Namibia to Hold First Commemoration of German Genocide This Week

26 May 2025

Radio France Internationale

Namibia this week will holdits first national commemoration for victims of mass killings by German occupiers in what is widely recognised as the first genocide of the 20th century, the government said.

Colonial-era German troops massacred tens of thousands of indigenous Herero and Nama people who rebelled against their rule in the southern African country between 1904 and 1908.

It was known from 1884 to 1915 as German South West Africa, or Deutsch-Südwestafrika in German, part of the German empire on the continent with Togoland in West Africa, German Kamerun in central Africa, and in German East Africa (formed of today's mainland Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda).

This Genocide Remembrance Day will be celebrated in the gardens of Namibia's parliament and feature a candlelight vigil and minute of silence, according to a government programme released Monday.

The day has been declared a national holiday in Namibia and members of the diplomatic community are expected at the event, where President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah will deliver a keynote address.

The commemorations will then be held annually to mark "the beginning of a national journey of healing", the government said. It "serves as a moment of national reflection and mourning", the government added.

The date of 28 May was chosen for this annual commemoration as it was the day in 1907 when German authorities ordered the closure of concentration camps following international criticism over the brutal conditions and high death rates.

First genocide of the 20th century

Germany long refused to take the blame for the episode of the year 1907 in Namibia, recognised only in 2021 that its settlers had committed the genocide, after a discussion started in 2015.

Berlin has not issued a formal apology or offered reparations but in 2021 pledged more than one billion euros in development aid over 30 years, which was rejected in Namibia. Negotiations are continuing.

Germany officially recognises colonial-era genocide in Namibia

Germany ruled German South West Africa as a colony with settlers taking local women, land and cattle, which led the Herero tribe to launch a revolt in January 1904. More than 100 German civilians were killed over several days. The smaller Nama tribe joined the uprising in 1905.

The settler community was very small, only a few thousand, and Germany feared that it had lost its deterrence vis-à-vis the natives.

So, the Germans responded ruthlessly. An estimated 60,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama people were killed. Hundreds were also beheaded after their deaths and their skulls handed to researchers in Berlin for experiments attempting to prove the racial superiority of whites over blacks.

Germany was later forced out of the colony in 1915. Namibia passed to South African rule, and only gained independence in 1990.

The events are now known by historians as the first genocide of the twentieth century.

Some historians even see the killings as important steps towards the Holocaust by Germany in Europe during the second world war.

(with AFP)

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