Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro Last Friday I could not finish my installment due to lack of space, which largely has to do with my indulgence on the subject matter. Unlike the German Federal Government, I shall not want to leave the business I started unfinished and therefore please allow me to this week continue where I left off. Shortly before my thoughts were abruptly suspended I pointed out that last year the Namibian National Assembly passed a resolution. And for the benefit of the doubt of the German envoy and his government, I shall repeat its essence: “This assembly should demand for reparation from the German Government as well as those private companies who have benefited from the demise of the Namibian people.” The Namibian communities have already spoken and continue to speak. Namibian lawmakers have unanimously spoken. One wonders who else is the German government waiting on? Namibian Germans? Whoever it is waiting for the tide is unmistakable and irreversible. Day by day the voices of the people are becoming louder and more unified. Nevertheless, the German Government seems not to get the message. On the contrary, it continues to shroud this message in its own ambivalence and deviousness. If my reading of His Excellency’s speech during the centenary commemoration of the killing of Chief Fredericks is correct, Wieczorek-Zeul’s Apology in 2004 at Ohamakri plus the Special Initiative equal the German Federal Government paying its debt to the affected communities? Please, if this is not the position of the German Federal Government, I am sure these communities would be pleased if the German Ambassador can direct me otherwise. In his written message to the Fourth Summit of the Ovaherero/Ovambanderu that took place in Okakarara recently, His Excellency had this to say: “In 2005 the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany through this Minister (Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul) proposed a Special Initiative to the Namibian Government to acknowledge Germany’s special historical, political and moral responsibility towards Namibia, and to further advance the friendship between our two countries.” I don’t know what you read in this line but half-baked as I may be I read only one thing. That Apology + Special Initiative = Reparations in the eyes of the German government. The affected people are on record that the Special Initiative may be a welcomed bilateral matter between the two sovereign governments but cannot and shall not be allowed to eclipse the just demand for reparations nor substitute it. Further there is whatsoever no link between the Special Initiative and Reparations. “The Hereros therefore will have nothing to do with the so-called Reconciliation Fund and, now lately, the Special Initiative Fund to the tune of 20 million Euros,” Riruako rejected the Initiative last year. He instead appealed that this fund be used to convene dialogue between the German government and those affected. This position, which is no doubt a groundswell view of many of the affected communities, seems nevertheless to meet the silence of the German authorities and its apologists. How long the German government is prepared to keep on stalling on this matter only time will tell. But there seems no turning back the tidal wave of people reclaiming what is rightfully theirs. Reparations due to the unrepentant and intransigent attitude of the German Federal Government and its fellow travellers seem an unlikely option now. However, please there is no way the soul of the !Aman people’s leader can rest in eternal peace without his head. Neither can the !Aman community and the entire Namibian nation be expected to forget and reconcile while their ancestors are undignified in their rest. The least the! Aman people are asking in the words of Chief Fredericks are: “Where is his head? When will his head return, so that his body could be re-united with his head? What happened to his head? Who will give us answers to these questions?”