Calls for reparative justice and national unity took centre stage during the Genocide Remembrance Day commemoration held at Swakopmund.

Ovaherero historian Usutuaije Maamberua said Namibia must continue demanding justice and reparations from Germany for the 1904-1908 genocide against the Ovaherero and Nama people.

Maamberua described the genocide as a deliberate attempt by imperial Germany to destroy indigenous communities through killings, forced displacement, concentration camps and land dispossession.

He called for stronger efforts to preserve genocide history, protect concentration camp sites and ensure reparations directly benefit affected communities.

"We must speak the truth today about the institutions that colluded with this machinery of death. History reveals that the Christian missionary church played a highly disturbing, duplicitous role. Following the open warfare, the church actively collected the starving, scattered Ovaherero survivors from the bush under the guise of humanitarian sanctuary, only to systematically hand them over to the German Imperial military to be placed involuntarily into concentration camps. While our ancestors suffered inside the Swakopmund concentration camp, Rhenish missionaries like Heinrich Vedder and Gottlieb Viehe walked among the dying, compiling cold administrative reports while failing to use their moral authority to demand that our people be released." 

Erongo Governor Nathalia |Goagoses said the day serves as a reminder of pain endured by Namibians during colonial rule and the importance of unity, healing and justice.

"We remember with pain, but also with purpose. The genocide was an attempt to erase identity, culture and humanity. Yet, today by standing together, we declare that our memory cannot be erased, our dignity cannot be silenced, and our unity cannot be broken. This commemoration is also a call to action. Let us ensure that remembrance translates into reconciliation, that reconciliation translates into justice and that justice translates into a future where no community ever suffers such atrocities again."

|Goagoses encouraged young people to preserve the history of the genocide and ensure its lessons are never forgotten.