Social commentator Sam Kauapirura believes more still needs to be done to incorporate genocide studies into the national school curriculum.
Kauapirura was speaking in an interview with NBC's Namibia Connects programme ahead of Genocide Remembrance Day.
Kauapirura said 36 years after independence, the genocide remains scarcely integrated into the national academic curriculum.
He labelled the situation a structural failure with real consequences for national identity and for Namibians' ability to meaningfully engage in discussions around reparations.
"The National Assembly resolved that the Ministry of Education should incorporate genocide studies into the school curriculum, but implementation has been slow and inconsistent. Where genocide is taught, it tends to be brief and often filtered through a lens that prioritises diplomatic sensitivity over historical honesty. The depth of the concentration camps, the extermination orders, the medical experiments, and the specific legal machinery of dispossession are largely absent from standard classroom instruction."
Kauapirura also opposed the continued use of street names linked to genocide perpetrators.
"Von Trotha Street in Otjiwarongo is a frequently cited example. The continued presence of such names in public spaces reflects a broader failure to integrate this history into the collective national consciousness – a task that begins, but does not end, in classrooms."
Kauapirura called on all Namibians to take time to understand the country's history.
"This is not someone else's history. Whether you are Herero, Nama, Vambo, Damara, German-Namibian, or from any other background, the genocide happened on this soil, and it shaped the country we live in today. The land distribution you see today, the political marginalisation of certain communities, and the unfinished conversations about justice all trace back to 1904 to 1908. You cannot understand modern Namibia without understanding this history, so make it your business to understand it."
Thousands of Namibians are expected to commemorate the victims of the 1904-1908 genocide on May 28.