120th anniversary of the extermination order against the Nama

On the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the extermination order of the German colonial regime against the Nama (April 22), the Society for threatened Peoples (STP) called on the German Federal Government to stop blocking a legal recognition of the genocide.

“So far, Germany is not living up to its historical responsibility toward the descendants of the victims of the genocide. The reconciliation agreement between Germany and Namibia – the so-called ‘Joint Declaration’ – must be renegotiated. Providing development funds is not the same as compensation. Germany must finally pay reparations to the descendants of the genocide victims,” demanded Laura Mahler, STP expert on sub-Saharan Africa.

“The entire text of the joint declaration does not speak of reparations, does not speak of what needs to be made up to the Nama and Ovaherero. Our demand is to scrap the entire joint declaration, to bring the Nama and Ovaherero to the table, and then restart the negotiations from scratch – based on historical and objective facts,” demanded Maboss Ortmann of the Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA). “Sit down with the Nama and the Ovaherero, talk to us and put right what you have done,” he appealed to the German government.  

“In the ongoing debate about addressing colonial crimes, it sends a fatal signal that Namibia and the Joint Declaration are not even mentioned in the coalition agreement between the CDU and the STP,” Mahler criticized, emphasizing that this clearly shows the lack of political will to address the atrocities of the colonial past with the necessary consistency and dignity. “The fact that the Germany’s colonial past is not mentioned at all contradicts the notion of a ‘responsible foreign policy’, as stated in the coalition agreement of the new federal government – and it raises fundamental questions about the coherence of Germany’s remembrance policy. We support the Nama’s demand for a renegotiation of the Joint Declaration. The new German government must not pass the responsibility on to the Namibian government, but must ensure that the official representatives of the Ovaherero and the Nama are involved in the negotiations.”

On April 22, 1905, Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha had announced the extermination order against the Nama. According to estimates, around 10.000 Nama and 80.000 Ovaherero fell victim to the genocide in the period from 1904 to 1908.