EDITORIAL: The Namibia that Cassinga victims would have wanted

Cassinga is not just a date on the calendar or a scar in the liberation archive. It is a question that keeps pressing itself into Namibia’s conscience. What did all that suffering mean, if not to build a country that is more humane than the one that produced it?

To imagine what the victims of Cassinga would have wanted Namibia to become is not an exercise in sentimentality. It is an exercise in moral accountability. Those who died there in 1978 were not abstract casualties of war. They were Namibians who had already paid the price of displacement in the hope of a future country that would recognise their dignity.

So what kind of Namibia would justify their sacrifice?

First, it would be a Namibia where dignity is not rationed. The Cassinga generation did not flee oppression only to see inequality harden into permanence under a different flag. They would have wanted a society where access to education, healthcare, and opportunity is not determined by geography, surname, or political proximity.

Second, they would have wanted a Namibia where power is accountable, not insulated.

Third, they would have wanted a Namibia that is honest with its history. Not a country trapped in selective memory, but one that is capable of holding multiple truths at once: heroism and error, sacrifice and consequence, victory and loss.

Fourth, they would have wanted justice that is felt in everyday life. Not only the justice of courts and laws, but the justice of fairness in employment, land access, economic participation, and opportunity.

Fifth, they would have wanted unity that is real, not rhetorical. Cassinga is often invoked as a symbol of national unity, but unity cannot survive on symbolism alone. It must be built through shared belonging.