H.E. Dr Hage Geingob makes his first Heroes Day Speech as President of the Republic of Namibia:
HEROES ACRE NATIONAL MONUMENT, WINDHOEK, AUGUST 26, 2015
Director of Ceremonies;
Your Excellency, Edgar Chagwa Lungu, President of the Republic of Zambia and our Guest of Honour;
Comrade Sam Shafiishuna Nujoma, Founding President and Father of the Nation; (...)
I am honoured and humbled to be standing here today, to deliver my first Heroes Day Speech as President of the Republic of Namibia.
We mark this solemn occasion by remembering and paying tribute to the valiant sons and daughters of our soil, whose blood waters our freedom.
There is an African proverb which says, "Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today."
Several decades ago, brave Namibians made the choice to take a leap of faith and join the struggle for the liberation of our beloved country.
These are the heroes and heroines who prepared us for the peace and tranquility we enjoy today. There is a time in human suffering, when one is forced to make a choice whether to submit or to fight, even if it means paying the ultimate price.
In 1966, when the International Court of Justice failed to assist our cause for self-determination in farcical circumstances, a turning point came to SWAPO. This prompted one of our stalwarts and heroes Peter Ndilimani Nanyemba to say, "We will cross many rivers of blood before we can achieve our freedom."
Following this clarion call, the SWAPO Central Committee, under the leadership of Comrade Sam Nujoma, resolved that we must fight in order to become our own liberators. To this end, the first bullets which marked the beginning of the armed struggle were fired at Ongulumbashe on 26 August 1966.
Today, the three heroes we are honouring as well as all our other heroes and heroines, are a testament to that statement made by Comrade Nanyemba and the resolve of Comrade Nujoma, for indeed they crossed many rivers of blood so that we can be a free and independent people rather than an oppressed people.