Germany To Recognize Colonial Era Genocide in Namibia

The German state is about to close a deal to compensate Namibia for crimes against the Herero and Nama peoples during the colonial period (1904-1908).

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Since 2015, the negotiations have been hampered by several disagreements, including Germany's refusal to use the term "war crimes reparations."

Deutschlandfunk public radio reported that the German state is willing to acknowledge that genocide took place in “South West Africa”, which was a colony of the German Reich. This acknowledgment, however, would be conditional on mentioning that the facts are interpreted in this way according to currently valid definitions.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is expected to travel to Namibia and participate in a commemorative ceremony in parliament, where he would formally ask for forgiveness.

Reparations would compensate to some extent for the social consequences of the war of extermination waged by the German army to control the region. While representatives of the Herero and Nama demanded individual reparations, Germany advocated investment in the lands inhabited by these two ethnic groups.

Historians estimate that German Emperor Wilhelm II's troops contained an anti-colonial revolt by massacring 65,000 out of 80,000 Herero people, and 10,000 out of 20,000 Nama people.

Besides using armed violence, this ethnic cleansing was carried out by leaving the people to die abandoned in the desert or interned in concentration camps.