Free us from Ovaherero slavery - San

Free us from Ovaherero slavery - San JEMIMA BEUKES



WINDHOEK

San community chief Joseph Gomoseb has accused government of sidelining them and perpetually excluding them from development, while they endure ‘slavery’ at the hands of Ovaherero.

According to him, the San people are abused by non-San officials while non-San teachers mistreat San learners because they look down on the San.

“We want a school created for the San from grade one to grade 12 and teachers who are from the San community. The Ovaherero officials are telling the San that they must learn to speak Ovaherero. We can no longer be slaves of the Ovaherero, we want the freedom of the San people. “We want to know whether the freedom that came for Namibia is the same freedom for the San, because with this government, the San just became hungrier,” he said.

According to him, Ovaherero communities benefit from social and drought relief products that are supposed to go to the San people, who often go hungry for months.

Exclusion, discrimination

Led by Gomoseb, a delegation to parliament, where they handed over a petition, said they want to be included in the genocide negotiations as they have been part of this country for years and suffered equally under the various regimes, including the Germans.

In the petition, the San community expressed disappointment in their perpetual exclusion from national development dialogue.

They also want parliament to look into the continued discrimination against them and the invasion of their land without consultation.

“We are still discriminated against and oppressed on a daily basis by other groups of people who continue to unlawfully invade our land allocated to us by our community chiefs. We demand inclusion in the ongoing negotiations between Namibia and Germany and investigations into our land allocations, for example the areas around Talismanus and other affected areas,” Gomoseb said.

jemima@namibiansun.com