Maharero clan files case over holy fire

Werner Menges

The Maharero Royal House Traditional Authority last week lodged a case with the High Court in which it is asking the court to declare that the traditional authority has the sole right to establish and maintain a holy fire at the premises known as Commando at Okahandja. The traditional authority is also asking the court to order that it has the sole right to the Commando premises for the weekends immediately before or after 23 August each year, which is when the Ovaherero community gathers in large numbers at Okahandja to commemorate their ancestors and deceased leaders.

The court is further being asked to issue an interdict that would prohibit the Red Flag Association from removing the holy fire established at the Commando hall, and which would prevent the Red Flag Association from using or occupying the Commando premises during the weekend immediately before or after 23 August each year.

The Red Flag Association’s Okahandja Commando intends to “vigorously defend” the legal action launched against it by the Maharero Royal House Traditional Authority, the patron of the commando, Vekuii Rukoro, declared in a press statement issued on Friday.

Since the case filed by the traditional authority is not an urgent application, nothing in it at this point interferes with the constitutionally guaranteed right of the Ovaherero people and the Red Flag Association to gather at Okahandja as planned this coming weekend to commemorate their fallen heroes, Rukoro said.

The former attorney general added that the Okahandja Commando and also the Ovaherero Traditional Authority, of which he is the chief legal advisor, welcome the case filed by the Maharero Royal House Traditional Authority so that final clarity can be obtained over who has legitimate authority over the Okahandja commemorations.

The designated chief of the Maharero Royal House Traditional Authority, Tjinaani Maharero, claims in an affidavit filed with the court that the Red Flag Association, one of its senior members, Ismael Kamuhapita, and Abisai Mungendje, who was responsible for the holy fire at Okahandja with each year’s commemoration, lit a new holy fire at the Commando premises during August 2011.

That holy fire was not situated at the place where it had been lit for nearly nine decades, which was to the east of the Commando building, but instead was lit at a place to the west of the building, Maharero states.

He is claiming that the correct customary rituals – which include the dedication of the holy fire by a traditional priest who is a descendant of the Maharero clan – were not followed when a new holy fire was lit in August 2011. This meant that the holy fire had been desecrated, Maharero is charging.

Since the burial of the Ovaherero people’s Chief Samuel Maharero at Okahandja on 26 August 1923, the Red Flag Association has been responsible for organising each year’s commemorative events at Okahandja in close consultation with the Maharero clan, Maharero claims.

He is arguing that the Maharero Royal House Traditional Authority has over the past 90 years established a right to reignite and dedicate the holy fire for the August commemoration, and that this right or custom was breached when the Red Flag Association unilaterally changed the location of the holy fire two years ago.

Disagreements about the shifting of the holy fire also caused a rift in the ranks of the Ovaherero community before last year’s commemoration at Okahandja. This resulted in the police blocking access to the Commando premises, where the holy fire was situated, and the Red Flag Association suing the police in an unsuccessful attempt to be allowed to gather at the premises as previously planned. That dispute delayed the commemoration by a week.