|
|
Namibia: Reparations in Kind the Way Forward
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Namibian (Windhoek)
9 April 2008
Posted to the web 9 April 2008
Brigitte Weidlich
Windhoek
Descendants of the victims of German colonial rule believe that reparations should be made, but in the form of development projects, livestock and wild game being brought back to areas formerly inhabited by their ancestors and support for farming, a survey published in book form reveals.
About 66 Namibians of the Damara, Nama, Herero, San and Baster communities were interviewed under an oral history project funded by the German government to find out how much the memories of a century ago were still present in the communities.
"We also asked them on reconciliation and reparation," project leader Casper Erichsen said at the launch last week.
"We travelled to remote areas to interview people and video and tape recordings were made as well, which were handed over to the National Archives."
The project was run under the auspices of the Namibian-German Foundation (NaDS) and the Namibia Institute for Democracy (NiD).
In the publication 'What the Elders used to say - Namibian perspectives on the last decade of German colonial rule', Erichsen and researcher Larissa FÅ'rster assisted by Alex Kaputu found out that 80 per cent of the elders interviewed were not happy with the way they were uprooted from their ancestral land, and want it back.
As the next generation, most of the elders did not grow up where their parents or grandparents had lived before they were uprooted during the wars of resistance.
"Sample evidence in various interviews conducted suggests that the last decade of German colonial rule had consequences that continue to affect all of the communities that took part in the research," Erichsen said.
"For the Herero and Nama, the impact was particularly hard.
Their numbers were severely diminished, and the ferocity of the wars left people uprooted and forced to flee to safety in remote areas of the colony, or in South Africa and Botswana," said Erichsen.
The Herero uprising started in 1904, while the southern tribes joined in 1905 and the German colonial government officially declared the end of the war in early 1908.
However, the imprisoned, men, women and children in various concentration camps across the country were only released in May that year.
According to the 74-page publication, the subsequent expropriation of land and livestock left people across Namibia in an economic abyss that they have not yet managed to escape.
Some Damaras, Namas and Basters fought on the German side, but their descendants told the researchers they often had no choice.
According to 85-year-old Adelaide Puriza, who took part in the research, the Hereros were entitled to reparations.
"I feel that, yes, they should ask for reparations.
Why shouldn't they? Blood was shed.
They should be paid so that they can buy cattle and goats," Puriza stated.
According to her it was impossible to divorce the land issue from reparations.
A member of the San community interviewed said they wanted the present German government to buy wild game and bring it to their areas.
"It speaks volumes that none of the interviewees wanted money directly, but instead argued firstly for development projects that would serve the greater good of their communities and benefit future generations.
Second on the list were land and cattle, regarded with some justification as direct compensation for their property confiscated during the colonial era," the publication concluded.
According to German Ambassador Arne Freiherr von Kittlitz and Ottendorff, the project aimed to help give oral history its rightful place as a way of recording and preserving history, and thus to help give Namibians a voice in the interpretation and presentation of their own history, albeit through a filter of about a hundred years and the passing of at least one generation.
"Dealing with the memories of the last decade of German colonial rule and from the perspective of those who often suffered from it means reviving its ugly aspects as well.
Germans have not just accepted, but been dealing with and facing our problematic history in other periods as well.
This case is no different, even if we do not agree with regard to reparations in the conventional legal sense."
Education Minister Nangolo Mbumba said it was important to learn from history and move forward to build a better future.
|
"However, on the topic of reparations we yet have to move forward," he said.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Namibian. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
