3rd part for The Divide and Rule Strategies vs ovaHerero communities:

The modern Namibian politics divides the ovaHerero communities further into different political affiliations which truly grow to be the biggest barriers to unite this society. The political affiliation predominantly suppresses the kinship members of the family which supposed to be our first affiliation, we value. The comradeship is regarded highly over relatives. This poke holes in the society and the government is capitalized on that, by advancing his agenda of dividing us further. Our duality supposed to glued us together no matter our differences. Hence, we drifted away from valuing our duality kinship system that used to governs us for generations. We turn to value, titles given by society either under political affiliations, red flags, and academics ranks replaced our seniority of patrilineal and matrilineal system.

This attitude causes the enemies to finds easy tools to bring division amongst us. The moderns Namibians politics under the ruling parties has deployed three rules as their strategies to makes the ovaHerero nation remains divided. The first rules the governments are using to makes sure this society remain divided is called the misleadership strategy. In this strategy the government created a system where it recognized certain traditional chiefs over others to causes infight over the chieftaincy. Mostly in their choices in whom they should recognized there is certain trends they look at based on the misleadership strategy. Those leaders must be cheaply concerned with themselves and not their people and they must be easily controlled to be easily manipulated to fulfils their agenda.

The second rules that has be deployed is the confusion strategy which comes in the form of the renumeration and vehicles given to these recognized chiefs. This strategy says makes sure you provide assistant to victims while you are destroying the victims. The assistance comes in the forms of the renumeration of the recognized chiefs.  This is an act of keeping the victim’s faith and kill them at the same time.  The rules of the confusion strategies say every act of aggression on the enemy’s part must be followed up by an act of compassion, this will confuse the victims and it will lead them to believe that the enemies are helping them. I know those who perusing this article, will criticized my contentions since these methodologies are designed systematical for one not to see it the ways I am seeing it and expressing it here.

The third invisibles and deadly rules deployed against ondwa ndji is the double enemy strategy which used to create a war within the movements of the victims. This strategies purpose is to stagnate progress, as the leaders have to fight on both fronts simultaneously. This is advantageous because it allows the enemy to destroy both groups while remaining invisible. This is seen in every ovaHerero traditional chiefs’ movements there is infight over petty issues. Fellow ovaHerero wake up and smell the coffee it isn’t just petty issues of not a certain chief wasn’t invited to certain meeting it is the double enemy strategy at work. 

The purpose of this strategy is to causes the victims to self-organized to destroy each other. The evident of this strategy is the fight break always amongst this communities during burials of prominent individuals in our society and during the genocide negotiation government putting few descendants of ovaHerero on the frontline as negotiators to advance the division, this are clearly a double enemy strategy in place. Why don’t we have such fight among other tribes in Namibia? You want to tell me we are the only crazy tribes that can fight for mere funeral? No there is force behinds all this happening and force is called the double enemy strategies.

One is inquiring what we ought to do as a society to overcome this challenge? There's a saying in Otjiherero that says; “Ovengi vepuka nu kave karara”, in this manner, I think is almost that time we ought to return to our roots. What do I implied by going back to our roots? How are we going back to our roots within the 21st century for God sake?

 What I am trying to call out here is to begin to utilize our indigenous knowledge system and follow the cultural protocols to handle certain issues that pertain to the society. When we begin to follow the matrilineal (Omayanda) and patrilineal (Otuzo) system that links all ovaHerero descent to 34 patrilineal and nine matrilineal which work interchangeable. These systems have unique positions in each ovaHerero functions, when this upholds and regarded highly some of our difference will be handled different and we will unite and focused our energy and strength to real enemies that hide behinds all our difference.

On this juncture, I have this to says every ovaHerero descents everywhere across the global in spite of your political, flags and groups or movements affiliations: I want to let you knows this Otjiherero proverb is calling you home: “Kwariri nyoko kevako”, and I wish to caution any descendants of this tribes kutja ondwa ndji kairandisiwa. On the same note one wish to speak to the government of our republic that ondwa ndji ikwaterwa kairanderwa. Therefore, let these words in bold sink in your psyche.

In my conclusion the covid19 regulations is discriminatory in its nature that, the science didn’t look at African indigenous knowledge science but Eurocentric science. There is one size fit all science that are being applied in this covid19 era from the medicine to the regulation there is a lack of Afrocentricity in them. These regulations that the government is introducing has zero understanding of our cultural practices, when we come to the funerals of our loved one and it really causes a huge damaged on mental health and causes a lot of trauma in our communities and forced us to bury our loved one the time which is prohibited by our traditional norms. 

There is huge mishandling of funerals arrangement, which end up to touched on the rights of ovaHerero communities as indigenous communities, that are enshrined in the United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which stated in Article 15 number two that says: States shall take effective measures, in consultation and cooperation with the indigenous peoples concerned, to combat prejudice and eliminate discrimination and to promote tolerance, understanding and good relations among indigenous peoples and all other segments of society.

Why am I bringing this up here, because there is saying that that says: “Okapapu ketu otji keyendayenda”. Therefore, there should by nothing should by done for us without us. Our practice should be respected but that cannot be respected by other if we cannot respect that ourselves.

In the next article I will looks at what is at stake when the paramount chiefs are no more, and the purpose of the paramount chief’s chieftaincy to the ovaHerero society.

(Article written by:  Mr Alphons Kahuhu Koruhama(CEO of Possibility Thinkers)