Germany must fully acknowledge its legal responsibility for the genocide and other colonial crimes it committed in Namibia and provide reparations to the descendants of victims, Amnesty International said today on the anniversary of one of the “extermination orders” in Germany’s colonial genocide against the Indigenous Ovaherero and Nama peoples. More than a century since the German extermination proclamations, the effects of the genocide continue to be experienced by their descendants.
Amnesty International further calls on the German and Namibian governments to guarantee the full, effective and meaningful participation of Ovaherero and Nama peoples in any reparation process or mechanism to address past human rights violations and the enduring legacy of the brutal German colonial era.
The German government continues to deny that it has a legal duty to provide reparations to the Ovaherero and Nama peoples. Under international law, however, states that have engaged in colonial crimes and other violations have a duty to provide full, prompt and effective reparations, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.
In a 2021 joint declaration between the Namibian and German governments, German authorities agreed to pay the Namibian government approximately €1.1bn over a period of 30 years to support “programmes for reconstruction and development.” Development aid, however, is not a substitute for full and effective reparations. Where the former colonial power sets the terms and conditions for the provision of assistance to a former colony, development aid may reinforce and perpetuate colonial legacies and hierarchies of power rather than disrupt them.
The negotiations between the two governments leading to the declaration were also flawed as they did not include meaningful participation by representatives of the Ovaherero and Nama peoples.
“It is shameful that over a hundred years since German colonial forces waged a genocide against the Nama and Ovaherero peoples, Germany has failed to engage in meaningful consultations with these communities or provide reparations,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southern Africa. “There cannot be true justice if those affected are excluded from the talks. Victims and affected communities should be at the centre of any processes to redress colonial legacies.”
Namibia has also failed the Ovaherero and Nama by failing to guarantee the meaningful and effective participation of their representatives in talks with Germany.
UN treaty bodies and special mandate holders have criticized the lack of participation by the affected communities in the declaration’s development, affirming that the “Ovaherero and Nama themselves must be permitted to shape the process of repair.”
The first genocide of the 20th century
In what is now recognised by experts as the first genocide of the 20th century, German colonial troops systematically executed and starved thousands of Ovaherero and Nama men, women and children between 1904 and 1908.
It is estimated that 80% of the Ovaherero and 50% of the Nama populations were killed during this period.
Those who survived the massacres were captured by German troops and detained in “konzentrationslager” (‘concentration camps’ in German) established by the colonial authorities across Namibia. Thousands of prisoners died as a result of malnutrition, disease and exhaustion caused by the inhumane conditions, torture, and brutal forced labour they were subjected to. Women and girls were also systematically raped and subjected to other forms of sexual violence. The skulls of prisoners who died in the camps were shipped to German universities and museums for racist pseudo-scientific research, many of which remain in Germany to this day.
Enduring Legacies of the Genocide
The dispossession of ancestral lands and loss of cultural heritage because of the genocide has caused irreparable damage and transgenerational harm for Nama and Ovaherero descendants.
“Today, the Ovaherero and Nama remain a minority in Namibia. Our small numbers are the living consequence of the genocide, and this reality continues to haunt us. It has left us politically vulnerable, with little chance to shape the direction of the country through the ballot box. Hence, the Namibian government’s indifference to our demands to participate in the negotiations about us.” said Jephta Nguherimo, a Namibian activist and founder of the OvaHerero People’s Memorial & Reconstruction Foundation.
Over a hundred years after the dispossession of their land, the Ovaherero and Nama are still prevented from accessing some of their ancestral land and cultural heritage sites.
“It is unconscionable that the descendants of the victims require permission to access their ancestral lands to commemorate and pay respect to their ancestors,” said Tigere Chagutah. “As if that colonial dispossession was not enough, Indigenous Peoples in Namibia today are also facing new forms of dispossession driven by the extraction of natural resources and the transition to renewable energies.”
The Ovaherero and Nama peoples are demanding the return of the bodies of their ancestors killed during the genocide and the stolen artefacts still being held in German museums and universities.
They are also calling for the preservation of the burial grounds of their ancestors who died in the concentration and forced labour camps.
“We the Nama Gaogu will continue fighting for restorative justice, as our former Chairperson of the Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA), Gaob PSM Kooper eloquently put: Let us Die Fighting,” said the NTLA.
Background
On 2 October 1904, General Lothar von Trotha, the commander of German imperial forces, issued a proclamation calling for the extermination of the Ovaherero people. A few months later, on 22 April 1905, General von Trotha issued a proclamation calling for the extermination of the Nama people.
It is estimated that over 75,000 Ovaherero and Nama people were killed between 1904 and 1908, alongside thousands of other Indigenous Peoples, including among the San and the Damara.
In 2023, representatives of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority, the NTLA, and the Landless Peoples Movement filed a case in the High Court of Namibia to have the joint declaration between Namibian and German governments declared unlawful, arguing that the agreement violates Namibia’s constitution and international law.
The planned construction of a major renewable energy project by a British-German joint venture on Nama ancestral land in the Tsau ||Khaeb National Park has been challenged by the NTLA for perpetuating colonial patterns of land dispossession. In a submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the NTLA and civil society partners have argued that the Nama people have not been meaningfully consulted on the development of the project, violating their rights as Indigenous People to self-determination and free, prior and informed consent.