Slinger’s Slaying: a Rude Reminder of History’s Atrocities

IN our African customs, a deceased person goes through a particular right of passage to the "other side". Until his body has gone through that right of passage and until it has been duly laid to rest, a deceased person in our customs has a right to dignity, and that dignity must be revered and protected. The respectful treatment of a decead's remains is not particular to Africa; it a custom that is observed in varied ways the world over. It is therefore hurtful that Mr Axarob Slinger's body was thrown into a wathog hole, alongside his dogs' bodies, without more.

The regrettable murder of the late Slinger sents a cold chill down the spine of history. And the manner in which he was burried is a confrontational and rude reminder of the absolute contempt of the racial Other that still prevails in Namibia. Slinger's murder may, in some circles, be conveniently classified as yet another crime in Namibia. However, the identity of his alleged perpetrator brings to the fore – and with a degree of urgency – a need to engage frankly with race relations in Namibia. Slinger was allegedly shot dead by a Namibian of German descent, Mr Karl Eichhoff.

Why Slinger's murder is a dive into history

At the dawn of the 20^th century, the German government issued an order for the extermination of certain native peoples of Namibia. The manner in which that order was carried out was much like the manner in which Slinger was killed – executed alongside his animals in the wilderness and his remains left to the vultures.

 

It is notable that Slinger's murder happened in October, the same month during which Namibia is commemorating one the most heinous crimes against humanity, the said extermination order. We had hardly returned from a pilgrim at Ozombuzovindimba, where 109 years ago, the infamous order against our people was issued, when we received the bad and sad news of Slinger's murder.

Slinger's execution bears close resemblance to the way in which our forebears were wiped out, one-by-one, by Eichhoff's forebearers during the time of Germany's imperial occupation of our native and motherland. One such resemblance is that Slinger went to look for his goats on that specific day, and  as history will have us recall, the Battle of Otjunda in 1896 started for similar reasons. The cattle of the Ovaherero and Ovambanderu were deemed to have crossed artificial grazing lines. They were subsequently impounded and sold. Chief Kahimemua Nguvauva and Nicodemus Kambahahiza Kavikunua were declared rebels for defending their rights and property in that they sought to have the cattle released. On 11 June 1896, Kavikunua and Nguvauva were found guilty of high treason and they were executed on 12 June 1896.

Our colonial history, especially under German oppression, was one chequered with elimination onslaughts and  butchery of our people. This was punctuated with sham peace treaties all which were meant to slowly wipe us out.          

Today, the descentens of the victims identified in the extermination order are seeking recognition of the hineuos crime that was committed against us by the German government, as well as reparations for the suffering and displacement that our ancestors endured.

Memory is central to the identity of social groups, and reminders of what our ancestors went through at the hands of the Germans are vast. To the extent that the memory of the victims of the genocide (both the ancestors and their descendants) has been battered and traumatised, it calls for healing and rehabilitation. A form of reparation is a necessary pre-condition for this  healing and rehabilitation. This is because reparations, by their very nature, are a compelling critique of history, and thus a formidable restraint of its repetition.

 

At present, history is constantly repeating itself in that we are seeing vestiges of an orcherstrated attempt to massascre indigent black neighbours in modern day Namibia. Slinger's murder takes centre stage and serves as a case in point, owing to its currency and shamefulness. But it is not the first or the only incident of its nature.

Absent reparations, therefore, the victims of history will continue to be victims, and will continue to be in need of rehabilitation, while their violators—as a recognized group— continue to "pursue a privileged existence secure in the spoils of a sordid history."

 

 

On the ugent need to engage with race in Namibia

There is a need to cohabit as fellow citizens in a democratic Namibia premised on the rule of law. However, such cohabitation will only be brought about by an active negation (by the citizenry) of the atrocities of the country's history. Namibia's history is a racialised one, and the racism is premised on a denial of humanity to a vast majority of the population, and manifested in the forms of oppression, exploitation and violence of the kind exerted upon Slinger (and his dogs).

 

To negate history's atrocities, the former (and continued) oppressors need to rally together with the formerly (and continued) oppressed, and speak out against actions such as the bullying that was orchestrated by Eichhoff on his indigent and landless neighbours. This request is not and could never be disproportionate or unfair on the German community (in this case).

 

Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka expressed the sentiment well (in his books The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness)  when he noted that the "scales of reckoning with mortality are never evenly weighted, alas, and thus it is on the shoulders of the living that the burden of justice must continue to rest." This is because "where there has been inequity, especially of a singularly brutalizing kind that robs one side of its most fundamental attribute—its humanity—it seems only appropriate that some form of atonement be made, in order to exorcise the past." That form of atonement would be for the German community, on account of their role in history, to rise to the fore and lead the battle against anti-black racism in Namibia. Importantly, they need to lead the campaign for the recognition of the humanity of indigent and landless farm dwellers in Namibia. We argue this way because we hold the view that Eichhoff's actions against Slinger (and indeed his neighbours), were an embodiment of the contempt and disdain he had against his black and economically disadvatanged neighbours.

 

Ovaherero/Ovambanderu Genocide Foundation (OGF)

WINDHOEK

(Nandasora Ndjarakana is a member of the OGF  Coordinating Committee)