On August 26th, Namibia celebrates Heroes
Day. This day commemorates the heroes
and heroines who fought against German and South African oppression. Many of those who fought and lost their lives
were Hereros, the tribe who’s language I am learning and will be living with
for the next two years.
Unfortunately, there was controversy around that time, and
the celebration and commemoration was cancelled for that weekend. There are three different groups of Hereros:
the Green Flags, Red Flags, and White Flags.
Okahandja is the town of the Red Flags.
The Red Flags and Green Flags have been arguing about the placement of
their holy fire, and the local police cancelled the event to prevent fighting.
Thankfully things were resolved, and the events were able to
take place the next weekend. I am lucky
enough to be living in the same town where the events are, so it was easy for
me to attend. It was very exciting. All of Saturday consisted of dancing and
partying (not really the commemoration, but those Hereros sure love to
party! I missed that day because,
truthfully, I wasn’t really comfortable being surrounded by a whole bunch of
drunk guys who always hit on you.)
Side note: Many
Namibian men will hit on you every day.
For some reason it’s what they do.
It puts us volunteers in a very sticky situation. Greeting people is very important in Namibian
culture, and to ignore someone who has greeted you is considered very
rude. But, as Americans, we stick out
like sore thumbs! Which means we get
lots of attention from people we don’t want talking to us. Should we say hi and have the possibility of
them thinking we are attracted to them, or do we ignore them and offend
them? I’m still trying to figure that
one out. But the attention is not intended to be rude. It is just their way of telling us that we are special and they would like to know us. I know this in my head but it still will take some time to not automatically assume the worst.
I decided it was safer to not be around the celebration and
risk getting potentially scary attention from really, really drunk guys. I mean, I walked through there at 9 in the
morning and there were already some pretty drunk people! But Sunday morning was a different
story. Every Herero that was in town,
and many who had come from out of town, processed from the Herero field to a
local grave site, where one of the Red Flag leaders was buried.
The tribal leaders were in the front, followed by many of
the men, starting with the older ones and ending with the very young boys. After the men folk had gone, the women,
dressed in their traditional dress, followed.
It was beautiful and sombering to watch.
We walked for about an hour, when we arrived at the grave site. The tribal elders knelt down and prayed for
everyone. I was so thankful to have the
opportunity to see this very special Herero event.
Apparently the White Flag Hereros are based in my shopping
town, Omaruru. I hope to be able to
attend some of their events as well! It
will be interesting to see how similar and different they are.
Herero chief blessing someone by spitting on them (still don't know how this is a blessing, and when I was asked to join the line, I respectfully declined!)
Young Hereros practicing their marching. They were sooo cute!
The different Herero flags. The red one is for Okahandja, which this event was in.
Herero women marching to the grave site. They were probably bummed that they all went to the same store to get their outfits!
Herero men marching. The older ones were in the front, and the younger you were, the further back you were.
Herero chief.
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