By Joe-Chintha Garises
KEETMANSHOOP, May 28 – This year’s Nama Cultural Festival was officially opened by the presidential affairs minister, Christine Hoebes, on behalf of President Hage Geingob on Friday, 27 May at the Westdene Stadium in Keetmanshoop.
The festival, one of the biggest cultural events for the Nama community, got underway on Thursday.
The festival under the theme: ‘/Gui!nâxasib a sida /gai – Unity is Our Strength’ this year is always hosted in the town and different traditional leaders and chiefs attend.
During her speech Minister Hoebes also welcomed traditional authorities from Botswana and South Africa.
“May I also take this opportunity to extend a special welcome to our visiting traditional authorities from Botswana and South Africa, thank you for coming to join us as neighbours and friends, bound by kinship and the Pan-African spirit, in order to celebrate the gift of culture and tradition, which defines and unites the people of Africa,” she said.
“As Namibians, we should ensure that our respective cultures should lead to the fostering of a better understanding amongst all our people. If we understand each other better in our souls, then it will be easier to overcome any economic or political barriers that may exist in our society,” she added.
She stressed that we should make unity our end goal as we are One Namibia One Nation.
Culture should never divide but should rather unite. Celebrating respective cultural festivals together would develop a greater understanding and appreciation of the verbal and non-verbal norms of other cultures, thus bringing people closer together.
“In celebrating the Nama Cultural Festival, let us learn to appreciate culture as a force that should unite us. Let us use our diverse cultures to combat the superimposed influences that keep us apart and render such negative beliefs, emotions and ideas to the dustbin of history,” she concluded. – Namibia Daily News
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