Ethnic Groups In Namibia Reject Reconciliation Agreement With Germany

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – An ethnic group in Namibia has rejected the agreement proposed by Germany to recognise the crimes of the German colonial power more than 100 years ago in what is now Namibia as genocide.

The group, called association of chiefs of the Herero and Nama ethnic groups, demanded that the planned signing ceremony between Germany and Namibia should be postponed.

“The support payments of 1.1 billion euros (1.34 billion dollars) over 30 years offered by the German government are a shocking revelation, unacceptable and an affront to our existence.

“The “insulting amount” was rejected,” representatives of the Council of Chiefs, which is recognised by the Namibian government said in a statement published on Monday.

The council welcomed the recognition of the genocide by the German government, the admission of guilt for the atrocities that took place more than 100 years ago and the planned request for forgiveness.

However, it said that the reparations issue must be renegotiated.

The Ovaherero Traditional Authority, another Herero group, had already called the agreement a public relations coup by Germany and a fraud by the Namibian government.

After almost six years of negotiations, the German and Namibian governments had reached an agreement on reconciliation last week.

The Council of Chiefs now said it had not been involved in the negotiations in time to consult the affected ethnic groups.

The Namibian government was surprised about the statement of the chiefs and spoke of a heavy setback.

Zed Ngavirue, special envoy and negotiator of the Namibian government, told dpa that the Council of the Chiefs had been involved in the whole process of negotiations.

Ngavirue said that the Namibian parliament was in recess until June 8, then the prime minister would produce a report on the matter.

“I think Germany was aware of the fact that their divisions in this country.

“It’s a matter of all of us assessing to what extent this is something to be seriously considered and whether we (the Namibian and German governments) can manage this process.”

The German government had repeatedly stressed that in its view there was no legal right to compensation. The 1.1 billion euros were to be understood as a political and moral obligation.

The German Reich was the colonial power in what was then German South-West Africa from 1884 to 1915 and brutally put down uprisings.

During the Herero and Nama War from 1904 to 1908, there was a mass murder that is considered the first genocide of the 20th century.

Historians estimate that 65,000 out of 80,000 Herero and at least 10,000 out of 20,000 Nama were killed.

Since 2015, the German Foreign Office has used the term genocide for this in its general language. Berlin announced last week it was officially recognising the atrocities as genocide. (NAN)