The head of Namibia’s largest opposition party said on Tuesday that he has written to Germany to request that the two nations’ agreement on genocide be renegotiated.
McHenry Venaani, the leader of the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), claims he wrote to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock last week but has not yet received a response.
Many historians consider the slaughter of the native Herero and Nama people in Namibia, which Germany was responsible for, to be the first genocide of the 20th century.
Germany acknowledged that it had committed “genocide” in this southern African territory, which it colonized between 1884 and 1915, and promised development aid of 1.1 billion over 30 years to benefit the descendants of the two tribes. This announcement came in May 2021, more than five years after the bitter negotiations began.
Germany emphasized that the assistance would be provided “voluntarily” and that the deal was not equivalent to “reparations.”
The Herero and Nama people’s descendants were not sufficiently involved in the negotiations, according to many Namibians who rejected the agreement. They also claimed that the Windhoek government was pressured into accepting the text, which was presented to the Namibian parliament a year ago but has not yet been adopted.
Venaani argued that Germany should “return to the bargaining table and rewrite an arrangement that would satisfy both communities” since “reparations have not been accepted as a result of the admission of genocide.”
German colonialism of Namibia resulted in crimes that have harmed bilateral relations for many years.
Between 1904 and 1908, at least 60,000 Hereros and roughly 10,000 Namas were slain.
