Postcolonial Responsibility “The Agreement Is an Insult”

The German and Namibian government negotiated a reconciliation agreement regarding the genocide of Ovaherero and Nama peoples by German colonial forces in the early 20th century without involving the descendants. Ngondi Kamatuka analyses the failures of the agreement.
 

As one of the descendants of the Ovaherero and Nama genocide, what is your opinion on the reconciliation agreement the German government reached with the Namibian state?

Let me start off by providing foundational facts about Otjitiro Otjindjandja – the name for genocide in the Otjiherero language - and !Gam-#ui – the expression of genocide in the Nama language. German settlers engaged in sexual violence against Ovaherero and Nama girls and women. No legal recourse was available to the victims. Therefore, on 12th January 1904, the Ovaherero people rose up against the German settlers. The German response was a military operation by a so-called Schutztruppe,with roughly 14,000 soldiers from 1904 to 1908.

The result was devastating. 65,000 Ovaherero peoples, which is 81 percent of the entire population and 10,000 Nama peoples, which represent 50 percent of the Nama population, were murdered. Namibia did not exist in those years of the genocide. Also, Germany committed genocide against the Ovaherero and Nama peoples, not against the state of Namibia.

The agreement uses the term “reconciliation”. Reconciliation requires that two parties, who settled their differences through war, sit down and talk about the transgressions for which reconciliation is sought. To date, Germany has not acknowledged its transgression per se. The German state has not bowed in humility before the Ovaherero and Nama peoples and not asked for forgiveness. The German state has not referred to the massacre as genocide. The German government only said that what happened could be considered genocide “from today’s perspective”.

What happened to the Ovaherero and Nama population between 1904 and 1908 is a genocide. Some predicted that neither the German nor the Namibian government would acknowledge this historical fact, in any agreement they reach, but choose to use euphemisms such as “unfortunate history” to describe the event in order to minimize the fact that the German Reich intentionally caused the almost total annihilation of the Ovaherero and Nama peoples. This is exactly what transpired with the agreement.

The negotiations deliberately excluded the Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA), headed by the late Paramount Chief, Advocate Vekuii Rukoro, and Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA) headed by Gaob Johannes Isaack. Germany, as the guilty party, has decided that the killing of tens of thousands of Ovaherero and Nama peoples and their stolen land is worth 1.1 billion euros to be paid out over 30 years. This agreement is an insult to the Ovaherero and Nama peoples.  

What would have to happen or change in order for the Ovaherero and Nama people to accept an agreement?

Both Germany and Namibia are signatories to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People of 2007, which gives Indigenous people the rights to partake in decision-making processes in matters affecting them, through representation of their choosing. Both governments acted in violation of this.

We, the Ovaherero and Nama peoples, have the inherent right and the capacity to speak for ourselves. The German government must directly negotiate with the OTA and NTLA. They represent98 percent of the Ovahereo and Nama descendants, including people in the diaspora.

We, the descendants, have always believed that the Namibian government cannot adequately represent our interests and have deeply felt that any terms the German and Namibian governments reach without us cannot be final or binding on the Ovaherero and Nama peoples. The government of Namibia does not have the right to speak for those Ovaherero and Nama in the diaspora in Botswana, South Africa, the United States, and elsewhere.

The agreement must be discarded. Germany must directly negotiate with the Ovaherero and the Nama peoples. This is the only way forward. The time is now for the citizens of Germany to demand this of their government.

The German government clarified that the payments are not “reparations” in the legal sense. Why is the recognition as “reparations” important to the Ovaherero and Nama people?

The question that ought to be asked is what needs to be repaired? The Ovaherero and the Nama communities have lost 50,000 square miles of their land to the German colonialists without compensation. A majority of the population was killed.

Reparations to the Ovaherero and Nama are seen as a vehicle through which some semblance of justice could be achieved.

There is a petition in which several spokespeople from various Ovaherero and Nama organisations demand that the money should go directly to the descendants, not the Namibian government. Why do you believe it is important to receive the money directly and how will the descendants use and distribute the money differently?

I support the petition. First of all, the descendants have not announced  how funds would be spent. But, I am quite certain that a process of broad consultations will take place in the Ovaherero and Nama communities in Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, including others in the diaspora, under the aegis of OTA and NTLA.

Together they will decide how the funds will be used, and what projects to finance, including buying back some of the stolen land. Corruption is endemic in the Namibian government. We will not entrust reparation funds to a corrupt entity. Reparation negotiations should also require Germany to accord Namibia a most-favoured-nation status to open German markets to Namibian goods.   

What response would you like to see from the Namibian government? And which further developments do you expect to see between Namibia and Germany?

On 26th October 2006, the Namibian National Assembly (parliament) passed a motion stipulating that the Namibian government as an interested party in any negotiation with the German government has to ensure that Ovaherero and Nama peoples are not excluded. However, Hage Geingob’s government has acted contrary to the motion.

Of course, before any talks with the Ovaherero and Nama communities can commence, the German government must offer a genuine apology through the Bundestag and ask for forgiveness. There must be a real apology and then the process must start again. Ovaherero and Nama descendants are not afraid to negotiate, but they will never negotiate out of fear.


This interview was conducted in written form. The questions were asked Juliane Glahn, trainee at the online editorial team of the Goethe‑Institut in Munich.