Practical solutions for reparations needed

SEVERAL proposals have been made in the National Assembly this week about ways to push for reparations for the Herero and Nama communities.

The vice-president of CoD, Nora Schimming-Chase, said in her contribution that she was suspicious about the apology made by German Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul in 2004 at Okakarara for atrocities committed against Herero and Nama-speaking Namibians a century ago. The Minister then asked “for the forgiveness of our trespasses”, but did not use the term “apology”.The Israeli government managed, together with Jews all over the world, to raise international awareness on the holocaust of Germany against Jewish people and the German government indeed paid reparations to them.Thus the Namibian Government should take the lead in preparing negotiations on the reparations demand of the affected Namibian communities together with the descendents of these groups, Schimming-Chase proposed.She went even as far as suggesting that the National Assembly should resolve to mandate the Namibian Government to institute a civil lawsuit at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the Netherlands, should the envisaged negotiations fail.”I further ask that the House adopt another resolution asking the German Parliament through the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), which a century ago was so vehemently opposed to General von Trotha’s war of extermination against the Herero people, to pass a motion in Berlin for Germany to officially take responsibility for German crimes here (in Namibia).The German government should not only pay lip service to those crimes in the form of an apology but accept its duty to pay reparations, as they did with the Jews and others done elsewhere.”Development assistance from Germany should not be used by that country as a “form of bribery” to divert attention from the issue of genocide and reparations, “nor to divide our nation, whose present unity was paid for by the blood that waters our freedom,” Schimming-Chase concluded.Prime Minister Nahas Angula, who was the sixth contributor to the debate, had a different view on the apology by Wieczorek-Zeul.”Her words were sincere at the occasion back in 2004 and President Hifikepunye Pohamba, who was the Minister of Lands at that time, urged all present to accept the apology,” Angula pointed out.”Germany has turned a new page; Namibia must chart a new future in this context, but the question is, how do we chart that future?”.He proposed that restorative justice could be a possible way.”Stakeholders should be identified, like the descendants of those chiefs that were hanged by the Germans like Eduard Lambert of the Khauas Nama, Nikodemus Kavikunua, Kahimemua Nguvauva, Chief Cornelius Fredericks and 16 other Nama prisoners decapitated at Shark Island.”It should also be possible to do research and find descendants of Hereros and Namas living in other countries and help repatriate them to Namibia if they wished, or arrange scholarship programmes for them, he said.Angula added that a proper resettlement programme was needed for the Hereros who returned from Botswana around 1993.”Land appropriation by colonial authorities, ceding land to settlers through unfair trade, and cattle confiscation to pay off debt as well as the impact of the Rinderpest of 1896 all conspired to create a pauper class out of the indigenous communities,” Angula said.”The community leaders were left with no alternative but to resort to armed struggle.”Colonial Germany’s policy in Namibia was premeditated, callous, manipulative and marked by impunity, the Prime Minister added.Kala Gertze of the CoD proposed that a national forum be established “through which a collective bargain must be made by the Government.”The Minister then asked “for the forgiveness of our trespasses”, but did not use the term “apology”.The Israeli government managed, together with Jews all over the world, to raise international awareness on the holocaust of Germany against Jewish people and the German government indeed paid reparations to them.Thus the Namibian Government should take the lead in preparing negotiations on the reparations demand of the affected Namibian communities together with the descendents of these groups, Schimming-Chase proposed.She went even as far as suggesting that the National Assembly should resolve to mandate the Namibian Government to institute a civil lawsuit at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the Netherlands, should the envisaged negotiations fail.”I further ask that the House adopt another resolution asking the German Parliament through the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), which a century ago was so vehemently opposed to General von Trotha’s war of extermination against the Herero people, to pass a motion in Berlin for Germany to officially take responsibility for German crimes here (in Namibia).The German government should not only pay lip service to those crimes in the form of an apology but accept its duty to pay reparations, as they did with the Jews and others done elsewhere.”Development assistance from Germany should not be used by that country as a “form of bribery” to divert attention from the issue of genocide and reparations, “nor to divide our nation, whose present unity was paid for by the blood that waters our freedom,” Schimming-Chase concluded.Prime Minister Nahas Angula, who was the sixth contributor to the debate, had a different view on the apology by Wieczorek-Zeul.”Her words were sincere at the occasion back in 2004 and President Hifikepunye Pohamba, who was the Minister of Lands at that time, urged all present to accept the apology,” Angula pointed out.”Germany has turned a new page; Namibia must chart a new future in this context, but the question is, how do we chart that future?”.He proposed that restorative justice could be a possible way.”Stakeholders should be identified, like the descendants of those chiefs that were hanged by the Germans like Eduard Lambert of the Khauas Nama, Nikodemus Kavikunua, Kahimemua Nguvauva, Chief Cornelius Fredericks and 16 other Nama prisoners decapitated at Shark Island.”It should also be possible to do research and find descendants of Hereros and Namas living in other countries and help repatriate them to Namibia if they wished, or arrange scholarship programmes for them, he said.Angula added that a proper resettlement programme was needed for the Hereros who returned from Botswana around 1993.”Land appropriation by colonial authorities, ceding land to settlers through unfair trade, and cattle confiscation to pay off debt as well as the impact of the Rinderpest of 1896 all conspired to create a pauper class out of the indigenous communities,” Angula said.”The community leaders were left with no alternative but to resort to armed struggle.”Colonial Germany’s policy in Namibia was premeditated, callous, manipulative and marked by impunity, the Prime Minister added.Kala Gertze of the CoD proposed that a national forum be established “through which a collective bargain must be made by the Government.”