“OVAHERERO GENOCIDE FOUNDATION REJECTS GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY
Martin Endjala
Nandiuasora Mazeingo, the Ovaherero Genocide Foundation’s (OGF) chairman, rejected the declaration of Genocide Remembrance Day by the cabinet on Tuesday, labelling it as part of the government’s denial agenda of recognising the actual events of the genocide.
Mazeingo’s response follows the minister of information, communication, and technology, Emma Theofelus’s announcement that from next year onwards 28 May will be a public holiday.
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“We, the OGF, reject the proclaimed date marked as the genocide remembrance day because, in our context, the 2 October is the date we have been campaigning and advocating for, while our Nama brothers and sisters have been campaigning for the 22 April.
Hence, the two genocide events ought to be marked aside and not put into one day. This declaration is proof of a deliberate denial and to water down the history of the two tribes,” he said.
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Joyce Muzengua, the Landless People’s Movement’s (LPM) Human Rights Command leader, said she welcomes the gazettement of Genocide Commemoration Day. However, she does not agree with the date.
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[S]he said LPM maintains that October 4 should be the national commemoration day for the genocide and will continue to commemorate that day alongside the affected communities for generations to come.
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- Full report on the website of the Windhoek Observer (last checked in May 2024)
- See also press statement of the Ovaherero Traditional Authorities (OTA) of 29 May 2024 on the proclamation of 28 May as Genocide Remembrance Day by the Namibian Government
Editor’s note:
On 2 October 1904, the then commander of the colonial German Schutztruppe, Lothar von Trotha, issued the so-called ‘extermination order’.
On 28 May 1908, the then commander of the colonial German Schutztruppe, Ludwig von Estorff, ordered the formal closure of all concentration camps in then German South West Africa.