Bottling sorrow and remembrance
We are a country born of pain, strife and bloodshed.
The labour pains were indescribable. Our angst and screams for freedom made the whole world sit up and take notice.
This child of international solidarity was nearly stillborn, as division and muted anger turned into rage on the battlefields where we fought an enemy superior in technology, but not in bravery.
History is written by the victors.
Globally, our freedom came amid a changing international political chess game.
Finding our place in this international Game of Thrones in no way detracts from the sacrifices that we made, but only enriches Namibia’s standing as a nation that was truly born of a changing global dispensation; and a desire to end the atrocities committed by the multiple colonial and apartheid ‘caretakers’ of the then South West Africa.
Many families lost loved ones and there are so many unanswered questions that we must take with us to our graves.
Today, many among us are walking around with emotional scars and trauma. And each year, we remember the loved ones who are no more.
With this in mind, it was truly cathartic to see local businessman Ben Zaaruka, who survived the mysterious 19 February 1988 Barclays Bank bomb blast at Oshakati but lost his fiancé, open up about his experiences on that fateful day.
Yet, it was disheartening to hear the comments of Bishop Shekutaamba Nambala, who said he is not impressed by the commemoration, given that the event is open to accusations of being selective.
“Our coming together here every year puts us at risk of being accused of commemorating the deaths of some, while ignoring the deaths of others who were killed in an equally barbaric manner. We need to come up with a way of remembering them all, in case Cassinga Day is not enough,” he said.
While his sentiments may find resonance, they could easily be construed as being insensitive to the losses and injuries that still haunt us, from the Old Location Massacre to Cassinga, to the incidents that claimed lives and maimed shortly before independence.
Sorrow and remembrance can never be bottled into one event or one commemoration. And no dead are more important than any other.
Suffering is like poverty. It is the same everywhere.
The labour pains were indescribable. Our angst and screams for freedom made the whole world sit up and take notice.
This child of international solidarity was nearly stillborn, as division and muted anger turned into rage on the battlefields where we fought an enemy superior in technology, but not in bravery.
History is written by the victors.
Globally, our freedom came amid a changing international political chess game.
Finding our place in this international Game of Thrones in no way detracts from the sacrifices that we made, but only enriches Namibia’s standing as a nation that was truly born of a changing global dispensation; and a desire to end the atrocities committed by the multiple colonial and apartheid ‘caretakers’ of the then South West Africa.
Many families lost loved ones and there are so many unanswered questions that we must take with us to our graves.
Today, many among us are walking around with emotional scars and trauma. And each year, we remember the loved ones who are no more.
With this in mind, it was truly cathartic to see local businessman Ben Zaaruka, who survived the mysterious 19 February 1988 Barclays Bank bomb blast at Oshakati but lost his fiancé, open up about his experiences on that fateful day.
Yet, it was disheartening to hear the comments of Bishop Shekutaamba Nambala, who said he is not impressed by the commemoration, given that the event is open to accusations of being selective.
“Our coming together here every year puts us at risk of being accused of commemorating the deaths of some, while ignoring the deaths of others who were killed in an equally barbaric manner. We need to come up with a way of remembering them all, in case Cassinga Day is not enough,” he said.
While his sentiments may find resonance, they could easily be construed as being insensitive to the losses and injuries that still haunt us, from the Old Location Massacre to Cassinga, to the incidents that claimed lives and maimed shortly before independence.
Sorrow and remembrance can never be bottled into one event or one commemoration. And no dead are more important than any other.
Suffering is like poverty. It is the same everywhere.
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Namibian Sun
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