Namibian Opposition Rejects Genocide Deal with Germany
The leader of the opposition in the
Namibian parliament has written a letter to the German foreign ministry insisting
that negotiations for payments in recognition of Berlin’s colonial genocide in
the country be redone with input from the affected communities.
McHenry Venaani, leader of the People's
Democratic Movement (PDM), has written a letter to German Foreign Minister
Annalena Baerbock asking for the $1.3 billion settlement to be
"renegotiated" and "restructured.”
"There are descendants of genocide
victims living in Botswana and South Africa - and they are left to fend for
themselves," he told the German state-owned outlet. He said that
representatives from organizations of the two tribes targeted for
extermination, the Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) and the Nama
Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA), were not included in the talks.
Sham agreement
"Reparations have not been
recognized as a consequence of the admission of genocide," Venaani said,
according to AFP, calling on Germany "to come back to the negotiating
table and rework an agreement that would satisfy both groups.”
"It seems like this issue in
Germany is only about gaining political power," OGF chairman Nandiuasora
Mazeingo also told DW. "But we will outlast these governments because we
are on the right side of history!"
"We are not going to sign a sham
agreement that makes Germany look good on the international stage,"
Mazeingo added.
Venaani told DW he wants a clear, legal
recognition of the genocide, and to push for both a larger monetary sum as well
as “a package that will sustainably improve the socio-economic conditions of
the affected communities.” That could also include a formal apology from
Berlin.
$ 40.67 per year
The deal was agreed to by the German and
Namibian governments in May 2021, the product of six years of negotiations, in
which the German government will admit that it carried out a genocide in
Namibia while the country was a German colony in the early 20th century, and
will pay out a $1.22 billion settlement over the next 30 years, amounting to
$40.67 million per year.
However, it was almost immediately
rejected by representatives from the Ovaherero and Nama tribes, who said that
the cash settlement was inadequate in terms of both the amount and the failure
to address the entire scope of outcomes from the killings and land evictions.
The tribes have also accused their own
government, led by the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO), of
failing to take their considerations into account. SWAPO is dominated by the
Ovambo people, who were not targets of the German massacres. In September of
last year, protesters stormed the Namibian parliament demanding the deal be
rejected, which they called “the fake genocide deal.”
Lasting Legacy of Colonialism
Germany claimed the territory of Namibia
for itself in 1884, calling it “German South West Africa,” and settlers poured
into the arid land, coming into conflict with local tribes like the Herero and
Nama. In 1904, several tribes launched a joint revolt against German land
seizures and plans to force them into reservations, and the German response was
devastating. German commander Lothar von Trotha, who was sent to crush the
uprising, ordered that “every Herero, with or without rifles, with or without
cattle, will be shot,” giving a similar order for the Nama people the following
year.
German atrocities
The German colonial forces drove the
African tribes off their lands and into the harsh deserts of the interior,
sealing off their wells and watering holes to stop them from returning. Those
who survived the desert were put into concentration camps and used as slave
labor, where many more died. In the end, 80% of the 100,000-strong Herero
people and 50% of the 10,000-strong Nama people had been killed by 1908.
After World War I, the territory was
ceded to the victorious United Kingdom and became a colony of South Africa,
being subjected to the same apartheid white supremacist system as the rest of
the country. However, SWAPO led an insurgency against South African rule and
secured independence for Namibia in 1990, as South Africa’s invasion of
neighboring Angola collapsed and the anti-apartheid movement inside South Africa
grew stronger. White Apartheid rule in South Africa ended just four years
later, in 1994.
SWAPO has been the ruling party ever since and has overseen attempts at reforming land ownership and the legal code. However, the country’s colonial legacy persists in many ways, including in the distribution of wealth: white descendants of German and South African settlers constitute just 6% of Namibia’s population but hold roughly 80% of its wealth, including 72% of all agricultural land.
