All Colonial Symbols In Namibia Must Fall

Joint Press Statement by the Nama Traditional Leaders Association and the Herero Traditional Authority in the Republic of Namibia

In Support for the Global Reparation Movement

20 June 2020

All Colonial symbols In Namibia Must Fall

We, the Ovaherero Genocide Foundation (OGF) and the Nama Traditional Leaders Association Technical Committee (NTLATC) and as Africans are in support of the Global Reparation Movement and shall not be passive on-lookers of how the people of all races in England are pulling down the statues of the racists Winston Churchill, Cecil Rhodes, et al, and whilst the rest of the world is marching in protest against the cold-blooded murders of Afro-Americans by white racist policemen in full view of cameras and everybody watching.

We are deeply moved and would like to throw in our unreserved solidarity support to all those protest marches. Enough is enough and BLACK LIVES MATTER everywhere.

Back home here in Namibia, we are in full support of the move to remove the statue of the Genocider and racist Kurt von Francois in front of the Windhoek Municipality.

The men and women who are in charge of the Windhoek Municipality must take courage and remove this statue that represents a horrendous history in front of the Municipality Building.

This is a statue of the man who committed genocide against the Witbooi people at Hoornkranz, and for no crime other than refusing to sign a so-called “Protection Treaty”.

The statue must go, because of what he did to the Witbooi folks – men, women and children, the looting and burning down of their homes at Hoornkranz.

The Windhoek City and Namibia as a whole should not glorify, monumentalize and immortalize him and his likes, period.

Marching to hand in a Petition to the Councilors is good start, and the Councilors are therefore advised to take this matter seriously.

We would also demand for umpteenth time that His Excellency, The President, summons within himself enough courage and honesty to enable him to remove the “Marine Denkmal” (statue) in front of his coastal official residence – The Swakopmund State House. That statue gives the impression that the President condones and is happy with the evil intent and deeds of those Germen soldiers whose mission was to exterminate the Namas and the Ovaherero people.

We would also like to implore our Parliament – all the political parties – to pass legislation to outlaw all those offensive and/or obnoxious colonial symbols, be they street names, statues and colonial names of our towns and farms from the Namibian geo-political space and restore them to their original historical African names.

Doing so, in our opinion, would only be a legitimate continuation of our struggle for a neo-decolonization process to cleanse our beloved country from the left-over German and Afrikaner Apartheid colonial legacies.

And finally, may we remind the readers of our Press Release that what we are asking is nothing new. It was done in Germany when by law the use of the name of Adolf Hitler, his statue, insignia and even his book: “Mein Kampf” are forbidden.

If so, why should we in Namibia continue to glorify street names, towns, farms and places of heritage with names and statues of people who have committed genocide here?

Don’t we have a historical Political Compass in this country?

Mr. Festus U. Muundjua | 081 1243419 | Patron and Acting Chairperson (OGF – under OTA)

Mrs. Sima Luipert-Goeieman | 081 7230454 | Vice-Chairperson (NTLATC)

The statement as pdf here