“Today is a day of historic remembrance, and with one heart and one mind we honor the heroes of Cassinga, whose sacrifice lit the path to our freedom,” said Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah on May 4th, during a vigil held at the SWAPO Party headquarters in commemoration of Cassinga Day.
Forty-seven years after that horrendous crime, Namibia pays tribute to the more than 650 victims of the massacre, to the 16 lives that contributed to Cuba's efforts in Africa in defence of Cassinga, and to those who survived this horrific chapter of South African apartheid, considered one of the worst war crimes in recent world history.
On May 4th, 1978, some 250 km from the Namibian border, in Cassinga, the pain of hundreds of families was eternalized. In that spot in Angola, Namibian refugees fleeing the degrading apartheid imposed by South Africa in their country were surprised by the strident sound of hundreds of cluster bombs that suddenly darkened the sky and some paratroopers who jumped in to kill without mercy.
The racist attackers burned the school, the shelters, the food warehouse, and the polyclinic to the ground. During the attack, the troops of the Pretoria regime used toxic gases and extinguished the life of everything in their way.
Of this monstrous act of genocide, the Commander-in-Chief would later say: "[...] And we will never forget—and I hope history will never forget—that Cassinga massacre [...] We will never forget them; it was proof of how these racist and fascist elements operate, an act of inconceivable terror."
Warned of the attack, a group of Cuban internationalist fighters who were 15 kilometers away in Tchamutete, preserving Angolan independence on the southernmost defense line, took up defensive positions along a vacant embankment that became the scene of an unequal battle.
The brave internationalists came out bare-chested to stop the massacre committed by the South African air force, which hunted children, women, and the elderly as prey. It is said that the passage from Tchamutete to Cassiga was a harrowing one.
“Today we also pay tribute to the Cuban internationalists. We will never forget what they did for our survivors. As Fidel said, they did not come to take away Africa's wealth. They came to help the people of Namibia, Angola, and South Africa. That is why we will always stand with Cuba, under any circumstances,” the Namibian president declared.
Cuba's actions in Cassinga, which add to the stories of heroism and solidarity of the largest of the Antilles in Africa, helped save the lives of wounded refugees and many survivors hiding in nearby forests.
Most of the children who escaped the massacre and hundreds of other young people living in southern Angola were taken to Cuba, and with them, the first SWAPO school was founded on the Island of Youth.
Cassinga Day is remembered in Namibia as one of the saddest episodes of that country's struggle for independence from the shackles of apartheid. With the exception of the genocide perpetrated against Namibians by German colonizers at the beginning of the last century, no other colonial massacre has claimed more lives among this noble people.
At the memorial service, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah called on Namibians to renew their commitment to the values that stood by them through the darkest chapters of the country's history as they remember the tragic events of Cassinga today. "Rather than breaking us, this massacre only strengthened our people's resolve to fight for justice, dignity, and independence.
"The memory of the Cassinga martyrs should remain a guiding light in building a united, just, peaceful, and prosperous Namibia," she concluded.