Amnesty International has called on Germany to fully acknowledge its legal responsibility for the genocide and other colonial crimes it committed in Namibia.
The international body last week demanded that Germany provide reparations to the descendants of victims.
The call was made on Thursday, marking the 121st anniversary of lieutenant general Lothar von Trotha’s “extermination orders” against the indigenous Ovaherero and Nama people.
A second order targeting the Nama people was made in April 1905.
“It is shameful that over 100 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.
According to Chagutah 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.”
An estimated 100 000 Ovaherero and Nama men, women and children were killed between 1904 and 1908 in what is now recognised by experts as the first genocide of the 20th century.
In a 2021 joint declaration between the Namibian and German governments, German authorities agreed to pay the Namibian government approximately €1.1 billion (N$22 billion) over a period of 30 years to support “programmes for reconstruction and development.”
Chagutah said development aid is not a substitute for full and effective reparations.
He said 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.
