Germany has officially recognized colonial-era genocide which saw the death of thousands of Namibians and is set to make amends. According to a release by the German authorities, €1.1 billion has been set aside to support descendants of the victims with some used for developmental projects.
In a statement, the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that;“Our goal was and is to find a common path to genuine reconciliation in memory of the victims. This includes naming the events of the German colonial period in what is now Namibia, and in particular the atrocities in the period from 1904 to 1908; without sparing or glossing over them. We will now also officially call these events what they were from today’s perspective: a genocide.”
In response, the Namibian government, through the presidential press secretary Alfredo Hengari stated that; “these are very positive developments in light of a very long process that has been accelerated over the past five years. People will never forget this genocide; they live with it. And this is an important process in terms of healing those wounds.” This follows a last year rejection of the offer, on the grounds that it didn’t meet demands.
The Genocide By Germany in Namibia
This new development follows our earlier report in which the German Foreign ministry hinted that; the country was almost close to making amends with the Southern African country after over 100years of the genocide.
The genocide which struck Namibia took the lives of about 65,000 Herero people. Additionally, at least 10,000 Nama people were also killed and an unknown number of San people equally died.
The mass murder occured after these locals rebelled against colonial rule. Whilst some were killed in battle, forced labour, sexual abuse etc; a large number of deaths were recorded through hunger and thirst after the German forces forced them into the desert without food and water.
Over a century now, the Namibian government sought reparations from Germany for this grand massacre; and €1.1 billion has finally been agreed upon.
