Namibia honors genocide victims with new national holiday
Namibia organized the national memorial observance for the genocide committed by German colonizers for the first time. The new national holiday serves as a reminder of the tragic events from the early 20th century.
Key information
- Namibia has established a new national holiday commemorating the victims of the genocide from the early 20th century.
- Germany recognized the colonial crimes only in 2021, offering developmental aid.
- Descendants of the victims are demanding formal reparations and the return of land.
Namibia organized the first-ever national observance honoring the memory of the genocide committed by German colonial forces. This event took place in the country's capital, Windhoek, and is the result of years of pressure on Germany to acknowledge the crimes from the early 20th century.
Between 1904 and 1908, German colonizers murdered over 70,000 members of the Herero and Nama tribes, who refused to cede their land and cattle to them. This was the first genocide of the 20th century, occurring in what was then German South West Africa.
The new national holiday will be observed annually on May 28th. The Namibian government chose this date because it was on this day in 1907 that German officials closed Namibian concentration camps under international criticism.
Criticism of the German offer
It was only in 2021 that Germany officially recognized that its colonizers committed genocide. As a form of compensation, 1.1 billion euros (approximately 1.2 billion dollars) in developmental aid was offered to Namibia, to be paid over 30 years. However, this offer does not include formal reparations or compensation.
Many families of the victims criticized the German offer, calling it racist. Descendants of the Herero and Nama demand formal reparations and the return of land, which remains in the hands of the great-grandchildren of German colonizers. They demand that the German government buy these lands and return them to their rightful heirs.
