, the Government of the Republic of Namibia and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany look at the possible ways and means to find a lasting solution to the current unfinished land question and land reform issue. I am saying this because failure to address the question of land reform meaningfully, equitably, and timeously can have undesirable consequences.” – President Pohamba, then Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, said in 2004 at the centenary commemoration of the genocide.
Last month, the incumbent Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform launched the Resettlement Policy, which dates back to 1998 when the National Resettlement Policy was passed by the Namibian Parliament, subsequently revised and replaced in 2001.
In terms of the resettlement policy launched last month, one cannot but observe that “the policy further recognises the varying degrees of land dispossession suffered by the various communities during colonial times. It proposes that government land redistribution efforts should consider this fact.”
One of these facts cannot but be genocide, meaning the descendants of the Ovaherero and Nama survivors of genocide must be among those prioritised, if not a priority per se, like the Second National Land Conference of 2018 resolved regarding the land dispossessed.
As the English saying goes, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Since independence, the pudding has been eaten, but it does not seem to have been proven.
*Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro is a descendant of the survivors of the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu, and Nama genocide, veteran and freelance journalist, reparations advocate, and adherent of restorative justice.
