A faction of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) on Saturday inaugurated academic, Hoze Riruako as its Paramount Chief at Okahandja in the Otjozondjupa Region.
Two OTA ceremonies simultaneously took place on the same day, one was the paramount chief inauguration of Riruako and another was a Senate Chief Council meeting and both had different supportive audiences due to differences.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Riruako stated that it is not only and solely a matter of what the OTA entrusts him with but that the paramountcy is a long tradition, and thus has an everlasting and enduring legacy, a legacy dating back to 1863 with the historic Otjizingue all Otjiherero-speaking communities’ assembly.
Notably, Chief Hosea Kutako and others became the torchbearers for the national liberation struggle as evidenced by their early petitions, first to the League of Nations and subsequently to the United Nations.
Riruako stated that most importantly, “together we as the Ovaherero people need to constantly keep reminding our Government that as a successor Government to both the German colonial regime, and subsequently the Apartheid South African regime, it is much indebted to the OTA, especially with regard to getting the German government to take it, and by extension us as genocide descendants seriously concerning the issue of Genocide, Apology and Reparations and in this regard, it needs to account to the OTA and nothing must be done about the Ovaherero people without the Ovaherero people”.
The Ovaherero through their senate chose Riruako, not because by any measure he is head and shoulders above others of the Ovaherero but simply because the dice rolled in his favour.
“The event today is just for both my matrilineal and patrilineal lineage, the broader Ovaherero community, and indeed the Otjiherero-speaking fraternity, and all and sundry, to witness the necessary traditional protocols, which you have just seen, of me ascending to paramountcy,” Riruako added.
Moreover, the paramount chief said that his vision is to see the Ovaherero people one day having control of the sale of their cattle, saying at present the Ovaherero people own the majority of cattle, but the price is controlled by someone else.
“The oil cartel is controlled by the Arab people where much of the crude oil is located, why can the Ovaherero people not have the same model that will allow them to regulate the price of cattle sales as per the Ovaherero’s liking,” he said.
Meanwhile, the president of the National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) Esther Muinjangue stated that she looks forward to Riruako’s visionary and capable leadership and that she knows the newly appointed paramount chief will take the Ovaherero people where they need to be as a community.
Further information regarding the Senate Chief Council meeting in Toasis were not yet available as Nampa has not been briefed on it after several attempts of reaching out.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency