Land haunts Germany's effort to atone for Africa genocide

Record ID: 348105

  • Title: Land haunts Germany's effort to atone for Africa genocide
  • Date: 2nd March 2017
  • Summary: OKAHANDJA, NAMIBIA (FEBRUARY 21, 2017) (REUTERS) WIDE OF GERMAN SOLDIER GRAVES VARIOUS OF GRAVES / GRAVESTONES OTJINENE, NAMIBIA (FEBRUARY 22, 2017) (REUTERS) WIDE OF OTJINENE SAND DUNE WHERE GERMAN GENERAL LOTHAR VAN TROTHA WHO CRUSHED THE UPRISING OF THE HERERO PEOPLE IN 1904 STOOD ISSUING THE EXTERMINATION ORDER WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA (FEBRUARY 24, 2017) (REUTERS) GERMAN AMB
  • Embargoed: 16th March 2017 12:29
  • Keywords: Namibia Germany genocide Herero Nama
  • Location: OKAHANDJA, OTJINENE AND WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA
  • City: OKAHANDJA, OTJINENE AND WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA
  • Country: Namibia
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
  • Reuters ID: LVA001669P26F
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Namibia's Herero people are heartened that Germany is keen to atone for the genocide of their ancestors, but they expect something Berlin says it is not in a position to give, return their land.
    "Regarding what we have lost, it is mostly our land; we will prefer that we get back our land that was taken away from us," said Sarafina Nbaimbaind, a Herero resident.
    About half of the arable land in the country in south West Africa which Germany annexed in 1884 is owned by descendants of German and Dutch immigrants, who make up just six percent of the 2.3 million population.
    Land used by the Herero, also known as OvaHerero, and smaller Namaqua community for grazing was seized and thousands were executed after they rebelled in 1904. The rest were driven into the country's vast tracts of desert to starve.
    Momentum for a settlement with Namibia increased last year after Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Germany hypocritical for recognizing massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide but not confronting its dark past in Namibia.
    A month later, in July, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's office said Germany would acknowledge the genocide of the OvaHerero and Namaqua peoples and offer a formal apology.
    "We cannot accept apology without a reparation. So we want that as a total package," Tjikuua Ueriuka, a tribal leader of the Herero people said.
    Five rounds of negotiations have been held since, although German officials emphasize talks have been going on since 2012.
    "(It is useful) to talk about an adequate apology from the German side and … to see what kind of measures can we additionally introduce in order to, as the German envoy always says, 'to heal the wounds'," said Christian Matthias Schlaga, the German Ambassador to Namibia.
    Schlaga said Berlin supported efforts by Namibia to redistribute land but it was the responsibility of the Namibian government to resolve disputes between its nationals.
    Namibian government sources said one idea was for Germany to provide funds for Namibia to purchase land from any owners willing to sell, but that talks on the issue had stalled.
    The government's chief negotiator, Zed Ngavirue, said the 'willing seller, willing buyer' system had failed. The issue would be revisited at a conference this year, he said, but would not be part of the negotiations with Germany over the genocide.
    "It's important for us and for our people and for everybody to know genocide happened. But we have agreed we'll deal with it through diplomatic negotiations, we are not going to go to court," Ngavirue added.
    Eyeing a possible Namibia deal, Tanzanians have sought compensation from Germany for some 70,000 killed during the Maji-Maji rebellion during colonial rule of German East Africa in the early 20th century.
    But Schlaga said any agreement between Berlin and Windhoek would not lead to negotiations in other parts of Africa and called the situation in Nimbia "very unique".
    The unique nature Schlaga refers to is the evidence of German forces' intent to exterminate along ethnic lines.
    That was spelled out by German General Lothar von Trotha, who was sent by the Kaiser to crush the uprising. "I believe that the (Herero) nation as such should be annihilated," he wrote. "Only following this cleansing can something new emerge."
    Those who were not shot or starved to death in the desert were captured and placed in concentration camps, where many more died of disease, mistreatment or torture. Up to 100,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama were killed, historians say.
    Herero and Nama women were systematically raped by German soldiers and their descendants still face discrimination from members of their tribe who consider themselves 'pure'.
    The grave of Samuel Maharero, who led the Herero's fight against the German colonial army before escaping across the border, lies in an almost inaccessible field in Okahandja amid wandering goats and overgrown foliage.
    Just a few hundred meters down the road is an impeccably cared-for graveyard for German soldiers killed in the rebellion? There is no cemetery for the slaughtered Herero, whose bodies were left out in the open.
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