Your words in Algiers ring with a language we have long waited to hear from the Namibian state. A language that recognises the brutality of colonialism and calls for its criminalisation under international law. On the surface, this is a welcome chorus in a hall where Africa is finally raising its voice in unity. 

But I must speak from the underside of experience, from the ground where the bones of my people lie. 

The contradiction is unmistakable. 

Namibia cannot champion the international criminalisation of colonialism abroad while refusing to confront its own hesitations at home. For decades, the government has sidestepped its moral responsibility to stand unequivocally with the Ovaherero and Nama on reparations. The same crimes you now wish to codify internationally are the very crimes being confronted in domestic courts without meaningful state support. In fact, the state continues to use taxpayers’ funds to fund Namibian lawyers in defence of Germany. 

It is a peculiar spectacle: Namibia calls for the world to recognise colonial crimes even as it prepares to finalise a Joint Declaration that collapses genocide into development aid. In fact, Germany stated publicly in the Joint Declaration you floated in Algiers that it does not recognise or validate atrocities committed during colonial times because international law did not exist at the time to protect the colonised people. You named the genocide correctly, yet its remedies remain politically diluted. You rightly described the 1904–1908 genocide as the first genocide of the 20th century. You acknowledged the massive death toll and intergenerational harm. But when asked what reparations Namibia expects, the response was to delay, to defer, to hide behind “international legal preparation and possible UN charter to create frameworks for remedies.” Our people have been “waiting while experts prepare” for 119 years. Justice cannot forever be stuck in the bureaucratic vestibule. The Joint Declaration remains a political wound, not a solution. 

To speak of “closing that painful chapter” while advancing a declaration that excludes legitimate Ovaherero and Nama authorities, and absolves Germany of legal responsibility, is to turn memory into ‘TikTok performance’. 

If Namibia truly believes colonial crimes should be criminalised, then why does the government accept a German framework that explicitly avoids legal culpability? 

One cannot criminalise an act globally while collaborating to decriminalise it bilaterally. 

Africa is rising. But Namibia must rise with integrity. The continental movement for reparative justice is historic. Africa and the Caribbean now speak with a shared frequency. But Namibia must not arrive at the table as a divided nation, one voice for the world, another voice for the descendants of the victims. 

If the international community is to take our advocacy seriously, we must: • Centre genocide-descendant communities as rightful stakeholders 

• Reject frameworks that disguise reparations as “projects” 

• Demand legal responsibility, not symbolic gestures 

• Honour the memory of the victims by aligning words with policy 

This struggle predates all of us. It will outlast political cycles. 

Our ancestors did not survive Shark Island, Swakopmund concentration camps, and the desert’s unforgiving silence for their descendants to settle for diplomatic half-measures. The winds at these places whisper a truth older than any conference: justice delayed is still injustice. 

Honourable minister, your call to criminalise colonialism globally is meaningful only if matched with courage at home. History will judge whether Namibia helped close the accountability gap or widened it through inconsistent practice. It is time for the Namibian state to use its legal frameworks to prosecute Germany, and to hold a Consultative Conference on the genocide and the way forward and ditch the unpopular Joint Declaration the state is trying to ram down our throats. 

As descendants, our position remains:We will engage, we will support continental efforts, and we will collaborate across borders. 

But we will not surrender the principle of full, direct, legally grounded reparations owed to the Ovaherero and Nama people. Not in Algiers, not in Windhoek, not anywhere. To close a chapter, it must first be written truthfully. 

The minister expressed hope that bilateral talks with Germany are close to “closing that painful chapter.” But chapters do not close simply because governments wish to move on. They close when the truth is confronted fully, responsibility is acknowledged plainly, and the descendants of the victims receive reparations commensurate with their loss. 

Until then, the chapter remains open. “Kapena ohoromende ndjima jiisamo onjungu jonyama, ndjiha temene iyo mezuko.” No government will take a pot of meat out of the fire that it did not cook. We are small in numbers, but our spirit to fight for justice is bigger than our size. 

Respectfully, Jephta Nguherimo Founder, OvaHereroPeople’sMemorial & Reconstruction Foundation (opmrf. org)