INVITATION: Nama conference on the production of green hydrogen for Germany in Namibia (starting on April 9)

• April 9 - 10: Youth Summit of the Nama Traditional Leaders Association, focusing on green hydrogen (ǃNamiǂNûs, Namibia)
• April 12: Anniversary of the Hornkranz massacre: Memorial event on Shark Island as a means to draw attention to the possible destruction
• Media representatives are invited to take part in both events, in order to obtain exclusive information on the hydrogen project and the process of coming to terms with the past

On April 9 and 10, around 150 young Nama will discuss the chances and risks of the planned hydrogen production plant near ǃNamiǂNûs* (Lüderitz). The conference is organized by the Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA), the official representation of the Nama in Namibia, and supported by the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP). The event focuses on the planned construction of a hydrogen production plant in the Tsau||Khaeb National Park – an area traditionally inhabited by the Nama – in combination with the planned extension of the harbor on Shark Island, which is an important genocide memorial site for the Nama and the Ovaherero. In a strategy paper published in 2024, the Nama had demanded to be involved in all plans concerning their traditional settlement areas.

The Hyphen company is planning a 10 billion dollar project, and shareholders from Germany are involved as well. Most of the hydrogen produced there is supposed to be exported to Germany. “Due to its colonial past, Germany has a special responsibility. The land on which the large-scale production facilities are to be built was forcibly taken from the Nama during the German colonial rule. The German Federal Government and the German companies involved must ensure that the Nama have a say regarding the hydrogen project,” demanded Laura Mahler, STP expert on sub-Saharan Africa.

The conference will be attended by official representatives of the Nama, lawyers, various stakeholders of the Hyphen Project, and political representatives – local and state-level. Apart from the social and ecologic consequences of the hydrogen production project, the event will also focus on the history of the Nama, the consequences of the German colonial rule, which still has implications for today, and the process of coming to terms with the past.

Shark Island: Impending destruction of a genocide memorial site

In the course of the annual memorial event on Shark Island (April 12), there will be a memorial service for the people who got killed by German soldiers in the course of the Hornkranz massacre in 1893. This year, there will be a human chain around the peninsula – as a means to draw attention to the possible destruction of Shark Island in the course of the planned extension of the harbor, which would be necessary to export green hydrogen abroad. During the German colonial rule, there was a concentration camp on Shark Island, and thousands of members of the Nama and Ovaherero lost their lives there. As a consequence of the planned extension of the harbor, the human remains of their ancestors – which are buried there to this day – would be lost forever.

The STP will be present at both events, and will also be available for media inquiries. If you are interested in taking part, please contact us via presse@gfbv.de. Laura Mahler, STP expert on sub-Saharan Africa, is available for further questions: l.mahler@gfbv.de or +49 3051 695825-3.

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has been working together with representatives of the Nama and the Ovaherero for many years – and had, in 2001, advocated for Germany’s official recognition of the genocide crimes against the Ovaherero and the Nama. At the request of victims’ associations, the STP had financed a memorial stone on Shark Island.

* !NamiǂNûs is what the Nama call the city of Lüderitz.