GENOCIDENamibia’s Reparations Conundrum
In 2021 the governments of Namibia and Germany announced an agreement for Germany to pay reparations to Namibia for atrocities committed by the German colonial authorities in Namibia between 1904 and 1908. The Herero and Nama people, the two main targets of German colonial brutality, argue that they were the ones to suffer most from German colonial brutality, yet they were not included in the negotiations over reparations, their voices were not heard, and their grievance have not been addressed.
In 2021 the governments of Namibia and Germany announced an agreement for Germany to pay reparations to Namibia for atrocities committed by the German colonial authorities in what was then German Southwest Africa between 1904 and 1908.
Two native groups bore the brunt of German atrocities: About 80 percent of the Herero and 50 percent of the Nama were killed in what historians regard as the first attempted genocide of the Twentieth Century.
The decimation of the Herero and the Nama has led to the current political situation in Namibia, with the Ovambo people, which account for nearly half of the Namibian population of 2.5 million, firmly in control of the country and its institutions.
This is the source of the current bitterness and tensions in Namibia: The Herero and Nama people argue that they were the ones to suffer genocide from German colonial brutality – not the now-majority Ovambo - and yet they were not included in the negotiations over reparations, their voices were not heard, and their grievance have not been addressed.
The Massacres
Germany’s colonial rule in the former German Southwest Africa lasted from 1884 to 1915. The German colonial authorities often treated the native population harshly.
German settlers used force to remove natives and seize their land. After several local clashes, in 1904, the German authorities implemented a series of brutal policies aimed at subjugating the indigenous Herero and Nama peoples.
The Herero were the first to revolt, under the leadership of Chief Samuel Maharero, against German rule. Herero fighters invaded Okahandja, one of the biggest German settlements and the heart of Hereroland. The fighters, mounted on horses, killed dozens of settlers and torched their homes.
In response, the German Schutztruppe, or colonial guards, led by General Lothar von Trotha, launched a ruthless campaign to suppress the uprising. The goal of the campaign was the extermination of the entire Herero population.
The main tactics of the German military was the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Herero people into the desert, where they were denied access to food and water. Most died of starvation and dehydration. Some Herero were placed in concentration camps, where the inhumane conditions and brutal forced labor caused most of them to die.
The German forces in Namibia also carried out massacres and executions, killing thousands of Herero men, women, and children.
