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Damaraland - Precolonisation by Bantu Tribes, Namas and Europeans:

8 APRIL 2017

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS` STATEMENT

Director of Ceremonies,

TI KHOE DU Ē, TI ǂNUKHOE ||HAESE,

Honourable, Clinton Swartbooi, Member of Parliament and the Landless People`s Movement,

Honourable Chiefs of the extended 34 Damara Clans present here today,

Honourable Chiefs and Traditional Leaders Present here today,

Political Leaders and Councilors,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Members of the Media,

Greetings and Welcome to Khorixas.

Allow me first to thank the Chief of the ǂAoDaman, Chief Petrus Uukongo, the National and Local Organising Committee of this gathering.

I do commend and thank the courageous leadership of the Landless People`s Movement, we are feeling and experiencing the winds of change, we are witnessing the last pieces of the puzzle falling into the open spaces to complete the total liberation and emancipation of the owners of the LAND.

Who’s LAND is it? Who found who on the LAND? Who took Who’s LAND? Who owns Who’s LAND? And there are more questions and questions…..

We the ǂNUKHOEN, are the Indigenous people of the then DAMALAND, now Namibia alongside the SĀN. All the other tribes and colonisers founds us here, the dates and periods of their arrivals here is clearly recorded and know to all of us.

The fact is the ǂNUKHOEN and the SĀN are the Indigenous Peoples of Namibia and entitle to claim Indigenous land rights, which are the rights of indigenous peoples to land, either individually or collectively.

Land and resource-related rights are of fundamental importance to indigenous peoples for a range of reasons, including: the religious, cultural and traditional significance of the land, self-determination, identity, and economic factors. Land is a major economic asset.

For the ǂNUKHOEN and the SĀN, the land was and is sacred and everything we get from the land is a gift from our GODS. Losing our land to the Bantu Tribes, Namas, Germans, Afrikaners and English means a loss of contact with the earth and a loss of identity.

Land is not only an asset with economic and financial value, but was and is also a very important part of the ǂNUKHOEN and the SĀN's lives

The ǂNUKHOEN and the SĀN occupied Namibia we used to practice pastoralism with sheep and cattle, but were also agriculturalist planting pumpkins, corn, tobacco. The ǂNUKHOEN were also copper-smiths known for their ability to melt copper and used to make ornaments, jewelry, knives and spear heads out of iron.

The ǂNUKHOEN just like the SĀN believed in communal ownership of land meaning that no individual owned land as God had given land to everyone. Not for one to own good grazing land and the other to scavenge for land but that everyone live in harmony.

It was for this reason that ǂNUKHOEN and the SĀN were displaced when the Bantu Tribes, Nama, Germans, Afrikaners and English came to occupy Namibia.

The fact that the ǂNUKHOEN has been quiet on two issues namely, extermination (Genocide) and land, should not be interpreted as ǂNUKHOEN are Weak, cowards and MEEK.

When most people hear that word “meek,” many times they think of a weak, shy, reserved or timid person or tribe who let everybody run all over them. But that’s not at all what it means to be meek. Meekness is not weakness; it’s strength under control.

Meekness is like a wild horse that has been tamed. He’s just as strong, just as powerful, has just as much speed as before, but now that strength is under control. You can walk up to him, pet him, lead the horse around, get on him and ride him. But don’t be fooled. He has the same power, the same tenacity as before, he’s just learned how to control it.

When you’re a meek person, you don’t have to go around trying to straighten everybody out. You don’t respond to every critic. People may be talking about you, but you don’t let it bother you. You may have the power to do something about it, but you realize your time is STILL TO COME.

The TIME HAS COME NOW!!! for the ǂNUKHOEN to Stand up and claim what belongs to them, the upcoming Second Conference is the Platform on which the REAL INDIGENOUS PEOPLE will come to forth and be recognized and accorded their Rightful Place. The First Citizens of the Land of the Brave.

We the ǂNUKHOEN have been cited as the “Mysterious Tribe” whose origin could not or cannot be traced, come September 2017, we shall tell OURSTORY, not HIS-STORY. How far back does one go back in history to determine, which generation of ancestor one is talking about, are we talking about the ancestors in Central or North Africa? Or are we dating back to those Generation of Ancestors who arrived in Namibia and found the ǂNUKHOEN and the SĀN? These are some of the question, which need to address, during the Second Land Conference.

The ǂNUKHOEN King`s Council beliefs that the issue of LAND should be address under the following principles:

	Honesty

	Fairness

	Respect for Each Other

	Right to Exist in Harmony

	Justness

	Love

	Comradery

If the Second Land Conference is based on what I have just shared with you, Director of Ceremonies, Ti Khoedo, we all will have:

	access to land,

	we will own land and

	we will live from the land.

As I conclude, let me take you back to what the ǂNUKHOE ANCESTORS BELIEF IN –

“THE LAND WAS AND IS SACRED AND EVERYTHING WE GET FROM THE LAND IS A GIFT FROM OUR GODS”

“LAND IS A SOURCE OF UNLIMITED POTENTIAL AND RESOURCES AND GOD GIVEN, AND SHOULD NOT BE OWN BY AN INDIVIDUAL, BUT COLLECTIVELY BY THE COMMUNITY”

When the various Bantu and Europeans arrived in Namibia at various time slots, the ǂNUKHOE ANCESTORS welcome them and share the land with them, today the ǂNUKHOEN are LANDLESS, hence our collaboration with the Landless People`s Movement, at the same time urging the Government to stick to the principles I alluded to earlier.

I am calling upon all the ǂNUKHOEN and the Namibian Nation at Large, let`s join hands and work together for the betterment of the living standards of our citizens.

I thank you.

JUSTUS |URUHE ||GAROËB

KING OF DAMARAS