Nama leaders, LPM slam Genocide Remembrance Day

As the government gears up for the inaugural Genocide Remembrance Day on 28 May, the Nama community has demanded fresh genocide negotiations.

The Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA) says the joint declaration agreed upon by former German and Namibian governments in 2021 “has failed, morally and politically”.

“It [2021 negotiations] was concluded without the consent of the affected communities, rejects binding reparations and fails to fully acknowledge the scope of the historical injustice. We demand a new negotiation process – transparent, inclusive and substantive,” the association said.

The NTLA yesterday commemorated the extermination order issued by German general Lothar von Trotha against the Nama people on 22 April 1905. The association called on the newly elected governments of Namibia and Germany to open new negotiations, which should also include input from the affected communities.

The association pointed out that the 2021 agreement does not refer to reparations to the Nama and Ovaherero communities against whom the extermination orders were made, but instead talks about development aid to regions where affected communities are.

“The Nama people must be structurally, politically and materially included as directly affected parties. We are not objects of history – we are agents of justice. We demand a rightful place at the table in all decision-making processes regarding our past and our future. The governments did not honour the right to meaningful participation, and reduced the Nama and Ovaherero people to advisers in the negotiation process,” the association said.

It further raised concern over the legal status of the extermination order which was issued 120 years ago, saying it was never formally revoked and still remains in effect under international law.

“The German federal government must formally revoke the extermination order and acknowledge, in legally binding terms, that the war of extermination against the Nama constituted genocide under the United Nation’s Genocide Convention. Half-hearted declarations are no foundation for reconciliation,” the association said.

REMEMBRANCE DAY

Meanwhile, the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) has questioned government’s decision to designate 28 May as the national genocide commemoration day.

LPM says the Ovaherero and Nama descendants have long identified 2 October and 12 April as sacred days of memory; days that commemorate the onset of extermination orders and colonial brutality.

On 12 April 1883, under the German officer Curt von François, the massacre of Hornkranz took place while for the Ovaherero, 2 October 1904 is a central day of remembrance, which commemorates Von Trotha’s extermination order against the Ovaherero people.

LPM Youth Command spokesperson William Minnie says the attempt to impose a “state-manufactured” day of remembrance erases the lived experiences and autonomous mourning practices of the affected communities. “To overwrite these dates with state-selected symbolism is not only tone-deaf, it is historical revisionism in its most dangerous form, aimed at pacifying resistance and neutralising our collective grief,” Minnie says.

He says LPM categorically and unapologetically rejects what it calls a condescending, state-sanctioned overture that aims to pacify the struggle and domesticate the revolutionary fire of the affected communities.

“The LPM stands firm: the fight for reparations is not over. We demand 2 October and 12 April be enshrined as the only legitimate genocide remembrance days, chosen by the Nama and Herero communities themselves.

Until the state confronts its colonial inheritance with material justice – land, dignity and reparations – we will not be silent. Let it be heard across the nation and beyond,” Minnie says.

Vice president Lucia Witbooi is currently leading engagements with traditional leaders of various communities on Genocide Remembrance Day.

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