ABOUT 400 survivors attended this year’s Cassinga Day commemorations in the Ohangwena region marking 41 years since the massacre.
The chairperson of the Cassinga Survivors Organisation, Ignatius Mwanyekange, told The Namibian that this year’s event, which took place at Okato in the Oshikango constituency of the Ohangwena region on Saturday, was the first to be commemorated in a remote area.
He said the organisation had not received an invitation at national level for this year’s commemorations.
The Khomas Regional Council, which normally hosts the official event, announced that they could not hold the event on Saturday because they wanted to accommodate the burial of late journalist and poet Mvula ya Nangolo on that day.
As a result, the main commemorations in the Khomas region would be held on 11 May at Otjomuise.
Cassinga Day is commemorated on 4 May each year to remember the victims of the 1978 massacre when the apartheid South African Defence Force attacked a Swapo refugee base at Cassinga in southern Angola.
Mwanyekange said although the group could not visit Cassinga in Angola as part of their annual pilgrimage since 2016, they will do so next year to be at the inauguration of a shrine that is still under construction.
An Angolan delegation had visited Namibia to take part in the commemoration, he added.
PAINFUL MEMORIES
Speaking to The Namibian from the event in Ohangwena, some survivors said commemorating the Cassinga massacre every year was a painful but necessary reminder of their ordeal.
Albertina ‘Shiwana’ Shiwaya (43) said she was two years old at the time, although she cannot remember much of what happened on that fateful day.
She added that she and her mother, Hendrina ‘Kaumbeko’ Petrus (75), have come to appreciate the gift of life. This is so despite her mother’s painful memories of the events of that historic day.
Another survivor, Takwatindakundana Nandenga (41), said she was only nine months old at the time of the attacks.
“I survived by God’s grace,” she said, adding that her mother was severely injured during the attacks.
Her brave mother saved infant Nandenga by hiding her under corpses. “God is a wonderful God,” Nandenga attested.
Elizabeth Mutwamezi (54), a lecturer at the University of Namibia’s Rundu campus, said she was 13 years old at the time.
She said although the day evokes painful memories, commemorating it must go on to make sure that part of history is never erased.
“The youth must be engaged, they must know their history,” Mutwamezi stressed.
Philemon Silas (54), who was also 13 years old when the massacre unfolded, said he and others had been marching to the parade square when they spotted helicopters hovering above them.
“We were happy,” Silas said, because they thought the aircraft had brought relief aid to the base.
He does not remember what happened from the time they spotted the helicopters, and when he rose from dust-filled surroundings. He then swam across a river to get to safety.
He argued that commemorating Cassinga Day is an important way of paying tribute to those whose lives were lost on that fateful day.
Coincidentally, Emilia Nghipangelwa (53), like Silas, had been preparing to go for a parade. She recalls seeing helicopters flying low, close to the trees.
“I ran towards them, thinking they had brought us sweets,” she narrated. However, the helicopters were dropping a gas which put a large number of people into a deep sleep.
She remembers waking up from a deep slumber, surrounded by corpses, some whose parts had been cut off or cut open. Upon waking up, she still had to dodge a flurry of bullets from the brutal apartheid soldiers who only stopped firing when they thought they had killed her.
With the help of adults who were assisting children to cross a fast-flowing river, Nghipandelwa and others reached safety.
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