Who Should Pay Whom?

IT appears that things are heating up for the calls for Germany to provide “payback” for the ills foisted upon the Hereros (and to a limited extent others) during colonial times.

Put into perspective, the current generation of Germans is being asked to provide “reparations” (a word loaded with imported meaning) for the ills performed by their forebears who lived at least four generations earlier. What is ironic is that along with the recent reporting of this hot topic, has come other reports about another Namibian community equally disenfranchised in the past, the San.We are told that the San cannot even afford coffins to bury their dead (which begs the question, what did they traditionally do before the advent of coffins anyway?).So we have a relatively well-off people group in Namibia, the Hereros, and a dirt-poor community, the San.Two entirely unrelated stories, right? Perhaps not so unrelated as at first glance.One wonders why the San are in such a mess in the first place.Recalling history, they are the first inhabitants of the land we now call Namibia (as well as vast chunks of other southern African real estate), but other African peoples, mainly of Bantu stock, came down and took the land away from them.They invaded their hunting grounds, pushed them aside with their superior numbers and might, and basically disenfranchised them.Much the way the colonialists did to Africans.Is there any “statute of limitations” on such reparation talk? I mean, shouldn’t we be complaining about all the nasty things certain African peoples did to other African peoples in the past, such as enslaving them, wiping out their villages, and raping their women? Long before white Europeans used Africans as slaves, Arab slave traders made a good living on this continent.Shouldn’t we be demanding reparations for those ills as well? But let’s not stop there.Consider those nasty Greeks under Alexander the Great.Sure, they gave us many wonderful cultural blessings, but what of the poor peoples subjugated under them over 2000 years ago? Why just stop at a hundred years back, which is the case with German reparations for the Hereros? Is genocide or slavery that is a century old any less heinous than that of two centuries or even two millennia for that matter? Please don’t tell me this is just a white and black thing.Heaven forbid that the Germans are the only ones with their feet being held to the fire – and not certain Bantu peoples who took land from early Namibian inhabitants, or Arab slave traders – just because they are white.I hope we aren’t that juvenile and immature in the Land of the Brave.I also wonder about the strategy that is being taken by certain Namibians on this issue.You can only make people feel guilty for so long, before they entirely resent it.Wouldn’t it be better to tell them we are unhappy with the ills of the past, and then to expect this current generation (who had absolutely nothing to do with those ills) to act generously toward us? Forcing them in the public arena to cough up some cash will only result in a short-term gain.In the long term, it will only hurt Namibia’s chances to receive German generosity in the future.Instead of arrogantly demanding reparations, wouldn’t it be a better solution to humbly declare our pain over the matter, and allow the Germans to act generously toward us? Demanding reparations from people living today who have done you no harm is just another form of unfairness and injustice, just a difference of degree from the same unfairness and injustice performed by previous German generations.Personally, I think it is ridiculous to demand payback for the ills done by people who lived so many generations ago, and to pile our guilt upon people who live today who had absolutely nothing to do with it.Was slavery fair? Of course not.Is genocide ever right? Definitely not.But why should people living today who are guilty of neither pay for those ills? If we argue that they should, then let us at least be consistent in our logic, and make all people today pay for the ills performed by their forefathers.I can only imagine the outcry that would result if we were so logical.Victor Kuligin WindhoekWhat is ironic is that along with the recent reporting of this hot topic, has come other reports about another Namibian community equally disenfranchised in the past, the San.We are told that the San cannot even afford coffins to bury their dead (which begs the question, what did they traditionally do before the advent of coffins anyway?).So we have a relatively well-off people group in Namibia, the Hereros, and a dirt-poor community, the San.Two entirely unrelated stories, right? Perhaps not so unrelated as at first glance.One wonders why the San are in such a mess in the first place.Recalling history, they are the first inhabitants of the land we now call Namibia (as well as vast chunks of other southern African real estate), but other African peoples, mainly of Bantu stock, came down and took the land away from them.They invaded their hunting grounds, pushed them aside with their superior numbers and might, and basically disenfranchised them.Much the way the colonialists did to Africans.Is there any “statute of limitations” on such reparation talk? I mean, shouldn’t we be complaining about all the nasty things certain African peoples did to other African peoples in the past, such as enslaving them, wiping out their villages, and raping their women? Long before white Europeans used Africans as slaves, Arab slave traders made a good living on this continent.Shouldn’t we be demanding reparations for those ills as well? But let’s not stop there.Consider those nasty Greeks under Alexander the Great.Sure, they gave us many wonderful cultural blessings, but what of the poor peoples subjugated under them over 2000 years ago? Why just stop at a hundred years back, which is the case with German reparations for the Hereros? Is genocide or slavery that is a century old any less heinous than that of two centuries or even two millennia for that matter? Please don’t tell me this is just a white and black thing.Heaven forbid that the Germans are the only ones with their feet being held to the fire – and not certain Bantu peoples who took land from early Namibian inhabitants, or Arab slave traders – just because they are white.I hope we aren’t that juvenile and immature in the Land of the Brave.I also wonder about the strategy that is being taken by certain Namibians on this issue.You can only make people feel guilty for so long, before they entirely resent it.Wouldn’t it be better to tell them we are unhappy with the ills of the past, and then to expect this current generation (who had absolutely nothing to do with those ills) to act generously toward us? Forcing them in the public arena to cough up some cash will only result in a short-term gain.In the long term, it will only hurt Namibia’s chances to receive German generosity in the future.Instead of arrogantly demanding reparations, wouldn’t it be a better solution to humbly declare our pain over the matter, and allow the Germans to act generously toward us? Demanding reparations from people living today who have done you no harm is just another form of unfairness and injustice, just a difference of degree from the same unfairness and injustice performed by previous German generations.Personally, I think it is ridiculous to demand payback for the ills done by people who lived so many generations ago, and to pile our guilt upon people who live today who had absolutely nothing to do with it.Was slavery fair? Of course not.Is genocide ever right? Definitely not.But why should people living today who are guilty of neither pay for those ills? If we argue that they should, then let us at least be consistent in our logic, and make all people today pay for the ills performed by their forefathers.I can only imagine the outcry that would result if we were so logical.Victor Kuligin Windhoek