By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK
The Nama and Ovaherero people are calling for urgent dialogue with the German and Namibian governments to address the reparation issue.
Delegations of the two cultural groups led by Chief Dawid Frederick of the !Aman//Aes and Paramount Chief Kuaima Riruako of the Ovaherero, held a media briefing here yesterday where they announced their common position in the campaign for reparations.
This common position was formulated following a two-day meeting in Mariental from December 13 to 14. The common position underlying the joint position paper co-signed by the two traditional groups is that what happened to their ancestors because of the extermination orders directed against them was indeed genocide as defined by international law.
They also agreed to demand reparations “for damages and losses” suffered by their ancestors as a result of the genocidal wars against their people by Imperial Germany. In the process they lost “lives, their land, their livestock and other forms of property”.
The traditional leaders said in a media release read on their behalf by the chairperson of the Ovaherero Genocide Committee, Utjiua Muinjangue, that the motion on genocide and reparations that has been tabled in Federal Germany’s parliament could not be discussed without them as the affected people. That is why dialogue should start in all earnest.
They appealed to the Namibian Government, fellow Namibians and indeed the international community for support in their “just and legitimate demand for reparations” to allow for the healing of wounds and genuine reconciliation between descendants of the belligerents of the 1904-08 war. This would also allow for the strengthening of the existing bilateral relations between Namibia and Germany.
The traditional leaders reiterated to Namibians of German descent that their quest for reparations was not directed against them but the German government. This is despite the fact that many of their ancestors benefited from everything that “our ancestors lost”.
“What we have lost was their war booty and compensation for having participated in the war.”
Despite this, all the traditional leaders and their people are asking for is that fellow Namibians of German descent should talk to the German government so that it heeds their demand.
In the joint position paper, which has been forwarded to the Namibian government and parliament and the German government and parliament, the traditional leaders caution that efforts such as confining the discussion of genocide and reparations to the Namibian and German governments only without involving the affected people, “are misdirected” and would not lead to healing the wounds inflicted upon their ancestors during the German colonial time.
They also see the talks doing the rounds, of possible discussions by the parliaments of both countries on the issue, as unfortunate if the people themselves are ignored.
They likened such bypassing of the affected people to the Berlin Conference of 1884, when the African continent was partitioned among European powers.
The other Nama traditional leaders who attended the Mariental indaba and are part of the joint effort for reparations are Christian Rooi of the /Khoewesen //Aes, Chief Hendrina Afrikaner of the /Hoa/Aran//Aes, Chief PS Kooper of the //Khau-/Goan//Aes, Chief Frederick Hanse of the //Hawopen//Aes and Councilor Hage Louw of the /Hai-/Gaseb//Aes.