Eenhana: Vice President Lucia Witbooi has called on Namibians to take stronger ownership of the country's historical narrative by expanding academic research, documentation and cultural production around the 1904-1908 Ovaherero and Nama Genocide. The vice president warned that remembrance without documentation risks silence while speaking at the Genocide Remembrance Day commemoration held at the Eenhana Memorial Shrine on Thursday.

According to Namibia Press Agency, Witbooi emphasized that the preservation of historical truth should not rely solely on memory, but must be actively safeguarded through books, archives, museums, films and scholarly work produced in and outside Namibia. She highlighted the importance of these mediums in keeping the stories, testimonies, and historical realities of the 1904-1908 genocide alive.

Witbooi further urged local creatives and storytellers to play a critical role in preserving the truth about the genocide and encouraged Namibians to tell their own stories. She stressed the importance of using their own voices and lived experiences rather than depending on others to narrate their history.

Her remarks placed strong emphasis on the 1904-1908 war of resistance against German colonial rule, during which tens of thousands of Ovaherero and Nama people were killed following military campaigns led by imperial German forces under General Lothar von Trotha. The conflict culminated in the Battle of Waterberg and the issuance of extermination orders that drove survivors into the Omaheke Desert, while others were later confined to concentration camps where forced labor and inhumane conditions were widespread.

Witbooi described the genocide as one of the darkest chapters in Namibia's history, stating that it must remain central to national memory and identity. Genocide Remembrance Day is dedicated to honoring the memory of the victims of the 1904-1908 genocide perpetrated against the Ovaherero and Nama communities during German colonial rule in Namibia.