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As leaders of the first
Government, we saw it fit to pay homage to our heroes and heroines
by funding the construction of this Heroes' Acre. The planning
construction, and even the very concept of the Heroes' Acre was
received with different feelings among the citizenry, In a
democracy such reactions are to be expected. It is part and parcel
of our people's freedoms and rights to express themselves in
different ways. It is well and good that the genuine majority of
our patriots raised their voices in concurrence with the
construction of this national monument in the broadest sense of
that concept. In the final analysis, it must be seen as one of
those tangible expressions of our policy of national
reconciliation, Statehood and unity as a nation.
It is a place for all Namibians
irrespective of their political, racial, ethnic, or religious
backgrounds to come and honor those sons and daughters of our soil
who sacrificed their lives, and those who, during their lifetimes,
made great and meaningful contributions to the liberation of the
Land of the Brave and all her people in their diversity.
Compatriots, this monument was built as our token of honor to our
forefathers and mothers.
I ask all of you, who will in
the future pass through these gates and set foot on this Heroes'
Acre, to do so with due respect and honor, for, here will lay the
remains of those who shed their blood for the irrevocable
sovereignty of our Republic. At this Heroes' Acre we, the Namibian
people, are writing the history of Namibia, the history of
victory, the history of unity, the history of dedication, indeed,
the history of nationhood. Fellow Namibians, we are writing the
history of our country from our own perspective and through our
own suffering and sacrifices. The time when colonizers distorted
our history is now gone forever.
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The entire leadership in
Government has gone through an agonizing process of identifying
the parameters that will assist our citizens to identify those
persons whose names will be engraved in golden letters here and
those who will be buried here in future. It has been a very
demanding process, indeed. As a result, it was felt that the
wisdom of all Namibians must be sought through our Regional
Governors and all their regional communities. It must be
emphasized that this process has to be as representative,
all-inclusive and consultative to arrive at a final conclusion.
While many useful suggestions have been received from the regions,
the process is still going on.WE as Namibians have learned greatly in the process
of establishing our Heroes' Acre and we continue to draw lessons
from neighboring countries and others far afield in this regard. I
call on all Namibians to contribute to the national effort of
honoring our heroes and heroines in this befitting manner by
proposing the names, and where possible, giving the details of
heroic deeds for inclusion in the list of those whose names will
appear at the Heroes' Acre now and in the future.
I admit that many Namibians
have achieved great feats and historic deeds that qualify them as
heroes and heroines. In fact, over the years, and in our daily
lives, many heroes and heroines manifest themselves by performing
deeds of gallantry, bravery, selfless sacrifice and honor. All of
them deserve to be honored and recognized in the most fitting
manner, because they are indeed heroes and heroines in their own
right.
You will, however agree with
me that for practical, logistical and other reasons, not all of
the names that we received from the Regions will find place for
inclusion here at the Heroes' Acre. However, our citizens must
rest assured that through transparency the identification process
will be thorough, balanced and objective. Therefore, in order to
ensure that justice is done to all our deserving national heroes
and heroines, each city and each town, all communities, each
village and each settlement must participate in this process.
As the saying goes, "a people
who do not know their history, or where they came from will not
know where they area going." In our own context, if we as
Namibians neglect and forget our history, we will not be able to
chart the future course for our country and her people. This
fitting memorial to the rich history of our country must serve to
remind and to educate our people about where we came from and
where we intend to go as an independent nation.
The Heroes' Acre must serve
as an inspiration to our citizens, both young and old alike, that
through determined and united action we can achieve our national
goals, despite the obstacles that may seem insurmountable. Indeed,
we must draw strength, inspiration and courage from this monument
and all that it represents as we forge ahead with the noble task
of national development. May the eternal flame continue to
illuminate our path towards a stronger, united and more prosperous
Namibia.
As we inaugurate this Heroes"
Acre today, we will unveil the graves of nine of our national
heroes and heroines whose names have already been engraved here in
the Heroes' Acre. These heroes and heroines were identified from
the period of our people's resistance against German colonialism
to the era of modern anti-colonial struggle, specifically the
Windhoek Old Location Uprising on 10 December 1959.
I will now present them in
the following order:
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As history tells
us, the German colonialists entered our national territory in the
early 1800s, through the merchant activities of
Adolph Luderitz
and the German missionaries who also reconnoitered the territory
and sent daily information to the German Imperial Government.
Later on, the German Imperial Government sent troops to occupy the
territory which they referred to as the German Sudwest
Protectorate. Their intent was to conquer and subjugate our people
and to exploit and pillage the resources of our motherland. When
they saw fit, they did not hesitate to murder, maim, torture and
imprison our people on Shark Island, off the shores of
Luderitz.
Some of the Nama people were
also imprisoned along the Skeleton Coast where they later died in
their thousands. Up to this day, their skeletons could still be
seen with the naked eyes as the winds constantly blow away the
sand dunes which cover their remains. Some of our Nama people
were deported, detained and exiled in Togo and Cameroon which
were also German colonies where thousands of them died of
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sickness caused by the harsh treatment and unfamiliar
climatic conditions to which they were exposed. Today, if you go to the southern
regions of our country, especially the Hardap and Karas Regions, you Hardly see anybody because the Namas were exterminated as a community by the
German Imperial troops. The extermination of the Nama people by the German
Imperial troops can be verified by many eyewitnesses. One such
eyewitness, a young girl who by 1904 was six years old, by the
name of Sophia Neels, personally witnessed the massacres of whole
villages between Gibeon and Swartmodder. Whole families were wiped
out, especially the men folk. After all the men in her village
were killed by the German Imperial troops, she helped her mother
to flee with her little brother, Jacob, into the bush. They were
attacked by wild animals and unfortunately her little brother died
of thirst and starvation. She helped her mother bury Jacob in the
riverbed and they covered his body with sand and grass. That
evening, the hyenas devoured the small body of Jacob. In this way,
thousands of our Nama people who fled from German Imperial troops
died between 1904 and 1907. They died of starvation, thirst,
trauma and attacks by wild animals which were then still roaming
our countryside.
Confronted with this inhumane
treatment at the hands of the German Imperial troops, our peace
loving people were left with no other choice but to rise to arms
and fight back in defense of their land and territorial integrity.
Among them was a revolutionary and determined leader and military
tactician by the name of Kaptein Hendrik Witbooi. Through
his bravery and courage he led and commanded our Nama people in
popular armed resistance against the German Imperial Forces of
occupation of our land until he was killed in battle on 29 October
1905 at a place which is today known as Witbooiseinde, in the
vicinity of Vaalgras.
It is a historical fact that
Kaptein Hendrik Witbooi was the first African leader who took up
arms against the German imperialists and foreign occupiers in
defense of our land and territorial integrity. We, the new
generation of the Land of the Brave, are inspired by Kaptein
Hendrik Witbooi's revolutionary action in combat against the
German Imperialists who colonized and oppressed our peoples. To
his revolutionary spirit and his visionary memory we humbly offer
our honor and respect.
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Jacob Marenga
who was another revolutionary leader succeeded Kaptein Witbooi and
led the Nama people and fought many of the longest guerilla
warfares against the German Imperial forces in the southern
regions of our country. During the Bondelswarts Uprising of 1903
to 1904 he waged the armed resistance from a base in the Karas
Mountains that was inaccessible to the enemy. It was at that base
where he revised and co-coordinated his entire military strategy
against the foreign occupation of the motherland. Born of a Herero
mother and a Nama father, Marenga had a vision of broad African
nationalism which transcended narrow ethnic loyalties and he was
therefore designated as "the man of the future". He employed
scientific guerilla tactics with the multi-ethnic troops under his
command and engaged the German
colonial army in more than fifty battles. After he made a
tactical retreat to the Cape Province, then a British
colony, where he sought political asylum from the British
colonial authorities there, a large crowd assembled at Prieska to welcome
the brave guerilla leader. Marenga held a press conference at
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Prieska which was attended by several journalists including one
from the Cape Times who asked him whether his tactical
spelled the end of the war in South West
Africa. He answered in the negative and stated that the war would
drag on for much longer. "Yes, indeed. It will last as long as there
is a single Africa, in the bush".
Although he stated that he would under no circumstances "surrender
to the Germans, but only, if need be, to the British Major
Elliott", it was the same Major Elliott, accompanied by Hagen and
others, who betrayed him and killed him in a battle that lasted
over four hours on 20 September 1907 near Eenzamheid, about 100
kilometers north of Upington. This, what the German colonial
troops could not achieve on their own, was finally accomplished by
Anglo- German collaboration in suppressing the Name uprising by
the treacherous murder of Marenga by the very same British
authorities whom he trusted.
To his revolutionary spirit
and his visionary memory we humbly offer our honor and respect.
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Another
revolutionary son of the Namibian soil and hero of our
people, Chief Kahimemua Nguvauva, declared, "While I am
alive I will never give land to strangers". Chief Kahimemua
Nguvauva's strong beliefs and convictions drew the anger of the
German colonialists who decided to physically eliminate him. This
lead to intense battles with the German Colonial forces. In 1896,
Chief Nguvauva was executed by the German colonial soldiers at
Okahandja, because of his fierce resistance to colonialism and
foreign occupation
To his revolutionary spirit and his visionary
memory we humbly offer our honor and respect.
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Chief Samuel
Maharero wrote the following words to his contemporary
Hermanus van Wyk, Captain of the Basters, "I would rather that
they annihilate us and take over our lands than go on as we are".
With that determination he started to make plans for tan uprising
against the German colonial authorities and white German settlers
in the country. As a result, in January 1904 the uprising began and chief
Maharero's forces surrounded the German colonial settlers at
Okahandja,
Omaruru and the famous Battle of Ohamakari near the
Waterberg Mountain. The strength of his forces compelled the
German colonial troops to send in reinforcements under the
notorious
General Lotha von Trotha who carried out an
extermination order to wipe out all women, children and elderly
persons.
This extermination order read
as follows:
"Within the German borders,
every Herero, with or without a gun, with or without cattle, will
be shot. No
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women and children will be allowed in the territory; they
will be driven back to their people or fired on. These are the last words to
the Hereros from me, the great general of the mighty German
Emperor". The
Hereros retreated tactically while fighting into the waterless
Kalahari Desert where the few known water holes were poisoned by
the German troops. They died in their tens of thousands after
drinking poisoned water. The Nama, resorting once more to guerilla
warfare tactics of which they were masters, held out tenaciously
for several more years, but due to German troop reinforcements the
resistance temporarily ceased. Due to this extermination order,
the Herero population had been reduced from about 80,000 to 15,130
and by 1907, the German war machine had exterminated some 60
percent of the population of the then South West Africa. This
included more than two-thirds of the herero section as well as
half of the Nama and Damara sections of our population.
To his revolutionary spirit
and his visionary memory we humbly offer our honor and respect.
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In January 1904,
Chief Nehale Lya Mpingana's forces attacked the German
Imperial Force at
Fort Namutoni and emerged victorious. His
warriors captured horses , cattle, wagons and other war material.
This is one of the many battles that Chief Nehale and his warriors
fought against Afrikaner trekkers and German colonial forces in
our people's resistance against colonialism and foreign invaders.
He also destroyed the so-called Republic of Upingtonia that was
established between Otavi and
Grootfontein. Its' founder, William
Worthington Jordaan, was killed by Chief Nehale's forces in 1886,
leaving the Boer trekkers without a leader. They dispersed
afterwards to Angola and some returned to South Africa.
To his revolutionary spirit
and his visionary memory we humbly offer our honor and respect.
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Chief Mandume
ya Ndemufayo, declared that, "If the English want me, I am
here. They can come and fetch me. I will not fire the first shot,
but I am not a steenbok of the veldt. I am a man, not a woman. I
will fight until my last bullet is expended. Yeengulu yeehama
(Ojihehenja, yeengulu yehama eso noupika shimue shike). It is
better to die fighting than to become a slave of the colonial
forces." These were the defiant words of one of Namibia's foremost
anti-colonialist fighters. He said these words in defiance when
the combined South African, British and Portuguese colonial forces
insisted he should surrender. Chief Mandume fought many battles
combined against the South Africa, Portuguese and British colonial
forces. He died in battle at Oihole.
To his revolutionary spirit
and his visionary memory we humbly offer our honor and respect. |
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Chief Lipumbu
ya Tshilongo was a true Namibian nationalist ruler who
rejected the idea to pay taxes to the South Africa colonial
authorities and who refused to cooperate with them. He also did
not allow the missionaries to gain any influence over him or his
people. He strongly resisted and did not recognize the authority
of the colonial occupiers and invaders. As a result, South African
military aircraft bombed his palace at Onashiku with the purpose
to kill him. His son Nujoma Titus Kanjika Lipumbu, at the age of
eighteen, fired at the enemy aircraft in order to defend his
father and the palace. However, his father, Chief Lipumbu ya
Tshilongo, was captured, exiled and detained in the Kavango Region
and also denied any access to his kingdom. His resistance and
strong nationalistic character inspired many
people, even in his absence, to continue with the anti-colonial
struggle. The prophetic final words of Chief Lipumbu as he was forced into the
enemy aircraft were, (Nande mukuatendje ohiina taaja shito jemutse
oshiti)/ " Even if you whites take me away from my land my
people have the will to come and liberate and restore our
human dignity and independence".
To his revolutionary spirit
and his visionary memory we humbly offer our honor and respect. |
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Chief Hosea
Komombumbi Kutako was born in 1890 in the Okahandja district.
He participated on the anti colonial was of 1904 as one of the
leading commanders. He also played an historic and significant
role in petitioning the United Nations Organisation demanding the
placement of the then South West Africa under the United Nations
trusteeship system with the purpose that the international
community should assist the Namibian people to develop towards
self-determination and national independence. He also opposed the
forcible removal of the residents of the Windhoek Old Location to
present-day Katutura which was proclaimed by Verwoerd, the
Minister of Native Affairs under Daniel Malan of South Africa,
that there should be a buffer zone between the residential areas,
those of the whites and the indigenous people.
Chief Kutako was
later joined in petitioning the United Nations by Chief Samuel Witbooi, Reverend Thoefilus Hamutumbagela and
Sam Nujoma. In this
way, he played a major role in Namibia's struggle for freedom and
independence.
To his revolutionary spirit
and his visionary memory we humbly offer our honor and respect. |
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The colonial
regime of South Africa continued to increase its repressive laws
in the face of greater resistance by the Namibian people. By 1959,
the racist regime of apartheid colonialism and oppression decided
to forcibly relocate the indigenous residents of
Windhoek Old
Location to an area the regime had earmarked to create a buffer
zone between the indigenous residents of Windhoek Old Location and
the white residents of the town of Windhoek. This was well within
the warped logic of apartheid planners of racial segregation. The
people of the Old Location fiercely resisted the diabolical
forcible removal of the Boer regime. The brutal machinery of
apartheid oppression used excessive force of heavy weapons,
including armored cars, in their attempt to force our people to
move to present-day Katutura which was built on the basis of
apartheid. On that fateful day, twelve peaceful demonstrators
were killed and more than fifty others were injured. In the face of this brutality, a
courageous and fearless young woman by the name of
Kakurukaze Mungunda
demonstrated her bravery and heroism by setting alight the
car of De Wet who was the superintendent of the Windhoek Old
Location. She was shot on the spot and Killed in |
cold blood
by the South African apartheid repressive police.To
her revolutionary spirit
and his visionary memory we humbly offer our honor and respect.
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Our
generation and the future generations of Namibians will never
forget the selfless sacrifices and courage of these heroes and
heroines whom we are honoring here today. Their heroism inspired
us all and they will always be remembered by the present and the
future generations of our country.Historically, throughout the
world nations and peoples recognize those who fought in defense of
their country's freedom and national interest and not the cowards
and collaborators who sided with their people's enemies. And that
is precisely what we are doing here today. Through the
inauguration of this memorial to our national heroes and heroines
we reiterate our pledge to protect the lives of our people, defend
the territorial integrity, territorial waters and the air space
above our land as well as the sovereignty and the independence of
the land of our forefathers and mothers. With the Constitution of
the Republic of Namibia as our guiding light, we dedicate
ourselves to keep the eternal flame at this memorial of our
national heroes and heroines burning at all times. We honor you, heroes and
heroines, of the Republic of Namibia. We salute you, sons and
daughters, of the soil of the Land of the Brave. We humbly offer
you our honor and respect. Your revolutionary bravery inspired us
to wage the heroic armed liberation struggle against forces of
apartheid colonialism and foreign invaders that you started to
fight to its logical conclusion, which was crowned with the final
victory of Namibia's independence, 21 March 1990. Today we honor
you for the sacrifices you have made. Your blood waters our
freedom With humility and utmost respect
I now have the honor to declare the Heroes' Acre of the Republic
of Namibia officially inaugurated.
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Long Live the Republic of
Namibia! |
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This page was produced
with the kind cooperation of:Text reproduced with the kind
permission of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
The Namibia National Heritage Council
This page is downloadable in PDF format.
Photographs: Keith Irwin
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