Namibia Demands Reparations From Germany For Colonial Genocide
A skull from Germany on display in the city of Windhoek, Namibia, Tuesday, Oct 4, 2011. Hundreds of Namibians welcomed home the skulls of ancestors taken to Germany for racist experiments more than a century ago. The skulls are «testimony to the horrors of colonialism and German cruelty against our people,» Prime Minister Nahas Angula said at an airport ceremony, «The Namibian nation accepts these mortal remains as a symbolic closure of a tragic chapter.»
True justice for the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples remains unfinished, despite ongoing negotiations with Germany, Namibia’s Prosecutor General Festus Katuna Mbandeka told Sputnik. “No amount of money can compensate for the suffering and the lives that were lost,” the Prosecutor General underscored on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.Namibia demands three things:official recognition of the genocidepublic apologyreparationsGermany has already accepted the first two. Negotiations on the toughest part — the scale and form of reparations — are still grinding on.The talks also address legal mechanisms for implementing the payments and achieving genuine reconciliation.“Measures must be taken to promote reconciliation and preserve the memory of those events. This should not be a one-time action, but a sustained series of initiatives,” the Prosecutor Genera added.The territory of present-day Namibia, then known as German South West Africa, existed as a German colony from 1884 to 1915.Between 1904 and 1908, German colonial forces killed tens of thousands in response to a rebellion by the Herero and Nama peoples in what is widely recognized as the first genocide of the 20th century — involving mass killings, concentration camps, and land theft.
AfricaNamibia Removes Statue of German Colonial Officer ‘Wrongly’ Considered Windhoek Founder23 November 2022, 14:27 GMT
