Shark Island remembrance calls for unity

Staff Reporter DEPUTY Speaker of the National Assembly Phillipus Katamelo has called on Namibians to embrace forgiveness, unity, and historical truth while preserving the memory of the 1904–1908 genocide during the joint ||Kharas and Hardap regional commemoration held at Shark Island in Lüderitz. Delivering the keynote address on Genocide Remembrance Day, Katamelo described Shark Island as a place of suffering, endurance, and unfinished remembrance, stressing that the site must continue serving as a symbol of historical truth, justice, and national healing. “Today we are gathered at Shark Island with hearts heavy with memory and eyes fixed on the truth.

This is not an ordinary place, and neither is this an ordinary occasion,” Katamelo said. He added that Shark Island was used as a concentration camp by the German colonial regime between 1905 and 1907, where Ovaherero and Nama prisoners endured starvation, forced labour, violence, disease, and death.