Special issue: Germany’s genocide in Namibia – Unbearable silence, or How not to deal with your colonial past
The following publication "Germany’s genocide in Namibia – Unbearable silence, or How not to deal with your colonial past" is a cooperation between Pambazuka News and AfricAvenir International. With this publication, we would like to open the debate and invite further articles and contributions on the topic which will - if approved yb the editors - subsequently be published here.
Editorial: Germany’s genocide in Namibia – Unbearable silence, or How not to deal with your colonial past
On 22 March 2012, the German parliament will debate a |+| motion to acknowledge its brutal 1904-08 genocide of the Nama and Herero peoples. Germany’s... |+| zum Artikel
Reinhart Kössler/Henning Melber: The genocide in Namibia (1904-08) and its consequences: Toward a culture of memory for a memory culture today – a German perspective
The repatriation of human remains more than a century after they were taken to Germany from Namibia has evoked painful memories of colonial wars in which primary African resistance was crushed, and genocide perpetrated (1904–08) in what was then the colony of... |+| zum Artikel
Peter H. Katjavivi: The significance of the repatriation of Namibian human skulls
Former Namibian Ambassador to Germany, Prof. Peter H. Katjavivi, who was instrumental in getting the repatriation process with Charité started, calls upon both Namibians and Germans to confront the past honestly as part of the process of recovering human... |+| zum Artikel
Kwame Opoku: Return of stolen skulls by Germany to Namibia: Closure of a horrible chapter?
Refuting in detail the arguments proffered by Germany on the questions of apology and compensation for the genocide of the Herero and the Nama, Dr Kwame Opoku notes that the Namibia-Germany case is being keenly observed by other African peoples and states... |+| zum Artikel
Casper W. Erichsen: Skullduggery and necrophilia in colonial Namibia
Names, dates, statistics, records, photographs – Namibia-based historian, Casper W. Erichsen, explains some of the factual evidence of the multiple atrocities that were part of the genocide in Namibia. At the end of the 19th century the rediscovery of... |+| zum Artikel
Horst Kleinschmidt: The absence of reconciliation
Namibian-born Horst Kleinschmidt provides challenging observations and personal family history linked to the colonial era. Urging both Germany and German-speaking Namibians to confront their past honestly, he offers examples of apologies made in similar... |+| zum Artikel
Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari: The return of the Herero and Nama skulls: Coming to terms with a difficult history
In his analysis of the failure over more than two decades to deal with the genocide, Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari looks at the changing attitudes of Namibia’s SWAPO-led government and the role of the Namibian media as well as Germany’s evasive political... |+| zum Artikel
Adetoun Küppers-Adebisi/Michael Küppers-Adebisi: Diaspora ‘Faces of the African Renaisance’ – New pan-African images out of Germany
In the critical reading of their exhibition ‘Faces of the African Renaisance’, Adetoun Küppers-Adebisi and Michael Küppers-Adebisi deconstruct German colonial genocide in Africa and contemporary, neo-colonial racism against people of African descent in... |+| zum Artikel
Reinhart Kössler/Henning Melber: German–Namibian denialism: How (not) to come to terms with the past
Largely unnoticed by most Namibians, the local German-language daily Allgemeine Zeitung provides a forum for colonial apologetics. Reinhart Kössler and Henning Melber examine recent comments and readers’ letters in this newspaper, exposing the reactionary... |+| zum Artikel
‘We have come back home…’ - Statement by Chief Alfons Kaihepovazandu Maharero
Statement by Chief Alfons Kaihepovazandu Maharero, Chairman of the Ovaherero/ Ovambanderu Council for the Dialogue on the 1904 Genocide (OCD-1904), on the Occasion of the ‘Requiem of the Martyrs’ at Heroes Acre, on October 05, 2011. Director of... |+| zum Artikel
Saunders Jumah: German denial of Herero genocide
The Germans’ inhuman treatment of the Namibian delegation is only the most recent in a long history of injustice and disrespect towards African peoples. It is more than time, writes Saunders Jumah, for Africans to stand together, demand fair and equal... |+| zum Artikel
‘Book of condolence in the memory of victims of German genocide in Namibia, 1904-1908’ – extracts
To mark the occasion of the restitution by the Berlin Charité Hospital of the first 20 mortal remains of Namibian victims of the German genocide, the German NGO Coalition presented the Namibian delegation with a Book of Condolences, in which... |+| zum Artikel
Further Reading: Links to interesting press articles on the topic
Since the first ever restitution of 20 of the victims' human remains by Charité Hospital to the Republic of Namibia and the diplomatic scandal caused by the present German Government, the national and international media have taken up the issue. The following... |+| zum Artikel
Get Involved: Links to the activities of the NGO Alliance (incl. Twitter/Facebook)
For many years, non-governmental organizations have been demanding that Germany unequivocally acknowledges its historical responsibility for the genocide and makes both material and non-material reparations. Around the first ever restitution of 20 of the... |+| zum Artikel
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