Namibia celebrates 26 August as Heroes’ Day. It recollects the primary army encounter between the South African army and members of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), Namibia’s liberation motion, in 1966. Initially a German colony (1884-1915), the nation was then administered by South Africa, which refused to surrender the occupation.
Since independence in 1990, the heroic Swapo liberation narrative has additionally been inscribed in Heroes’ Acre, a monument constructed by North Korea.
The institutionalised public commemoration in Namibia at this time – rightly – recollects the sacrifices of those that had been keen to combat for self dedication. On the similar time, it glosses over the poisonous affect of the way in which warfare was carried out. These concerned within the wrestle for independence had been removed from harmless within the execution of the army resistance. But their violations of human rights had been by no means addressed.
This ambiguity was seen in 2025 in a public controversy when tribute poured out to the late Solomon Hawala, whose fight identify was Jesus. He was a number one fighter in Swapo’s army wing, referred to as PLAN.
He additionally had a bloody observe report of eliminating fellow Namibians in exile.
The celebration of Hawala lastly moved me to resign as a member of Swapo, an organisation I joined after I was 24 years previous. I set out my causes in an interview accessible on YouTube.
Because the late Seventies I’ve specialised as a tutorial in Namibian history and politics. Because the early Nineteen Nineties I’ve engaged with the traumatic facet of so-called liberation. Extra lately I wrote a book chapter giving voice to the victims.
Patriotic historical past versus wrestle realities
The historical past of liberation actions shows their authoritarian nature. Their camps in southern Africa cast bonds of comradeship. For Mozambique’s Frelimo, the African National Congress, Swapo, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola and Zimbabwe African People’s Union, Tanzania’s Kongwa camp within the Nineteen Sixties offered a primary operational base in preparation for the armed wrestle overseas.
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The actions then began to rearrange for their own bases in host countries.
Within the early to mid Seventies Swapo established the Old Farm outdoors Lusaka in Zambia. This was adopted by Nyango. Lastly, a Well being and Training Centre was established in Angola’s Kwanza Zul.
The administration and administration required strict self-discipline and bolstered repressive hierarchies.
There have been a number of instances in Swapo’s exile historical past when inside critics had been silenced. Testimonies of the early phases within the late Nineteen Sixties and early to mid Seventies provide insights by these persecuted. These included the previous Swapo secretary for info Andreas Shipanga, the primary technology Swapo member Hans Beukes, the previous Swapo Youth League activist Keshii Nathanael and one of many first PLAN cadres, Samson Ndeikwila.
Talking out and thereby disclosing the crimes, the Namibian chaplain in exile Salatiel Ailonga and his wife Anita had been pressured to hunt refuge elsewhere.
Some students have drawn consideration to the plight of the dissidents. The primary waves of repression triggered two of these lecturers in solidarity with the liberation struggles to ask questions on liberation and democracy.
These earlier occasions had been solely a prelude to the “spy drama” within the Nineteen Eighties. This was a chapter of horrendous crimes, primarily dedicated by a gaggle of PLAN members at the camp in Lubango in southern Angola.
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Over 1,000 Swapo members had been incarcerated in dungeons. Their destiny was more than likely triggered by setbacks within the border conflict in southern Angola between the South African military and PLAN models backed by Cuban forces. In 1978, the South African military had attacked a Swapo camp at Cassinga in Angola, killing a whole bunch of ladies and kids.
Members of the upper rating Swapo army, the so-called securocrats, blamed spies for the catastrophe and different army setbacks. They tortured the accused to extract confessions and to implicate others. With no proof of guilt, individuals had been usually executed, disappeared or died of neglect within the dungeons. Numbers of the lacking with no traces had been estimated by the surviving victims at around 2,000.
Victims had been, in the primary, rank and file Swapo members. That South African spies had more than likely penetrated the upper echelons of the motion was ignored.
Among the victims, like Oiva Angula, have printed accounts of their struggling.
Those that identified the unfolding terror had been dismissed by the worldwide solidarity motion as anti-Swapo propaganda. This included the early revelations by Siegfried Groth, a pastor for the refugees in Zambia. He was blamed for besmirching the picture of the liberty fighters.
Glorification of the perpetrators
With the passing on of the primary technology of wrestle stalwarts, the variety of posthumously celebrated heroes elevated. Lots of the veterans had been put to relaxation in full honour by state funerals.
Hawala passed away aged 89 on 11 August 2025. Till his retirement in 2006 he had been the chief of the defence pressure.
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah recognised his
distinguished army service, steadfast management and unwavering dedication to the reason for Namibia’s liberation and nation-building. His legacy stays a logo of braveness, patriotism, and dedication to the beliefs of freedom and independence.
This triggered a public debate. It introduced again memories of heinous crimes during which he performed a vital function. Named the “Butcher of Lubango” by those that survived the ordeal, he was the personification of a brutal and ruthless system focusing on these accused of spying and those that dissented with the management.
In his defence, a former Swapo MP identified that he was merely acting on Swapo’s instructions. Folks, he argued, “had been killed with the data of senior Swapo leaders”, and a few of these had been already buried at Heroes’ Acre.
Unheroic heroism
The survivors of the dungeons who’re nonetheless alive had been in shock over celebrating Hawala. However as in addition they pointed out, he personified a system.
I argued alongside related strains after I was interviewed about my resignation from Swapo after greater than 50 years as a member. Earlier than the announcement that Hawala would get a state funeral I had urged in an article that his demise ought to be a chance to lastly tackle the plight of his victims. As a substitute the blinkers remained.
This motivated my letter of resignation: I had joined Swapo for believing in its slogan “Solidarity, Freedom, Justice”. Out of loyalty to those values and as a matter of – albeit belated – restoration of ethical integrity, I had no alternative however to depart.
Praising the perpetrators as heroes provides insult to damage to their surviving victims. Such denialism and amnesia lies like a lead cloak over reality and reconciliation. It reveals the boundaries to liberation when Heroes’ Day is widely known.
