Katjiua urges removal of colonial statues
Renewed calls by the Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) for the removal of colonial statues, which continue to stand tall in several towns across Namibia, have set the traditional body on a collision course with local authorities.
OTA’s chief Mutjinde Katjiua says members of the Nama and Ovaherero communities should forcefully remove statues celebrating the Nama-Ovaherero genocide if those in whose towns and cities these statues are erected fail to do so.
Katjiua made the remarks at the Genocide Remembrance Day in Lüderitz this past weekend.
According to Katjiua, government’s failure to adequately deal with the ancestral land issue was enough reason to conclude that it had no intention to uplift the stature of the Nama and Ovaherero people.
Deadline needed
Katjiua cited an example in which the late OTA paramount chief advocate Vekuii Rukoro and the late chief Simon Petrus Kooper of the Kai-// Khaun had asked the Swakopmund municipality to remove statues commemorating the genocide.
"In 2016, late PC Rukoro and late PSM Kooper made a clear request to the Swakopmund municipality to remove those German soldier statues. It is maybe now eight years ... nothing has happened. It is high time we put a deadline to some of these things; if they are not removed, we should be able to pull them off," Katjiua said.
"You will not be put in jail for removing a colonial statue; it’s happening in Germany," he added.
Into own hands
Katjiua said it is now up to the affected communities to formally make requests for the removal of colonial statues and remove them if the request is not being considered.
"It is high time we identify some of these things and put a deadline and remove it," he said.
Katjiua also accused government of intentionally sidelining members of the Nama and Ovaherero communities.
"We know we have a government that is not supportive. We know we have a government that wants to see Hereros and Namas impoverished, a government that wants to see us landless."
The two communities are last to benefit from Namibia’s resources, he added.
"Today the Namas and the Hereros are marginalised; we have no political voice; therefore, when the national cake is distributed, we are the last to receive crumbs. We have the south, the Erongo Region, among the richest regions in the country, but you go to the citizens of those regions, they are among the most marginalised with no access to these resources," he said.
OTA’s chief Mutjinde Katjiua says members of the Nama and Ovaherero communities should forcefully remove statues celebrating the Nama-Ovaherero genocide if those in whose towns and cities these statues are erected fail to do so.
Katjiua made the remarks at the Genocide Remembrance Day in Lüderitz this past weekend.
According to Katjiua, government’s failure to adequately deal with the ancestral land issue was enough reason to conclude that it had no intention to uplift the stature of the Nama and Ovaherero people.
Deadline needed
Katjiua cited an example in which the late OTA paramount chief advocate Vekuii Rukoro and the late chief Simon Petrus Kooper of the Kai-// Khaun had asked the Swakopmund municipality to remove statues commemorating the genocide.
"In 2016, late PC Rukoro and late PSM Kooper made a clear request to the Swakopmund municipality to remove those German soldier statues. It is maybe now eight years ... nothing has happened. It is high time we put a deadline to some of these things; if they are not removed, we should be able to pull them off," Katjiua said.
"You will not be put in jail for removing a colonial statue; it’s happening in Germany," he added.
Into own hands
Katjiua said it is now up to the affected communities to formally make requests for the removal of colonial statues and remove them if the request is not being considered.
"It is high time we identify some of these things and put a deadline and remove it," he said.
Katjiua also accused government of intentionally sidelining members of the Nama and Ovaherero communities.
"We know we have a government that is not supportive. We know we have a government that wants to see Hereros and Namas impoverished, a government that wants to see us landless."
The two communities are last to benefit from Namibia’s resources, he added.
"Today the Namas and the Hereros are marginalised; we have no political voice; therefore, when the national cake is distributed, we are the last to receive crumbs. We have the south, the Erongo Region, among the richest regions in the country, but you go to the citizens of those regions, they are among the most marginalised with no access to these resources," he said.
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