Herero Festival Remarks 17 3 18.docx normal.final (1) (original) (raw)

Measured in terms of demographic loss, the final 1904-08 Ovaherero and Nama uprising against the Germans in Namibia was the most horrific of Africa's many anti-colonial struggles. Its impact can be summarised by the fact that it claimed the lives of well over 70% of all Ovaherero at the time, along with not less than half of the Nama. That Ovaherero can, nonetheless, regularly come together in celebration of their Heritage, here at Takarive and elsewhere, is a powerful testament to the community’s enduring strength in overcoming past adversity, while meeting their contemporary challenges in the Diaspora, as well as in Namibia. No community suffered more during the last century from racist pseudo-science as well as racial imperialism than the Ovaherero, along with their Ovambandero and Nama neighbours. By the same token no community, in this region or elsewhere, put up a stouter more sustained resistance to the forces of oppression. This is a history of extreme suffering and extraordinary heroism that is too important to forget.