As Namibia celebrates another year of independence, an often asked question is what independence really means for the new generation of Namibians growing up today?

Today, Namibia celebrates 36 years of independence. 

But Namibian children are far removed from both colonial rule and the decades-long liberation struggle.

Eden Seventh-Day Adventist Academy, a private school owned by Windhoek Central Seventh-Day Adventist Church, held a pre-independence celebration under the very theme "What does independence mean to a Namibian child today?" today.

All born after 2008 – about two decades after the liberation struggle's end – students here inherited a nation that their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents fought to free.

15-year-old learner Hope Makuza shares the importance of independence with her.

"I believe Independence Day is important to me because it's a day that I get to remember my forefathers and the sacrifice that they made for me and the kids in this country. Without their sacrifice, you wouldn't be able to come to school or do the things that we do today. The racism that's been going around – it could have been worse. But thanks to their sacrifice, we get to have this day. And I appreciate what they've done for us."

Member of Parliament Austin Samupwa addressed the occasion, highlighting specific progress that has secured actual change in the lives of Namibia's children.

"The change in Namibia is for the better. Number one, we have peace. There was no peace here before independence for some of us who saw what was happening here. We couldn't gather like this for a long time because it was a military zone, the whole of Namibia. So we have peace now, and before that we didn't know even the cultures of other Namibians who lived on the other side. We have the unity now."

Samupwa explains the difference between fighting for freedom and the actual work of building a free nation.

"You see, the first struggle was difficult and bitter. The second struggle, where we are freeing ourselves economically, is even more difficult. But we are making strides in that, as we can observe. Like I was telling the learners here, at independence we were more than 70 per cent poverty level, as we speak now. We are less than 20 per cent of the poverty level in Namibia."