Naga Solidarity Walk ends with a call to forgive for lasting peace and shared destiny

Our Correspondent
Kohima, July 29 (EMN): The two-day Naga Solidarity Walk, which took off in Kohima on Thursday, culminated in Tahamzan (Senapati) on Friday evening after covering about 77 km.

Thousands of people from various Naga-inhabited areas took part in the walk, as villagers joined in the onward journey from the National Highway, besides welcoming those coming from Kohima with food and refreshments.

The event was organised by the Global Naga Forum (GNF) and varioParticipants of the two-day Naga Solidarity Walk on Friday.us civil society organisations.

Addressing a massive gathering at the valedictory session held at Tahamzan (Senapati) ground, Prof. Rosemary Dziivichu, Co-convenor of GNF, said “the Naga Solidarity Walk is a unity walk for all Nagas, a walk for a better future together as one people in an undivided ancestral homeland; it is a walk for lasting peace and shared prosperity, without exceptions, throughout the Naga homeland, which, even today, lies divided in two countries — four states in India and a province in Myanmar”.

“This, we know is a gross violation of our human and indigenous peoples’ rights,” she said.

Describing the Naga Solidarity Walk as a community celebration, she said ‘walking together during the two days from Kohima to Tahamzan (Senapati), across Angami, Mao, Maram and Poumai territories, was a way for us to emphasise the threat to our survival as a people, and therefore the need to reclaim, sustain, and grow our precious Naga heritage. It would be a real shame for Nagas of this generation to lose it all’.

Maintaining that choice facing the Nagas today is too real and clear to ignore, she said every Naga must ask oneself ‘if one is for the survival of the Nagas as a people or with the small vested interest groups in Naga society whose main preoccupations are power and wealth’.

Prof. Dziivichu went on to say that the Solidarity Walk was a walk for peace and transformative change; it was not anti-Indian or anti-Myanmarese but a pro-Naga rights of self determination and for peace; and exuded hope that the positive community-based action would grow into a burgeoning journey for a brighter future for all Nagas.

On why walk was held today and not in the past, she pointed out that it would not be held if Nagas were united. She said “the Naga Family is breaking apart from the stress put on for too long from outside and from within. Physically separated from one another and politically divided, the Naga Family is growing farther apart and beginning to deny its own peoplehood by forgetting the common destiny”.

She stressed on the desperate need to heal from the wounds and offenses the Nagas have inflicted on one another, saying that forgiving one another is pertinent if the people want a better future as a people. “You can keep denying the fact, but the fact is Nagas are a people with a shared history, therefore a shared destiny,” she added.

Stating that the walk was also to honour the ancestors by walking in their footsteps, she said the present generation should turn their sacrifices into something beautiful, useful and admirable.

Nagas in Myanmar extend solidarity

Meanwhile, the Eastern Naga Students’ Association (ENSA) representing seven Naga tribes –Tangshang, Khiamniungan, Konyak, Lainong, Tangkhul, Para and Makuri – in Myanmar extended solidarity to the Naga Solidarity Walk.

The representatives appealed to the Nagas to remember the struggles faced by the Nagas in Myanmar.

While calling for unity among the Nagas, they said ‘a solution to the Naga political issue excluding the Nagas in Myanmar will be another history of blunder to the new generation’.

Representatives of various organisations: Rengma Naga People’s Council; Pouheu Newmei, Haflong Assam; All Naga Catholic Federation; Naga Christain Forum Manipur; Tenyimi Women Organisation Dimapur; Naga Women Union; Naga Students’ Federation; All Naga Students’ Association Manipur (ANSAM); Rengma Selo Zi; Naga Mothers’ Association; and United Naga Council (UNC) also spoke at the event.

Kevitho Kera, Co-convenor of NSW, proposed the vote of thanks.

Earlier in the programme, Naga People’s Organisation president delivered the welcome address, theme song of the event was presented by Guru Rewben Mashangva, and Angami Traditional chant by Dr. Visier Sanyü, President Overseas Nagas Association and Advisor of GNF, besides other performances.