Heroes' Acre is an official war memorial of the Republic of Namibia. Built into the uninhabited hills 10 km south of the city centre of Windhoek, Heroes' Acre opened on 26 August 2002. It was created to "foster a spirit of patriotism and nationalism, and to pass [this] to the future generations of Namibia". The memorial was designed and built by Mansudae Overseas Projects, a North Korean firm. It is one of four major public works Mansudae constructed in Namibia, the other three being Okahandja Military Museum, a new State House and the Independence Memorial Museum. In February 2024, Namibia laid its President Hage Gottfried Geingob (1941-2024) to rest in one of the mausoleum located at the monument. Geingob who was at the time in his first term of presidency, played a pivotal role in the construction of the mausoleums that are reserved for Namibian President and was the first to be laid to rest in them.

Location and description

The Heroes' Acre monument is situated south of Windhoek on the B1 national road to Rehoboth. It is built as a symmetric polygon with a marble obelisk and a bronze statue of the Unknown Soldier at its centre. The site contains parade grounds and a grandstand for 5000 people. The burial site consists of 174 tombs, not all of which are occupied.

Honored heroes

At inauguration nine national heroes and heroines were identified. For each of them a tombstone with name and picture has been erected, although they are not buried here. The nine national heroes are:

Others

In later years, several additional people have been declared national heroes, and buried here. These are: There are further National Heroes of Namibia without any connection to Heroe's Acre, namely: Seven veterans of the Namibian liberation struggle were reburied on Heroes' Acre in 2014: On 26 August 2015, Namibia's Heroes' Day, three more veterans were reburied on Heroes' Acre:

Construction controversy

Mansudae Overseas Projects, a company from North Korea was given a N$60 million contract from Namibia to build the 732 acre monument. The contract was awarded without any competitive tendering process, and eventually the construction cost doubled. The non-transparent contracting of foreign manual labour has been criticised by corruption watchdog insight Namibia. The memorial has been described as "monstrous" and its erection was speculated to "reveal a lack of African self-confidence". The statue of the Unknown Soldier resembles the physical features of Sam Nujoma, Namibia's founding president and ultimately the initiator of its erection. In May 2005, a report in The Namibian noted that Heroes' Acre was "already showing signs of decay". In particular, a bronze statue of a soldier had suffered damage, as had the plinth on which it stood. Some of the gold-coloured letters forming an inscription on the plinth were broken or missing, and the letters were "made of a cement-like substance, which had been painted gold and then glued to the plinth".