THE flames of the ovaHerero and vaKwangali traditional authorities, respectively, went off in 2014.
Lost and mourned were ‘big trees’ in the form of paramount chief Kuaima Riruako and hompa Daniel Sitentu Mpasi.
Riruako’s journey ended on the 2nd of June 2014 at the Roman Catholic Hospital in Windhoek due to high blood pressure complications. The paramount chief was 79 when he succumbed to his ailments.
Mpasi, at age 80, gave in to a long illness on 17 December 2014 at the Nkurenkuru mission hospital in the Kavango West region.
The former was a national politician who participated in post-independent Namibia’s National Assembly (NA) as a candidate of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) and NUDO respectively. Prior to independence, according to a Wikipedia entry, Riruako actively participated in petitioning the UN in support of the national liberation struggle.
He was arrested, tortured and exiled by the apartheid colonial regime. He was also a tireless fighter in petitioning compensation and reparation from the government of Germany for the Herero and Nama genocide, between 1904 and 1907, committed by the German colonial forces.
However, it is also an open secret that chief Kuaima Riruako collaborated with the colonial government of South Africa through the DTA project when NUDO joined the alliance after the death of paramount chief Clemens Kapuuo. For that, the ruling party Swapo did not mince words to call him a “puppet” of the apartheid regime.
In death, his memorial service was conducted at the parliament gardens in the capital. The Namibian government under the presidency of President Hifikepunye Pohamba surprised the nation by bestowing a rare honour of a state funeral upon an opposition politician. A full military honour sent chief Riruako off to his final resting place in the beautiful garden town of Okahandja.
President Pohamba, who calls Riruako his friend, also ordered a three-day mourning period. All government flags were flown at half mast. The media and the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation also did their patriotic duty in paying their respects to the fallen chief.
Mpasi, on the other hand, joined the liberation struggle, influenced by the fearless Nathanael Maxuilili, in the 1950s. He served as a treasurer for the Swakopmund underground Ovambo People’s Organization (OPO) cell, so revealed his eulogy.
Danger Ashipala, Kambokoto Mike, Olie Kazungura, Frans ‘Ngomone’ Kapoko, Ndundu zaAfrica, Djakamati, Joseph Iimba, Festus Nuyom and Kahenge –as PLAN combatants – all slept and were fed in his house.
Unlike other traditional chiefs who were co-opted to serve in the homeland administration, Mpasi refused to participate. Instead, he openly supported the national liberation movement Swapo, including trips abroad – such as London and Zambia – to secretly meet with the Swapo leadership in exile.
The consequences were dire. The apartheid security forces several times plotted to remove him from the chieftainship, and even tried to assassinate him by bombing “mbara zaUukwangali (the Uukwangali palace) twice.
After independence, against the uproar of his people, he applied the constitutional principle of “any Namibian has the right to live anywhere in Namibia” by giving land to people outside his jurisdiction.
Perhaps out of greed, senior politicians were first in the queue to benefit from this patriotic benevolence.
In death, both former President Sam Nujoma and President Pohamba heaped praises on Mpasi as a great and “unwaivering” freedom fighter. President Pohamba and the First Lady attended the burial at the Mayara vilage.
But there was no state funeral. No military honour. No gun salute and no military marching band. According to Albert Kawana, as reported in New Era of 6 January 2015, hompa Sitentu died at an “unfortunate time.” Apparently, when the President, Prime Minister and other senior government officials are on holiday, the government ceases to function.
Let me be clear, I am not in favour of dishing out state funeral honours left and right – quite to the contrary. I also think that the government’s gesture of bestowing the honour of a state funeral on the late Riruako is good leadership.
The point of contention here, however, has to do with inconsistencies and lack of clarity in how the Namibian government accords heroic honours, and veteran status. The contention here is also that in the two Kavango regions, Swapo party and the government seem to have created or invented false heroes and heroines to the exclusion of the real heroes and heroines.
That’s what incensed some residents of the two Kavango regions about the government’s Mpasi snub, nothing more and nothing less.
*The author is a lecturer at Unam in the Department of Human Sciences-Social Work. The views expressed are entirely his. Follow me on twitter@NdumbaKamwanyah
