Namibian genocide survivors plan second exodus
Mbongeni Mguni | Friday February 3, 2017 15:28
“I shall spare neither women nor children. I shall give the order to drive them away and fire on them. Such are my words to the Herero people.”
These frightful words were spoken in full colonial arrogance by Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha, a German military leader appointed ‘supreme commander’ of South West Africa at the height of the European power’s dominion over the region.
The year was 1904 and Trotha, having arrived five months later with 14,000 men, was mercilessly crushing local resistance to Germany’s brutal reign, a period replete with assaults, rapes and mass murders committed with impunity by the European invaders.
The Ovaherero and Ovambanderu, together with the Nama, mounted resistance campaigns during the period, but their equipment and methods only served to enrage a technically superior and increasingly murderous Trotha.
He ordered mass executions of men and charged his troops to drive women and children deep into the desert to die of starvation. Between 24,000 and 100,000 Ovaherero, Ovambanderu and Nama people died in what is now referred to as one of the first genocides of the 20th century.
Historical records indicate that between 1,000 and 1,500 members of the indigenous tribesmen escaped into Botswana (then Bechuanaland), across the desert, whereupon Trotha ordered that the desert “be sealed” and water wells poisoned to block their return.
Local chiefs in Botswana received and sheltered the genocide survivors, assimilating them into the local communities.
The survivors and their descendants would later become Botswana citizens, gain education, jobs and build their lives on this side of the desert.
They would, however, not forget where they came from.
Today, more than 1,000 of them are in the final stages of a process to return to Namibia, a relatively prosperous, post-colonial country that has matured into a modern economy.
Having initially settled in Ngamiland and Gantsi districts, today Ovaherero and Ovambanderu are scattered across the country working as teachers, police, civil servants and others in various villages and cities.
“The reason we want to go back home is simple,” Kaaya Koruyezu says.
“It’s not that we have been ill-treated or that we are facing some economic hardships here. It’s not about any problems with Government or anything like that.
“We are going back because as Ovaherero and Ovambanderu who come from Namibia, we have always wanted to go back. It’s only that we have not had the opportunity before.”
His compatriot speaks up.
“Home is always home, wherever you come from,” Justice Muinjo explains.
“We live here, but we have never given up our hopes to return home because we are Namibians.”
Koruyezu and Justice Muinjo are part of a repatriation committee set up and recognised by Botswana and Namibia to coordinate the exodus of the Ovaherero and Ovambanderu.
The two men are talking by phone from Maun, their headquarters for the purposes of the exercise. Koruyezu is the committee’s secretary and Muinjo its chair.
A registration of those who wanted to return, done in March 2013, found more than 1,000 hopefuls, from villages such as Tsabong, Mahalapye, Serowe, Rakops and others.
The process became bogged down after that and the two Governments have now asked the committee to conduct a re-registration to obtain an accurate number. That process could be done by March, with the actual exodus taking place before year-end.
The logistics are daunting. Transport to Namibia, denouncing of Botswana citizenship and taking up of Namibian, allocation of land in Namibia and securing state assistance to resettle. Those working in Botswana will have to give notice to their employers as well.
But it has been done before. In 1993, about 7,000 Ovaherero and Ovambanderu returned to Namibia, taking up citizenship in their motherland and settling in, in what was the first exodus.
Muinjo expects that the re-registration will uncover even more tribesmen eager to go back home.
“From what we can see, we believe it’s going to be more than 1,000,” he says.
“The governments just want to find the accurate number of those wanting to return.”
In Ntlo ya Dikgosi on Thursday, Edwin Batshu, Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, said the registration would also include an updated list of livestock.
“The information is still being compiled, after which further engagement with the Government of Namibia will be made,” he said.
Land and livestock are a passion for the Ovaherero and Ovambanderu, many of whom hope to resettle in areas suitable for cattle ranching.
“We are farmers and we would like to resettle in the warmer areas,” Muinjo says.
“However, all we want is to return to Namibia, to live and work there. It’s up to the Government there to see how we make a living.”
Trotha’s plan to “seal” the desert is unravelling again. The Ovaherero and Ovambanderu living in Botswana have not forgotten their past, but they are reaching out to their future.
“The Germans issued an order to eliminate us. Up to 80% of Ovaherero and Ovambanderu died during that time. “We ended up running here. Botswana has been very good to us, but Namibia is our motherland,” Koruyezu says, striking a nostalgic tone for a land close to his heart.