Ominira

Ominira is a national symbol of the Khokharsan Federal Republic, a personification of liberty and independence, and a portrayal of the Goddess of Justice.

Ominira is displayed in many places in Khokharsa and holds a place of honour in town halls and law courts. Her profile stands out on the official logo of the country, is engraved on the Khokharsan coins and appears on national postage stamps. Ominira is one of the most prominent symbols of the Khokharsan Federal Republic, and is officially used in many government documents.

Ominira is a significant republican symbol, opposed to both monarchy and colonialism, and an icon of freedom and democracy against all forms of dictatorship.

Origin of the name

Ominira is the Ohuba language word for both "freedom" and "independence". Some have related Ominira with Okana, the third wife of Agbar -the king of gods in ancient Ohuba mythology-, and the Goddess of the Rain, the Guardian of the Death, and the personification of Justice and Fairness. Prayers to Okana were very popular in Central Khokharsa, and some legends attributed to her the inspiration of the slave revolt of 1359.

Nikolaine Maude.

A recent discovery establishes that the first written mention of the name of Ominira appeared in Vintyr 1359 in the Chingudi province in order to refer to a local semi-goddess, believed to be a divine envoy of Okana, who was sent to heal those wounded in the many battles across the country against the Brigidnan forces. Soon, many songs and prayers were dedicated to her, although it is not clear if the legend spread to another provinces.

It is not clear if Nikolaine Maude coined the name of Ominira independently or based in this tradition. Some believe that it was Ate Ileam, Maude's niece, who suggested the name some months later that Maude had convinced the Monrassian deputies to erect a statue dedicated to Khokharsan women. Others claim it was Hjalte Farfatter, Maude's husband, who suggested the name - according to a legend, it came to his mind during a conversation with his younger mistress. But some Farfatter's biographers the latter was likely a rumour started by his political rivals.

In any case, Ominira became a symbol of Khokharsa, considered as a personification of the republic and often used on republican and nationalist iconography - and sometimes caricatured and reviled by traditionalists and Brigidnan powers.

History

In 1384, it was inaugurated the first national museum in Khokharsa, in order to commemorate the second anniversary of the 1382 constitution. The museum was sponsored personally by President Magnus Bard -first Khokharsan elected president- and commissioned to Alban Ellberg, an artist of mixed-race who had designed the Presidential Palace in Monrassa, built in 1379-1381. Modern painting was not popular in the Skathian nation at that time, although many military and political leaders of the time -such as Equatorial Skathian Commonwealth's presidents Kean Siljberg, Arne Haugen, Per Kvium, Svend Toosbuy, or Hjalte Farfatter and President Magnus Bard himself- had commissioned portraits of themselves as symbol of political and economic status.

The exhibition included many of these portraits, but also other paintings of a few contemporary Khokharsan artists of the time and even some minor works from the colonial era. Although only members of the elite were allowed to visit the exhibition, this was declared a success, and a proof that the recently established republic had nothing to envy to the sumptuous art of the Brigidnan superpower. However, on Vintyr 1384, a month after the exhibition, writer and social reformer Nikolaine Maude (1339-1407) criticized that women only appeared in the exhibition in old paintings of the colonial era, and therefore merely depicted as slaves. "Did not your mothers and sisters yearn for freedom and the end of oppression too?", she wrote in an article published in a liberal newspaper, "why are not the daughters of the republic worthy of respect and consideration, when your mothers lived, suffered, and worked for the same heavenly struggle you fought for?". While Maude's article created a huge controversy, it also inspired a few distinguished personalities of Monrassian high society to collect funds in order to build a statue dedicated to the Khokharsan women.

The imagery of the statue depicted her standing, young and determined. It was symbolic of the republic itself, a newly created state that had much to prove. It was thought also as a symbol of the younger generation, the first one to be born in freedom after the abolition of slavery and colonial rule, who were giving birth to a new generation of purely free men and women. In her right hand, she wields the pike of revolution, which represents the liberation of the nation. Although she is standing and holding a pike, this depiction is "not exactly aggressive", representing the ideology of the Moderate Party -which ruled the Khokharsan Federal Republic uninterruptedly from 1382 to 1402- as they tried to move away from the "frantic violence of the revolutionary days". The name of Ominira was not originally given to the statue, but it became as a popular nickname after similar monuments were built around the country. Maude gave her explicit consent to the name in an article published in 1387, in an article in which she answered the letter from a reader who asked about how the nation was receiving this initiative. The name of Ominira was officially engraved to the Monrassian statue in 1419 during the first presidency of President Ib Farfatter, who was son of Hjalte Farfatter and Nikolaine Maude.

During the late 1380s and early 1390s, years marked by an increase of racial and political tensions, and the First Khokharsan-Bocamian War which resulted in a clear Khokharsan victory, the initial moderate figure of Ominira was slowly turned by a more aggressive and active image; that of a woman, with a fierce attitude, often leading men into battle. This more radical Ominira was less a representation of free but peaceful mothers and spouses, but a symbol intented to rouse the Khokharsan peoples to action.

On 1404, President Soren Reinhardt launched a contest to symbolise the Federal Republic on paintings, sculptures, medals, money and seals, as no official representation of it existed yet. Creations inspired in the Ominira archetype were very popular and Reinhardt, who was the first Liberal Party Khokharsan president, favoured the Ominira symbol over others which appealled more directly to pre-colonial traditions and mythology. The first bare-breasted depiction of Ominira, which years later would became very popular, was a painting by Labgar Hansenberg, who painted her as a young woman dressed in middle-class clothing with a calm but defiant gaze. For first time, the allegory of Ominira condensed into itself Liberty, Independence, and the Republic itself.

During the Reconstruction Era, the usage began to be more official, although with a more conservative depiction than Hansenberg's. The original Ominira monument had been destroyed during Oslanburgan occupation of Monrassia, and President Gabriel Sakoa ordered to build a more ambitious and majestic monument, turning the area in a square dedicated to the Heroes of the Motherland, which was officially inaugurated in late 1436.

Ominira's presence became less important during the Golden Age, specially after Losse Vestager's presidency. Vestager replaced Ominira by Khokharsa's Coat of Arms on stamps, and suspended the annual commemoration on the Heroes of the Motherland Square, as the country was considerably opening to foreign investment, and expressions of militant nationalism were seen as a threat of the status quo.

During the People's Party governments in the 1520s and 1530s, when male universal suffrage was introduced, these policies were reversed, and Ominira monuments and art experienced a renaissance with many artists involved. President Martin Curth declared: "The image of liberty should replace everywhere the images of corruption and national shame, which have been ended by the Khokharsan people". A reference to Ominira was added to the national anthem in 1548, only four years after women's suffrage was granted to all women for first time.

In the last decades, Ominira remains a highly popular national symbol, only behind the Khokharsan national flag.