Marthina Mutanga
THE Ovaherero annual community gathering at Okakarara for the commemoration of the battle of Ohamakari has been cancelled this year.
Mitiri Festus Muundjua, Patron and representative of the Ovaherero Genocide Foundation (OGF), said that due to the alarming cases of Covid-19 in the country that has also not spared the Herero community, it is in the best interest of the public not to have an event this year.
Instead, those who usually attend the annual gathering have been advised to remember the day at their homes.
Ovaherero, Ovambanderu, as well as Nama people in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, gather near Okakarara every year to commemorate the Battle of Ohamakari, which took place between the Ovaherero and the German imperial forces on 11 August 1904.
Muundjua noted that the battle of Waterberg on 11 August 1904 was the final battle of the Ovaherero wars.
Following the defeat of the Ovaherero forces, the surviving Ovaherero people fled into the Kalahari Desert under the leadership of Samuel Maharero.
The Ovaherero Paramount Chief Vekuii Rukoro has been advocating for an apology for the Ovaherero and Nama people by Germany for the many atrocities committed against their people over a century ago.
