Several leaders in the Hardap region, including regional governor Salomon April, have called on Namibians to embrace the different cultures that exist within the country and learn from them.
Speaking at the opening ceremony to celebrate Namibia Heritage Week in Mariental on Monday, April noted that heritage alone is not enough and therefore urged the country to manage culture that would be beneficial to every citizen.
“Our heritage is being regarded only as a Nama dress, an Oshiwambo dress but it is about time that we sit back and start to think how could we possibly turn this heritage that we have into a commodity that can add to economic value for us, how can we turn it into a commodity that we can trade for economic value that it has,” the governor urged.
April also urged people to refrain from creating unnecessary tribal wars, stating that this will only create further division amongst the different cultures. “Instead of picking fights, let us regard others. None of us here filled in an application form to be born into a specific tribe. Let us continue to tolerate the different cultures because we cannot change it, culture is here to stay,” he added.
A local pastor, Charles Goliath echoed April’s sentiments and stated that a pluralistic multicultural society is important, hence Namibians need to learn how to coexist.
Courtesy of New Era Newspaper
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