Beginning March, that it is on the second of March to be exact, hybrid discussions shall be taking place in the German capital of Berlin, to be hosted by the German Parliament, the Bundestag’s parliamentary group of the Green Party, Die Grünen.
According to the purpose of the discussions, to which a fellow descendant, Jephta Nguherimo, shall be amongst the participants, it is for the party to gain further insight into the state of the negotiations on the Genocide of the OvaHerero, OvaMmbanderu and Nama.
“We want to discuss how the reconciliation between Germany and Namibia can finally begin, and especially how the deadlock regarding the negotiations of the Joint Declaration can be overcome. What are the possible roads to move forward? Further negotiations or a restart of the negotiations?”
It is interesting to note the reference to “reconciliation”, especially between Germany and Namibia, as if the two States and or governments ever had any issue of reconciliation between them. One would have thought if there is and ever has been an issue of reconciliation, it is between the German State and or government on the one hand and the descendants, the OvaHerero, OvaMmbanderu and Nama. That this is and has been an issue of reconciliation cannot but honestly strike one, particularly as a descendant, or anyone else for that matter, as strange and odd. Status of the negotiations? One also cannot but question. Based on the premise that there has never been any negotiation about German State accounting to the descendants regarding its forerunner Imperial State and government’s genocide that it committed against the OvaHerero, OvaMbanderu and Nama.
Negotiations pursuant and in terms of the 2006 Resolution of the Namibian National Assembly. Which was about the Namibian government causing the descendants of the OvaHerero and Nama, on the one hand, and the German State and government on the other, to engage each and or one another. For the sole and ultimate purpose of the German State or government accounting to the direct descendants of this Genocide. So that the descendants could find closure on one chapter of German colonialism in the then German South West Africa, today’s Namibia.
One aspect of the 2006 Namibian Assembly Resolution, an imperative one for that matter, was for the descendants themselves to be the architects of these negotiations, preceded by and conditional, pivotally, on a conference of all the descendants. At which and where they could forge and foster a common position that would ultimately guide them in their engagement with the German State or government.
True, to both the Namibian government, and its German counterpart, as it transpired, this was not the route the matter took. Instead, the so-called state actors as, Namibia and Germany have come to characterize themselves, and their bilateral their engagement. Simply taking the matter and running away with it in whatever direction of their choice.
Underlined and underpinned, more than anything by their bilateral relations. An outflow, for that matter, of the SWAPO Party of Namibia and Germany’s liberation struggle solidarity and rapprochement.
Negotiations? The German State and or government was from the word go categorically clear that it would not engage with the descendants in negotiations. Not regarding Genocide and restorative justice. This has continued to be its intransigent position, fuelled and propelled by its arrogance that it does not talk to “tribal” leaders, a derogatory reference to a section of the leaders of the descendants. Not only this but the German State was from the word go unequivocal that, if it was about Genocide and atonement, then there was and would be no negotiations. Thus, unlike our Namibian government and some fellow descendants would like us as descendants, and fellow Namibians, and the wide world believe, that there was and have been negotiations on the Genocide of the OvaHerero, OvaMbanderu and Nama, this has not been the case.
As Germany adamantly and determinedly simply was and could not be found for and on this. Hence, what was and has been going on between the Namibian government and its German counterpart, indeed minus practically a significant section of the descendants, cannot and could never be termed and defined as negotiations on the Genocide of the OvaHerero, OvaMbanderu and Nama.
Our Namibian government and its German counterpart may be at liberty to call it whatever they may wish to call it. But definitely they were not and never been negotiations on the Genocide of the OvaHerero, OvaMbanderu and Nama. Not by the conventional definition as per the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Fast track this to 2021 and the outcome of the presumed and said negotiations were the Joint Declaration (JD). Only for the Green Party to re enter the scenario in 2026. After relegated following the last German federal elections in 2025, not so much into the obliviousness of German politics but into the near periphery of it. The Greens are presumably and probably seeking and endeavoring to ascertain and establish the status of the stillborn JD. Of which, as part of the previous Social Democratic Party (SPD) government in Germany, was an integral part of its formulation and birth. Against the best wishes of not only a groundswell of the descendants in Namibia, but also that of well meaning and progressive international solidarity community, including in Germany herself.
The Green Party, having been party of the formulation of the JD, surely must have been part of it all along up to this point, where it seems ambivalent about it when it stands to be implemented. All along it must have been aware that the Namibian people, the descendants of all people, have been loud and clear that the JD was and remains a non-starter. Thus, it cannot strike any bona fide descendant as strange and ambivalent that the very JD it helped create, if indeed it did not create it themselves, having been part and parcel of the previous coalition government of the SPD, is and cannot be sure about its status.
Giving one the impression that it is still at the crossroads with the JD. Have the Greens been having a second thought about it, a testimony to their gross indifference, naivety if not indecision and double speak and total disregard of the sentiments of the descendants, the total rejection of the JD?
It is also not only baffling but also mesmerizing that the Greens, of all political formations in Germany, are the ones, who all of a sudden are ambivalent about the status of the JD. Especially as to what the descendants think about it. With the benefit of descendants like Israel Kaserandu Kaunatjike right there in Berlin?
The Namibian parliament the sponsor of the 2006 resolution cannot equally be without blemish regarding the state of affairs surrounding Genocide, Apology and Reparations. Given its vantage position and role on the matter. But it has relegated to occasional inconsequent motions and or questions. Like now when the August House is apparently awaiting an update from the Prime Minister following a question recently from one of the house’s members. If the much waited, at least from the members, answer would make any difference to the direction that the matter has been taking and continues to take, the implementation of the dreaded JD, remains to be seen.
- Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro is a descendant of the survivors of the OvaHerero, OvaMmbanderu and Nama Genocide, veteran and freelance journalist and reparations advocate and adherent of restorative justice.
