Rukoro likened to Moses ‘who never reached Promised Land’
WINDHOEK, 22 JUN- As Namibia commiserates and celebrates the life of late Ovaherero Paramount Chief, Advocate Vekuii Rukoro, the Otja-Kapuuo peer group has likened the departed leader to the biblical Moses who never reached the Promised Land. According to the peer group, under Rukoro’s stewardship, the Ovaherero and Nama people made significant strides in…
WINDHOEK, 22 JUN (NAMPA) – As Namibia commiserates and celebrates the life of late Ovaherero Paramount Chief, Advocate Vekuii Rukoro, the Otja-Kapuuo peer group has likened the departed leader to the biblical Moses who never reached the Promised Land.
According to the peer group, under Rukoro’s stewardship, the Ovaherero and Nama people made significant strides in their quest for restorative justice as far as the genocide issue is concerned.
Asser Mujazu, the group’s spokesperson says, “We shall miss Ombara Otjitambi Rukoro and take solace in the fact that he has laid fertile ground for us to carry the torch forward, driven by the yearning for prosperity for Ovaherero and other well-meaning nations.”
Rukoro’s demise came at a time when the negotiations climaxed and were about to yield positive results.
He galvanised the genocide reparation battle from legal, diplomatic, international solidarity and activism forums through slogans like ‘everything about us without us, is against us’ and ‘Germany can flee but it has nowhere to hide’.
These catchphrases were rallying cries for many people across diverse social structures and served to link a historical quest with a younger generation that was unwittingly detached from the historic mission.
“Ombara Otjitambi led from the front. Ombara Otjitambi led from the back. And just like Moses who never entered the Promised Land, the mission has been passed on to us, the descendants and the younger generation,” the group says in a media release availed to Nampa on Tuesday.
They implored the Nama and Ovaherero not to compromise on the genocide question, traits that Rukoro epitomised and embodied until his passing.
“Here we mean reparations in the true sense of the word, not the sham settlement agreement that the Namibian Government and a few individuals are peddling and hoping to legitimise,” said Mujazu.
Rukoro died on Friday, two days after the Ovaherero Traditional Authority confirmed that he had tested positive for COVID-19 which nearly 1 200 Namibians have already succumbed to according to official data.
The principled, yet uncompromising, Rukoro will be remembered for his firm moral stance on a wide range of contemporary issues, driven by a desire to do the best for his people and surrounding nations and communities.
Mujazu added: “While it is not yet ‘uhuru’ for the Ovaherero, Ombara Otjitambi Rukoro has exited at a point when the Ovaherero-Nama genocide and related discussions have garnered mainstream media attention, after over a century of being on the margins of discourse and blatant denials of the associated historical facts.”
(NAMPA)
MEM/PS/AS
