The President H.E. Dr Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, has called on all Namibians to actively safeguard the nation’s hard-won freedom and uphold the selfless spirit of the anti-colonial struggle, speaking at a solemn reburial ceremony at Heroes’ Acre on Monday.
The President’s address came as the remains of six liberation struggle heroes were officially reinterred at the national monument on the outskirts of Windhoek. The historic event brought together cabinet ministers, military veterans, traditional leaders, and family members to honor the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for Namibia’s independence.
Speaking at the ceremony, Nandi-Ndaitwah described the reinterment as an act of restorative justice that returned dignity and recognition to those who sacrificed their lives for Namibia‘s independence. “Reinterment is not just the movement of human remains from one place to another. It is the restoration of dignity,” she said.
The ceremony followed Namibia‘s receipt last Friday of 84 ancestral human remains that had been kept at Iziko Museum in South Africa. Nandi-Ndaitwah said the remains, whose identities and histories were disrupted during the colonial era, will be kept at the national museum.
The president said colonialism had subjected many freedom fighters to imprisonment, displacement and death, with some buried in unmarked graves or separated from their families and homeland for decades.
Their return represented a reunion of the fallen with the land and people for whom they sacrificed, while strengthening Namibia‘s national memory, identity and reconciliation, she added.
Furthermore, Nandi-Ndaitwah called on schools, universities, museums, archives, cultural institutions and the media to preserve and teach the history of the liberation struggle to younger generations.
“A nation that forgets the price of its freedom risks taking that freedom for granted,” she warned. The president noted that the ultimate tribute to the fallen should be the building of a Namibia where citizens live with dignity, opportunities are broadened, poverty is defeated, justice is protected and national unity remains strong.
Monday’s ceremony formed part of activities marking Namibia‘s Heroes’ Day, observed annually on Aug. 26. The day commemorates the Battle of Omugulugwombashe on 26 August 1966, widely regarded as the beginning of Namibia‘s armed struggle against South African colonial occupation and apartheid rule. (Xinhua).
