Damara clan leader fails to halt Okombahe festival

AN attempt to get the High Court to prevent the annual Damara cultural festival from being held at Okombahe this past weekend ended in defeat for traditional leader Immanuel /Gâseb.

An urgent application through which /Gâseb, the Government-recognised Chief of the !Oe ≠Gân Damara community, tried to get the court order was dismissed by Acting Judge Raymond Heathcote in the High Court in Windhoek on Friday morning./Gâseb sued the current Gaob (‘King’) of the Damara community, Justus //Garoëb, the Regional Councillor of the Daures constituency in the Erongo Region, Apius !Auxab, and Swakopmund Town Council member Elifas //Khoaseb, who helped organise the festival, in a bid to prevent the event from taking place.In an affidavit filed with the court, /Gâseb stated that in his view the festival was held with ‘ulterior motives’.He charged that //Garoëb, !Auxab and //Khoaseb were, under the guise of a festival to celebrate Damara history and culture, actually intending to misuse that platform ‘to pursue a narrow party-political agenda, in view of the upcoming national elections scheduled later this year’.’Such narrow interests may lead to tension and conflict at Okombahe that could result in bloodshed,’ /Gâseb stated./Gâseb told the court that Okombahe, situated between Omaruru and Uis, is the main centre of the !Oe ≠Gân traditional community.He claimed that in his capacity as Chief of the !Oe ≠Gân, he was never consulted by //Garoëb, !Auxab and //Khoaseb for permission to conduct the festival at Okombahe.Having referred to
//Garoëb as the leader of the UDF political party and the ‘self-proclaimed Chief of the Damara Nukhoe Traditional Community’, /Gâseb claimed //Garoëb had himself installed as the Gaob or King of the Damara./Gâseb also charged that it was ‘disrespectful and provocative’ of //Garoëb, !Auxab and //Khoaseb to have made arrangements to hold the festival at Okombahe without getting his permission first.//GaroëbRESPONDS//Garoëb responded by stating in an affidavit that he was ‘duly and democratically elected by the Damara Traditional Community on 6 November 1993 as their Gaob at Okambahe’ (sic).The Damara festival at Okombahe has been held for the past 32 years, through several national, regional and local authority elections, and there had never been any incident of violence or threats of violence, //Garoëb said.He also declared that the festival has never carried any political connotation, ‘as the Damara people have diverse political affiliations which I respect’.//Garoëb further claimed that in fact he appointed /Gâseb as a Chief. ‘(A)s such he still reverts under my authority,’ //Garoëb claimed.He added that Okombahe is ‘a cosmopolitan traditional Damara town’ which consists not only of the !Oe ≠Gân traditional community, but also of a host of other traditional communities./Gâseb’s authority is confined to the !Oe ≠Gân traditional community, and even in that community, the group that wanted the festival to not take place is so marginal that it is insignificant, //Garoëb claimed.In his ruling Acting Judge Heathcote emphasised that the Constitution of the Damara People of Namibia, which sets out the structure of the Damara traditional authorities and defines their powers, states that the Gaob is ‘entitled to loyalty, honour, support and obedience from all the Damaras’ who belong to the different tribal components of the Damara.Based on the material filed with the court he could not see that //Garoëb’s decision to hold the festival this year was unlawful, Acting Judge Heathcote said. He dismissed the application with costs. Gerson Hinda represented //Garoëb as the King’s counsel. /Gâseb’s application was taken to court on instructions from the Ministry of Regional and Local Government and Rural Development, with Adolf Denk representing /Gâseb on instructions from the office of the Government Attorney.