Historian Dr. Martha Akawa-Shikufa says there is a need to educate young Namibians about the genocide history and how such events can be prevented in the future.
The Associate Dean of the School of Humanitarian, Society and Development at UNAM reflected on the 1904 - 1908 Ovaherero and Nama genocide, saying Namibians should use the Genocide Remembrance Day to reflect on the lives lost due to injustice.
"I would like to commend the government for setting a day aside for the Namibian people to come together and reflect, and I am talking about collective reflection. We are not talking about individual activities that may be performed by different opportunities, which are also important, but this is a national day for all Namibians to come together collectively to reflect and also to learn because when you look at genocides, there are different historical contexts where genocide took place in different countries."
Dr. Akawa-Shikufa explained that a country such as Rwanda has a genocide history, but the difference between it and Namibia is that Rwanda's was ethnically driven.
It is for this reason that she stressed that educating young Namibians about the genocide will teach them empathy and the human cost of hatred and racism.
"It is possible when people do not learn and understand, when people do not have empathy, because you are looking at understanding, empathy and knowing other people to say, Yes, these people, those people can be different, but we are together. So, we need to learn from those examples by taking a moment to learn and reinforce our unity through diversity. So, it is possible that if things like this are left unchecked and misunderstood, they can breed something, and that is what we need to avoid."
Such an education will also help them to recognise warning signs of similar events, reject future genocide ideologies and help them advocate for peace.
"Let's educate our children. They are on social media, but sometimes you think, Do they even know about genocide? What happened, the implications and impacts and even the impacts that we have today, so we have to continuously educate. And education should not just be formal or be in schools; it can also be informal education through different formats and levels. I talk about poetic expression, and I say that transgenerational education should continue so we do not forget, because we should not forget about the genocide."