“SCHLETTWEIN SUPPORTS SAN COMMEMORATION
Grants access to paramount chief Fritz Aribeb's grave
The minister said the farm owner must be given three months’ notice before the commemoration.
Augetto Graig
2024-07-10
Agriculture, water and land reform minister Calle Schlettwein has officially requested the resettlement beneficiary and owner of Unit B of the Okorusu No. 88 farm to grant the Hai||om San access to the grave of late paramount chief Fritz Aribeb.
In 2022, members of the largest San tribe in Namibia commemorated their fallen leader in front of the closed gates of the farm, according to chief Joseph /Gomoseb.
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The paramount chief of the Hai||om San, Ananias Soroseb, said (…) ‘It means a lot to the Hai||om San tribe in Namibia that our hero fell at the hands of German forces in 1904 during the first San-German war. Since then, we have lost our ancestral land, our resources, our tradition, our animals and our dignity, even today,” said Soroseb.
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The minister also informed the farm owner that the deputy executive director for land reform, resettlement and regional programmes of the ministry would visit the farm to inspect the grave.
/Gomoseb claimed, however, that the owner has already cut down the tree at the grave and removed the stones used to mark the grave.”
- Full report on the website of the Namibian Sun (last checked in July 2024)
- The Allgemeine Zeitung, sister newspaper of the Namibian Sun, published the day before, on 9 July 2024, a German translation of the article (‘Minister bittet um Verständnis für Hai//om Gedenken’ (last checked in July 2024)
On 11 July 2024, a letter to the editor (last checked in July 2024) appeared in the Allgemeine Zeitung in which it was doubted that Aribeb died in the war against the Germans:
“FATE OF FRITZ ARIBIB/ARIBEB
Subject: MINISTER ASKS FOR UNDERSTANDING FOR HAI//OM MEMORIAL (10.07)
2024-07-11
(…) Fritz Aribeb was an ally of the Germans and defended his homeland against the advance of the Herero. He was persecuted and murdered by them after the German defeat by the South African troops. For more details, see Reinhard Friedrich and Horst Lempp ‘Verjagt… verweht… vergessen.’ Die Hai//om und die Etosha region. Windhoek 2009, S. 53 ff. (…) It was the Nama and Herero who were the first to chase away, enslave and destroy the indigenous San and Damara populations. (…)
Rainer Tröndle, Germany”
Editor’s note:
Rainer Tröndle is a German pedagogue who has written books on Namibia’s colonial history (e.g. “Rise and Fall of the Herero”, 2023).
Reinhard Friedrich’s book on the Haiǁom, to which Tröndle refers, was also published in English in 2014 (‘Etosha Hai//om heartland. Ancient hunter-gatherers and their environment’ which is available at the National Library of Namibia).