Ashamed of 100 years’ tradition

MTC’s spokesperson, Tim Ekandjo said as a resident of //Nami#Nüs (former Lüderiz), it is a shame that his fellow residents of the harbour town areopposing the move to replace the colonial name, Lüderitz with //Nami#Nüs which is the traditional Nama name. “I am ashamed that we want to continue honouring a colonialist in the name of Adolf Eduardo Lüderitz, who I was told bought this town for a few bottles of wine and rifles and less than 100 British pounds, which was daylight robbery in my view,” he said. According to Ekandjo, it is also shameful that the residents decided to challenge the name change as approved by President Pohamba by taking the matter to court. “How dare we insult our national pride in this manner, and as a fellow //Nami#Nunuser I say to them, you are out of line and we will not tolerate such behaviour. History informs us that according to Adolf Lüderitz this was unproclaimed land. Well, our people that were there will tell you that they lived in this town long before Adolf Lüderitz descended upon it,” he said.
He said, “changing the name means Namibians restore our heritage, a heritage they ought to be proud of, not oppose.  It does not matter in which language the new name now is, because they ought to be Namibians first before they can claim to be Nama, Herero or Wamboe etc etc.”
“What matters is that we understand and embrace the name in relation to the history of the town. Yes this has become part of our history, but is it a history that we ought to be proud of so much that we want to continue celebrating it? Yes we have become used to these names, yes the tourists have become used to these names, but it is our responsibility as proud Namibians to teach them our history,” he added. He elaborated “on the other hand, people’s views and perceptions are shaped by the amount of information they have on any subject matter, and this is therefore a good opportunity for the leadership of the affected towns and regions to educate the residents about the history instead of saying that the decision was not taken by them. “This is part of nation building. Consultation is one thing, and if that was not done than we can take lessons from that for the future, but if consultation in their view means asking them for permission to change the name then they have it totally wrong because our national leaders have certain prerogatives which we need to respect when we don’t agree,” said Ekandjo.