Perhaps the fact that the two neighbours shared a public holiday on March 21 is more than a mere coincidence of dates, writes Victor Kgomoeswana.
March 21st personifies the umbilical connection between South Africa and Namibia. Known officially as Human Rights’ Day in South Africa, although Sharpeville Day persists in the minds of many, it is Independence Day in Namibia.
We glibly celebrate such days, although often there is little to celebrate. In fact, instead of celebrations, we might as well prepare for a deluge of claims and lawsuits by those previously deprived of their dignity coming forth to demand justice.
Somehow, we and the leaders of our world continue to violate each other’s rights daily.
On the very Human Rights’ Day South Africans were riled by a video of a white male hurling insults and threats at a black woman - who duly reciprocated - in a restaurant - in full view of her children.
We have a case against a farmer who mistook a fellow human being for a monkey, before shooting him. Goodness knows why monkeys need to be shot on sight.
Perhaps the most recent indictment of our human rights’ culture was the death of six-month-old Singalakha Sonamazi, who died after being moved from Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre in Soweto to Bethany Trust Home in Krugersdorp.
Reason? A continuing strike by social workers, who themselves are asserting their rights to a rural allowance, among others. Namibia, on the other hand, marked its 27th anniversary of independence this year under the looming spectre of a possible lawsuit against its former colonial power - Germany.
Central to this imminent lawsuit, or ongoing negotiation, is compensation for the massacre of more than over 100000 Namibians (Herero and Nama) between 1904 and 1908. If this case is brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, there are reports that Namibia could be asking for up $30billion in reparations.
Nobody knows what this figure will come to, be it in lawsuit or negotiation. What is not in dispute is that most of the human rights’ violations of our colonial days and those that are being allowed to continue today will attract more forms of class action against the powerful - and rightfully so.
One driver of these lawsuits is the information and communications technology (ICT) revolution.
Cheaper and faster telecommunications brought into the open information from disparate archives.
Schools start teaching about these violations, songs get composed and filmmakers produce documentaries that rekindle the quest for justice in victims or their descendants.
One such documentary film, by award-winning director Vincent Moloi, premiered at the Rapid Lion International Film Festival, at the Market Theatre, in Johannesburg on March 7.
Aptly titled “Skulls of My People”, it chronicles what has been dubbed the first genocide of the 20th century perpetrated by Germany.
The reparation as captured in the film is not only about the payment of compensation in monetary terms, but also for the descendants of the Herero victims of that genocide fighting for the return of the skulls of their forebears.
It was blood-curdling to learn that there were Germans who took Namibian skulls as ornaments or mementoes.
In South Africa we had our share of reclaiming mortal remains of our own Sara Baartman from a museum in Europe for a proper burial in the Eastern Cape.
Her African features had been a source of amusement at circuses.
Her body was later dissected for laboratory work and when she died nobody proposed a decent funeral for her, until ordinary South Africans - like the Namibians are doing now - reminded the world that they too were people worthy of human dignity.
Perhaps the fact that two neighbouring countries in southern Africa shared a public holiday on March 21 is more than a mere coincidence of dates.
The cracks in our democracy and world order would not exist if we paid attention not to our blackness or whiteness, sexual orientation, gender or political preference, before honouring the fact we are humans; that the inalienable human rights of others must be upheld in all our thoughts, policies and deeds.
* Kgomoeswana is author of Africa is Open for Business; media commentator and public speaker on African business affairs, and a weekly columnist for African Independent - Twitter Handle: @VictorAfrica
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.