Prof Paul John Isaak

On 2 October 1904, the colonial regime from Germany issued an extermination proclamation (known in German as Vernichtungsbefehl). The proclamation stated “Within the German frontiers, with or without rifle, with or without cattle will be shot, including women or children.” The Empire was true to its word. 

Namibians were machine-gunned and their wells poisoned. Those who survived were either driven into the Kalahari or Namib Deserts to die, or taken to the concentration camps such as Shark Island as prisoners of war. At such camps, they started experiments. 

Europeans started to develop the theory of their mental superiority over Africans. Weighing brains to compare intelligence was common. To do that, the following happened: Namibian women were forced to boil the severed heads of black men, and then scrape them to the bone with pieces of glass. One shudders to think of the pain felt by these women, forced to do this on the remains of prisoners who could easily have been their husbands, brothers, friends, cousins and comrades. 

Following the cleansing process, the skulls were sold off to German universities to be scrutinised by professors and their students. The aim was to find out what similarities there were between apes and Namibians, as well as what similarities and dissimilarities there were between white Germans and black Namibians, especially as regards intelligence.

In light of this tragic and cruel history, we as Namibians are urging our Namibian Government to declare 2 October as Genocide Day. Let this day become Official Genocide Day in the Republic of Namibia. Our ancestors must sleep peacefully. Thus, the request: Government of the Republic of Namibia, legislate Genocide Day. We shall emerge victorious against colonialism, racism and apartheid as stated in the Namibian Constitution’s preamble.