WEBVTT 00:00:08.14 --> 00:00:14.23 SWAKOPMUND IS A NAMIBIAN BEACH RESORT. IT WAS FOUNDED IN 1892 AS THE MAIN HARBOUR FOR GERMAN SOUTH WEST AFRICA. 00:00:33.09 --> 00:00:35.21 [ Laidlaw Peringanda ] Our history isn't taught in schools 00:00:36.07 --> 00:00:39.00 [ Laidlaw ] So, I opened the Swakopmund museum, 00:00:39.05 --> 00:00:42.14 to tell the truth of what went on in Swakopmund 00:00:48.03 --> 00:00:53.04 [ Laidlaw ] German soldiers took the picture, they were proud of the massacre 00:00:58.00 --> 00:01:02.07 [ Laidlaw ] This picture, it was taken between 1904 and 1908 in Swakopmund 00:01:02.18 --> 00:01:05.00 [ Laidlaw ] You see the sand dunes behind them 00:01:05.08 --> 00:01:08.23 and the prisoners of war in chains, 00:01:09.02 --> 00:01:13.21 with chains around their neck, and burying their former colleagues 00:01:14.07 --> 00:01:16.18 [ Laidlaw ] And you can see the shovels here 00:01:17.05 --> 00:01:20.02 [ Laidlaw ] And this one is Herero, they are in chains 00:01:23.01 --> 00:01:27.24 [ Laidlaw ] There's a lot of photos, you know, evidence of their genocide 00:01:28.03 --> 00:01:32.09 [ Laidlaw ] They weren't taken by our ancestors but by German soldiers 00:01:39.05 --> 00:01:43.07 [ Laidlaw ] People from the concentration camps that were buried there 00:01:44.16 --> 00:01:48.08 [ Laidlaw ] I always take care of this place, 4 times a year 00:01:48.10 --> 00:01:51.24 [ Laidlaw ] And we take shovels and rakes and... 00:01:52.03 --> 00:01:57.00 restore the graves because at times, the wind blows those graves 00:01:57.03 --> 00:02:01.24 [ Laidlaw ] Then the skeletons come out, so we're always restoring the graves 00:02:14.00 --> 00:02:18.06 NAMIBIA: PAIN TO PAY FOR 00:02:29.10 --> 00:02:34.07 [ Laidlaw ] The concentration camp was behind the lighthouse 00:02:35.10 --> 00:02:41.11 [ Laidlaw ] It's the first concentration camp in history 00:02:42.24 --> 00:02:47.00 [ VO ] From a book: “The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten 00:02:47.00 --> 00:02:51.21 Genocide And The Colonial Roots Of Nazism”: There were five main camps. 00:02:51.21 --> 00:02:56.05 [ VO ] Each had been located in or near a site of German settlement, 00:02:56.05 --> 00:03:00.16 as it was there that the need for African labour was most pressing. 00:03:01.06 --> 00:03:06.22 [ VO ] Most of the records, both military and civilian, for the concentration camps of German South-West Africa 00:03:06.23 --> 00:03:12.22 have been lost. However, a surprising amount of official documentation from the camp at Swakopmund has survived. 00:03:13.22 --> 00:03:18.16 [ VO ] Herero were placed behind a double row of barbed wire … From early morning 00:03:18.17 --> 00:03:23.05 until late at night they had to work under the clubs of the raw overseers 00:03:24.10 --> 00:03:28.15 [ VO ] In 1905, the inmates of the concentration camps were used to 00:03:28.16 --> 00:03:32.19 unload transport ferries and carry the goods up to depots inland. 00:03:34.02 --> 00:03:37.22 [ VO ] In Swakopmund, Herero women were formed into teams of eight and in 00:03:37.23 --> 00:03:42.02 lieu of oxen or horses – made to pull the wagons on the narrow-gauge railway 00:03:44.13 --> 00:03:47.20 [ VO ] Due to the lack of male prisoners, it was mainly women and 00:03:47.20 --> 00:03:51.16 children as young as twelve who were rented out to private individuals. 00:03:53.13 --> 00:03:58.03 [ VO ] The colonial government introduced formal regulations for the renting out of the prisoners. 00:03:58.20 --> 00:04:02.09 [ VO ] The army’s ration list, placed concentration-camp prisoners 00:04:02.10 --> 00:04:05.16 just above mules in order of priorities. The 00:04:05.16 --> 00:04:12.11 official camp ration was 500 grams of rice or flour per day for a male. Women and children 00:04:12.11 --> 00:04:19.07 were often given half rations. As neither rice nor flour was known to the Herero, they had no knowledge of 00:04:19.07 --> 00:04:26.03 how to cook it. The prisoners ate these unfamiliar rations raw, unaware that uncooked they caused diarrhea. 00:04:27.00 --> 00:04:30.10 [ VO ] It is hard to determine the number of lives lost in the camps. 00:04:30.14 --> 00:04:35.24 [ VO ] The only camp that kept records of mortality in 1905 was the Swakopmund camp. 00:04:37.00 --> 00:04:40.18 [ VO ] According to their statistics approximately 40 percent of the 00:04:40.19 --> 00:04:45.00 prisoners in Swakopmund died during their first four months of captivity. 00:04:50.20 --> 00:04:52.07 [ Heiko Maas ] Good morning! 00:04:53.03 --> 00:04:57.03 [ Heiko Maas ] And what is that? It makes me a bit uncomfortable... 00:04:57.20 --> 00:05:02.19 [ Heiko Maas ] Today, we are already officially calling these events 00:05:02.24 --> 00:05:06.01 what they deserve to be called: genocide 00:05:06.10 --> 00:05:10.11 [ Heiko Maas ] Thus we acknowledge our historical responsibility 00:05:11.05 --> 00:05:15.09 [ Heiko Maas ] In light of Germany's historical and moral responsibility, 00:05:15.15 --> 00:05:20.16 we intend to ask Namibia, and the victims' descendants, for forgiveness 00:05:21.06 --> 00:05:24.24 [ Heiko Maas ] As a gesture to recognise the immeasurable suffering 00:05:25.03 --> 00:05:28.20 inflicted on victims, we want to support Namibia 00:05:29.00 --> 00:05:35.00 and the descendants of victims with a substantial 1.1 billion euro package 00:05:35.10 --> 00:05:39.17 to be earmarked mainly for reconstruction and development 00:05:40.06 --> 00:05:44.13 [ Heiko Maas ] I am glad and grateful that we have at last succeeded 00:05:44.17 --> 00:05:49.01 in reaching an agreement with Namibia on how to deal 00:05:49.04 --> 00:05:56.15 jointly with one of the darkest chapters of our common history 00:06:10.14 --> 00:06:13.00 [ Festus Muundjua ] They're refusing to pay us 00:06:14.04 --> 00:06:18.03 [ Festus Muundjua ] What they are giving us is not reparation 00:06:18.04 --> 00:06:22.11 payment as defined in terms of the rules of international law. 00:06:22.13 --> 00:06:27.18 [ Festus Muundjua ] They are just giving up patents that they call, they also call it development 00:06:28.11 --> 00:06:35.04 fund for projects, projects like schools and roads, bridges, and blah, blah, blah. 00:06:35.06 --> 00:06:42.06 [ Festus Muundjua ] They cannot qualify the definition of reparation. Reparation is punishment payment 00:06:42.06 --> 00:06:46.02 for the crime that you have committed. It's not a gift. 00:06:49.23 --> 00:06:54.14 [ Sima Luipert ] They're talking about infrastructure development. 00:06:54.14 --> 00:06:59.21 [ Sima Luipert ] Infrastructure development is the responsibility of the Namibian state. 00:06:59.22 --> 00:07:05.23 [ Sima Luipert ] We reject it because one, the German government does not acknowledge genocide. 00:07:05.23 --> 00:07:10.16 [ Sima Luipert ] It says genocide from today's perspective. That is not acknowledgement. 00:07:10.17 --> 00:07:14.17 [ Sima Luipert ] Germany must fully acknowledge genocide. Germany 00:07:14.18 --> 00:07:18.17 must give a sincere apology and Germany must pay reparations. 00:07:18.18 --> 00:07:21.09 [ Sima Luipert ] It must compensate. They must restitute. 00:07:25.03 --> 00:07:32.20 [ Dr Ndumba Kamwanyah ] In that package and the agreement, there's no way. Reparation 00:07:32.21 --> 00:07:40.04 is not mentioned there. Descendants of the victims felt a little bit insulted. 00:07:40.04 --> 00:07:45.20 [ Dr Ndumba Kamwanyah ] And then of course, the amount. There is already a 00:07:45.20 --> 00:07:52.08 precedent that the money that were paid to the Jews, the victims of the Holocaust, 00:07:52.08 --> 00:07:59.14 when you compare it to that amount that the Germans offered, is completely... 00:08:00.05 --> 00:08:07.08 way different in terms of the substance of that package. 00:08:08.02 --> 00:08:14.00 [ Dr Ndumba Kamwanyah ] The second aspect is that the process of negotiation between the 00:08:14.01 --> 00:08:20.08 two governments did not include the victims' group, the dissenters of the victims' group. 00:08:20.08 --> 00:08:26.00 [ Dr Ndumba Kamwanyah ] As a result, what we have seen is that when the agreement was reached, 00:08:26.00 --> 00:08:31.17 it generated more divisions and more anger and more questions and all those kinds of things. 00:08:34.21 --> 00:08:38.18 [ Dr Ellison Tjirera ] They have been very tricky in terms of the language used. They never 00:08:38.18 --> 00:08:42.21 even once used the word 'reparation' in the joint declaration, and that is quite deliberate. 00:08:43.06 --> 00:08:47.11 [ Dr Ellison Tjirera ] I think it will open a Pandora's box. 00:08:51.24 --> 00:08:56.10 [ Dr Ellison Tjirera ] And you would also realize that a good number of 00:08:56.11 --> 00:09:01.19 countries in the West have not been supportive of what has been happening here. 00:09:01.20 --> 00:09:08.02 [ Dr Ellison Tjirera ] They also have got bones in their own closet. So the moment they, for example, support 00:09:08.03 --> 00:09:14.11 the Herero-Nama case against the Germans, the next thing, it will be them. Who would then also have to pay? 00:09:26.08 --> 00:09:29.23 [ Man ] We learned about all this from the radio 00:09:30.11 --> 00:09:35.20 [ Man ] That the topic of genocide has come up, and there's talk of compensation 00:09:36.19 --> 00:09:39.24 [ Man ] We don't know any details, no one explains to us 00:09:45.13 --> 00:09:49.09 [ VO ] The late 19th century saw a campaign to colonize the region, 00:09:49.10 --> 00:09:53.06 which would later come to be known as German Southwest Africa. 00:09:56.05 --> 00:10:00.23 [ VO ] By then, most of the continent had long been divided between European 00:10:00.23 --> 00:10:05.10 colonizers, and Germany's share could not be described as prime land. 00:10:05.10 --> 00:10:09.00 [ VO ] However, by various means, the new masters began to claim 00:10:09.01 --> 00:10:13.14 pastureland and livestock from the indigenous Herero and Nama tribes. 00:10:15.08 --> 00:10:18.20 [ Nandiuasora Mazeingo ] They would claim you owe money and then you lose your land 00:10:18.21 --> 00:10:21.19 and that killing people, raping our people, all of these things. 00:10:21.19 --> 00:10:26.05 [ Dr Ndumba Kamwanyah ] They shot Herero women, saying they thought they were ostriches 00:10:26.09 --> 00:10:29.09 [ Dr Kamwanyah ] The Herero put up with it, but got fed up 00:10:29.14 --> 00:10:34.15 [ Nandiuasora ] The head of cattle that they've confiscated or stolen from the Hereros, these heads 00:10:34.16 --> 00:10:40.00 were growing. They started fencing off larger hectares of land to make their own private farms. 00:10:49.09 --> 00:10:54.03 [ VO ] In 1904 the Herero people launch an uprising. They are later joined 00:10:54.04 --> 00:10:58.18 by the Nama tribe. Rioting continues to consume the entire region. 00:10:59.00 --> 00:11:04.18 [ VO ] From the book: The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide And The Colonial Roots Of Nazism 00:11:06.06 --> 00:11:11.00 [ VO ] By 1904, the Herero people had endured several years of abuse and provocation 00:11:11.01 --> 00:11:15.11 and events in Okahandja were the spark that set all of Hereroland ablaze. 00:11:17.14 --> 00:11:22.17 [ VO ] …Brandishing clubs, knives and guns, the Herero attacked German farms... 00:11:22.18 --> 00:11:27.20 [ VO ] Settlers were killed in their beds, on occasion by their own Herero servants. 00:11:29.08 --> 00:11:33.04 [ VO ] Colonial troops surrounded the rebels and mowed them down. 00:11:33.08 --> 00:11:36.11 [ VO ] From Major Stuhlman's Diary who fought in Votterberg. 00:11:36.16 --> 00:11:40.15 [ VO ] We had been explicitly told beforehand that what we were dealing with 00:11:40.16 --> 00:11:44.16 was the extermination of the whole tribe, nothing living was to be spared 00:11:56.14 --> 00:11:58.06 [ Nandiuasora Mazeingo ] This is Ovitoto. 00:11:58.07 --> 00:12:04.01 [ Dr Kamwanyah ] Where the genocide was started in 1904, on 12th January. 00:12:04.02 --> 00:12:10.00 [ Dr Kamwanyah ] When the war started in Okahanja, through this gentleman's place, 00:12:10.01 --> 00:12:16.08 Okamboro, where he'd been born, staying, from there started through up to Okanjira. 00:12:17.11 --> 00:12:20.22 [ VO ] Herero survivors were pushed into the desert, where hunger 00:12:20.23 --> 00:12:24.08 and thirst finished off anyone that the soldiers couldn't reach. 00:12:26.00 --> 00:12:31.06 [ VO ] At that point, the Germans didn't realize that they were treating their potential labor source unwisely. 00:12:32.15 --> 00:12:37.21 [ VO ] It was then that the concentration camps appeared. On January 14, 1905, the general 00:12:37.22 --> 00:12:43.03 was directly ordered to establish a number of what the orders termed "Konzentrationlager", 00:12:43.04 --> 00:12:48.13 a literal translation of the English "concentration camp". Chancellor von Bülow specifically 00:12:48.13 --> 00:12:53.11 stated that the surrendering Herero should be put under guard and required to work. 00:12:53.19 --> 00:12:59.04 [ Nandiuasora ] There's no way you could have been outside, not in those camps. If you 00:12:59.04 --> 00:13:04.13 were not in those camps, the only other option was that you were in Botswana. You 00:13:04.13 --> 00:13:10.03 see, Germany, they also committed another crime, the Holocaust, as the Jews would call 00:13:10.04 --> 00:13:15.16 it, you know. And all of these things, it's a continuation of what was began here. 00:13:16.02 --> 00:13:20.20 [ VO ] Anticipating the concentration camps of the Third Reich, some of the dead of 00:13:20.21 --> 00:13:25.13 Shark Island became a resource exploited in the name of medical and racial science. 00:13:25.20 --> 00:13:29.02 [ VO ] The skulls were then placed into crates by the German 00:13:29.02 --> 00:13:32.18 soldiers and shipped to museums, collections and universities 00:13:32.19 --> 00:13:36.04 in Germany. This practice was so widespread and accepted in 00:13:36.05 --> 00:13:39.17 South-West Africa that in 1905 it was depicted on a postcard. 00:13:40.24 --> 00:13:44.13 [ Barman Kangungwe ] The heads of murdered men were given to their wives 00:13:44.21 --> 00:13:46.22 for them to remove the skin, 00:13:47.04 --> 00:13:51.24 because the Germans took those skulls away to Europe 00:13:58.03 --> 00:14:04.15 [ Festus Muundjua ] This was the biggest concentration camp, the one of Venthook. When 00:14:04.15 --> 00:14:11.02 they were building this museum here, when they were digging the foundation to build, 00:14:11.02 --> 00:14:18.24 they saw human remains, bones. These things are constructed on mass graves within the concentration camp. 00:14:19.04 --> 00:14:24.07 [ Festus ] This place, this building here, is now used as a museum. 00:14:24.08 --> 00:14:29.07 [ Festus ] That is where they are keeping the human remains, the skulls, 00:14:29.08 --> 00:14:32.17 that we have been bringing from Germany. 00:14:38.05 --> 00:14:44.08 [ VO ] According to a UN report from 1985, the German troops wiped out three quarters of the Herero people 00:14:44.08 --> 00:14:46.09 and about a third of the Nama. 00:14:51.04 --> 00:14:54.21 [ Nandiuasora ] When they came out of the concentration camps, 00:14:54.22 --> 00:14:58.24 [ Nandiuasora ] They were awakened to a new reality of their lands, their homes, 00:14:59.00 --> 00:15:04.05 now being private lands, suddenly as of land that is now occupied by white people. 00:15:09.15 --> 00:15:14.20 [ Nandiuasora ] Reflecting from today's perspective, these people did this because of land. They realized 00:15:14.21 --> 00:15:19.22 there is a lot of land, they are careful finding the new living space for the German Aryan nation. 00:15:29.22 --> 00:15:34.07 [ Nandiuasora ] Where we live today is not where our people historically were. 00:15:34.07 --> 00:15:38.17 [ Nandiuasora ] It's a piece of land that is reserved for black people. This is where we live. 00:15:43.19 --> 00:15:49.09 [ Nandiuasora ] The genocide to us is not a history, but is present day reality. 00:15:49.10 --> 00:15:52.10 [ Nandiuasora ] The land we lost has never been returned. 00:16:15.15 --> 00:16:23.06 [ Sima ] People, once they came out of the concentration camps, were put into native reserves to 00:16:23.07 --> 00:16:27.09 make space, to make lebensraum for German settlers 00:16:27.10 --> 00:16:31.10 whose descendants are still living on that same 00:16:31.11 --> 00:16:39.01 land. And the people who were dispossessed continued to live in the native reserves in which 00:16:39.01 --> 00:16:42.16 the Germans put them and which were further 00:16:42.16 --> 00:16:47.04 strengthened and institutionalized by the Apartheid. 00:16:55.12 --> 00:17:00.24 [ Posman Dawid Hanse ] We are the clan that suffered greatly during the genocide 00:17:01.07 --> 00:17:07.17 [ Dawid ] Our ancestors had to flee to Botswana 00:17:09.01 --> 00:17:11.02 [ Dawid ] They had to survive in new conditions 00:17:11.03 --> 00:17:14.07 and didn't know how to find water or food 00:17:14.07 --> 00:17:17.03 [ Dawid ] There were predators we don't have here, 00:17:17.10 --> 00:17:19.19 just as dangerous as the Germans: 00:17:20.05 --> 00:17:22.19 lions and leopards 00:17:23.11 --> 00:17:30.00 [ Dawid ] Our great-grandfathers had to survive and fight again 00:17:41.01 --> 00:17:48.04 [ Joseph Hanse ] During the genocide, our family fled to Botswana, 00:17:48.17 --> 00:17:51.17 and that is where we lived 00:17:52.10 --> 00:17:57.20 [ Joseph ] Then, we were told that we could return to our homeland, 00:17:58.08 --> 00:18:02.10 that the Nama had been allocated separate land 00:18:02.16 --> 00:18:05.15 [ Joseph ] So, we returned from Botswana 00:18:06.14 --> 00:18:09.11 [ Joseph ] When we came back here, I was 19 years old 00:18:10.19 --> 00:18:13.08 [ Joseph ] But we couldn't choose where to go 00:18:13.12 --> 00:18:16.06 [ Joseph ] We were allocated land, 00:18:16.11 --> 00:18:21.12 and so that's where we lived 00:18:28.11 --> 00:18:30.11 [ Joseph ] The land is not too bad, 00:18:31.01 --> 00:18:36.23 but it's not as good as the territory that originally belonged to us 00:18:37.06 --> 00:18:43.04 [ Joseph ] There we could raise cows, but here only goats 00:18:43.05 --> 00:18:47.24 [ Joseph ] We lost our fertile land and were exiled to this rocky terrain 00:18:49.12 --> 00:18:54.18 [ Joseph ] We dream of returning to our lands 00:19:11.01 --> 00:19:18.05 [ Dr Kamwanyah ] It is important that we enter into conversation about the land issue to make sure 00:19:18.06 --> 00:19:25.11 that we come up with workable solutions for everybody that is involved. Remember that the Germans 00:19:25.11 --> 00:19:32.16 that are living here, they have been living here for centuries and centuries. There's no way you 00:19:32.16 --> 00:19:39.21 can say that they should not be given land, they should give land back away. I think the German 00:19:39.22 --> 00:19:47.03 government thinks that the chapter is close. They have agreed on the development package that they 00:19:47.04 --> 00:19:54.06 are going to give. They have apologized and that they acknowledge that genocide took. And they 00:19:54.07 --> 00:20:01.06 think that this chapter is close. So you can see that it is pushing divisions deeper and deeper 00:20:01.07 --> 00:20:08.17 and creating new problems. What the agreement did, it further put them away, apart from each other. 00:20:19.20 --> 00:20:25.19 [ Anton von Wietersheim ] I can tell the history very well of the country 00:20:25.20 --> 00:20:32.13 because my family was involved all this time. My grandfather, from my mother's 00:20:32.14 --> 00:20:38.21 side, he came here as a 19-year-old young soldier. He came in 1904. After 00:20:38.22 --> 00:20:44.22 the war, he decided to remain in that time, German Southwest Africa. 00:20:45.14 --> 00:20:51.12 [ Anton ] My children are the fourth generation and I've got grandchildren who are now the fifth generation. 00:21:00.04 --> 00:21:04.09 [ Anton ] You know, the interesting thing is, after the 00:21:04.10 --> 00:21:08.15 First World War, of course, the German rule was over. 00:21:08.16 --> 00:21:12.21 [ Anton ] The South Africans then took over. They continued 00:21:12.22 --> 00:21:17.02 with exactly the same policies. They did not, their local 00:21:17.03 --> 00:21:21.10 population, especially the Nama and the Herero, there 00:21:21.11 --> 00:21:25.19 was even stricter rules keeping them in their reserves. 00:21:25.19 --> 00:21:30.12 [ Anton ] They were not allowed own land or own animals, nothing. 00:21:30.13 --> 00:21:34.21 [ Anton ] And that remained right through to independence in 1990. 00:21:35.22 --> 00:21:40.19 [ Anton ] We, as young whites, during apartheid time, 00:21:40.20 --> 00:21:44.12 we were kept. We had our own schools. 00:21:44.13 --> 00:21:48.22 Everything was apart, separate. We were never 00:21:48.23 --> 00:21:54.10 really introduced to that topic until when we started, 00:21:54.10 --> 00:22:00.02 like my first wife and myself, when we were still farming, 00:22:00.02 --> 00:22:03.16 we started a school on the farm for 00:22:03.17 --> 00:22:08.11 the children of the employees, the black children, 00:22:08.12 --> 00:22:12.23 mainly Nama in our area where we were living. 00:22:13.02 --> 00:22:17.21 [ Anton ] Then it became clearer to us what had actually happened. 00:22:28.05 --> 00:22:34.12 [ Anton ] There had never been closure about the trauma that they experienced, 00:22:34.12 --> 00:22:42.03 especially while that status, sort of lower class citizen, never changed until independence. 00:22:44.07 --> 00:22:51.18 [ Anton ] Only when in 2004, when the hundred year centenary of the 00:22:51.19 --> 00:22:59.06 colonial war came up, people of course thought about the history. 00:22:59.06 --> 00:23:04.08 [ Anton ] Many people of course, I must say that also, 00:23:04.19 --> 00:23:06.24 they sort of shrugged that off. 00:23:07.19 --> 00:23:14.05 [ Anton ] They felt, this is so long ago, it's good to remember, but then forget about it. 00:23:25.24 --> 00:23:32.17 [ Anton ] There are many German-speaking Namibians who don't have a history going back 00:23:32.18 --> 00:23:39.10 to the colonial times. They came after the wars. Many came after the Second World War. 00:23:39.11 --> 00:23:43.00 [ Anton ] When we started convincing people or trying to 00:23:43.01 --> 00:23:47.12 convince people to think about our historic background, 00:23:47.12 --> 00:23:51.13 they started blaming us that we sort of, you know, 00:23:51.13 --> 00:23:55.13 dig out old stories which may just create problems. 00:23:56.21 --> 00:23:59.19 [ Anton ] They say, "Let sleeping dogs lie." 00:23:59.19 --> 00:24:05.17 [ Anton ] We are very determined that we must 00:24:07.04 --> 00:24:12.18 solve this issue, we must get understanding among 00:24:12.19 --> 00:24:16.15 our different population groups. 00:24:16.18 --> 00:24:21.16 [ Anton ] We can have a clear conscience living with each 00:24:21.17 --> 00:24:26.11 other and I think that is the most important thing. 00:24:45.01 --> 00:24:49.07 [ Sima ] Only in 2006 that the Namibian parliament unanimously 00:24:49.08 --> 00:24:53.14 passed a resolution in which they decided that they 00:24:53.15 --> 00:24:57.16 now need to approach the German government for an 00:24:57.16 --> 00:25:02.03 acknowledgement, for an apology and for reparations. 00:25:02.14 --> 00:25:09.02 [ Sima ] From 2006 until about 2015, the German government resisted. They resisted, 00:25:09.03 --> 00:25:15.17 but it was due to the pressure that was put by the Nama and Ovaheroro people 00:25:15.18 --> 00:25:22.11 through their leaders that Germany finally said, "Okay, let's talk about it." 00:25:22.23 --> 00:25:27.12 [ Anton ] I think this is a very bold decision 00:25:27.12 --> 00:25:31.15 by the German government to even start 00:25:31.15 --> 00:25:36.05 negotiations. The joint declaration actually 00:25:36.06 --> 00:25:40.07 appeared to be really a breakthrough. 00:25:40.07 --> 00:25:44.13 [ Anton ] The Herero and Nama people in a large 00:25:44.13 --> 00:25:49.08 number did not agree with the joint declaration. 00:25:50.06 --> 00:25:55.01 [ Anton ] Their main argument is that they were not involved in the negotiations. 00:26:06.00 --> 00:26:11.22 [ Joseph ] We want the Germans to come to us and to the Herero 00:26:12.17 --> 00:26:16.01 [ Joseph ] They should come to us on our own land 00:26:16.09 --> 00:26:21.06 [ Joseph ] We will choose a convenient place 00:26:21.18 --> 00:26:26.18 for both the Herero and the Nama, 00:26:26.23 --> 00:26:31.09 and let the Germans come to us, 00:26:31.20 --> 00:26:35.06 to apologise and pay compensation 00:26:57.24 --> 00:27:02.22 [ Festus Muundjua ] The negotiation we are talking about, we are talking about, 00:27:02.23 --> 00:27:07.19 but it has not yet started as far as the Hereros and the Namas, we say you 00:27:07.20 --> 00:27:12.18 committed genocide. Let's sit down and talk so that we can tell you how you 00:27:12.18 --> 00:27:17.16 have damaged us and how much we have to calculate in terms of our losses. 00:27:33.16 --> 00:27:39.16 [ Anton ] The German government did not accept 00:27:39.16 --> 00:27:45.17 a renegotiation of the joint declaration, 00:27:46.12 --> 00:27:54.01 but by now they had agreed to adding a few particulars. 00:27:54.06 --> 00:27:55.23 [ Anton ] They call it the addendum. 00:27:56.03 --> 00:28:02.12 [ Anton ] They also agreed that the original stipulation of how certain 00:28:02.13 --> 00:28:08.10 sections of the compensation should be spent could be changed. 00:28:08.11 --> 00:28:14.07 [ Anton ] They would have a foundation running the whole compensation. 00:28:14.08 --> 00:28:18.23 [ Anton ] They would communicate with all the involved chiefs. 00:28:19.22 --> 00:28:26.08 [ Anton ] The chiefs would have to find out from their communities what they want. 00:28:26.09 --> 00:28:32.20 [ Anton ] So if there's a community who don't have water supply, who don't have electricity, 00:28:32.21 --> 00:28:37.17 who don't have a school, a hospital, no road to their village, 00:28:37.18 --> 00:28:43.03 whatever, then the community can say, "That is what we want first." 00:28:44.03 --> 00:28:51.18 [ Anton ] Then the chief will communicate to the foundation and say, "This is what our area wants." 00:28:51.18 --> 00:28:58.12 [ Anton ] But in the addendum they specify that the amount 00:28:58.13 --> 00:29:05.06 of 1.1 billion euros will still stand as initial amount. 00:29:09.17 --> 00:29:14.16 [ Nandiuasora ] Germans live on our parents' land, I but we don t hold a grudge, 00:29:14.17 --> 00:29:17.07 because we know it wasn't them, 00:29:17.16 --> 00:29:20.05 but their ancestors who did this to us 00:29:20.09 --> 00:29:24.11 [ Nandiuasora ] Let's bury the hatchet and live in peace, 00:29:24.12 --> 00:29:29.20 but Germany should still pay reparations 00:29:32.04 --> 00:29:36.19 [ Nandiuasora Mazeingo ] Of course, we know reasons why Germany doesn't 00:29:36.19 --> 00:29:41.06 want to pay. Germany is supported by many of the European cousins 00:29:41.06 --> 00:29:47.03 who are equally guilty of similar crimes across the world. We know that we are pioneers. 00:29:47.14 --> 00:29:54.18 [ Nandiuasora ] Once our case is successful or is through, it sets a precedence where other genocided communities 00:29:54.19 --> 00:29:58.20 across the world would also come forth and place their demands. 00:29:59.04 --> 00:30:04.04 [ Nandiuasora ] We recognize that our struggle is part of a global, is of a bigger picture and a bigger struggle, 00:30:04.05 --> 00:30:05.22 the world around. 00:30:06.07 --> 00:30:13.13 [ Sima ] It is a classic case study in which two small, tiny communities on the 00:30:13.14 --> 00:30:20.20 southern tip of Africa are taking on a mighty, you know, sort of Western power. 00:30:22.02 --> 00:30:26.15 [ Sima ] It is a case that people are following 00:30:26.15 --> 00:30:31.03 because it would set a precedent for how other 00:30:31.03 --> 00:30:36.02 African countries would learn from this experience 00:30:36.03 --> 00:30:40.24 to also deal with their former colonial masters 00:30:41.00 --> 00:30:47.07 like France and Belgium and so on. 00:30:47.16 --> 00:30:53.04 [ Dr Ellison Tjirera ] I'm sure a lot of countries in the West or wherever, I mean countries 00:30:53.05 --> 00:30:58.17 that were at one point imperial powers, they are watching this case with keen interest. 00:30:58.17 --> 00:31:02.19 [ Dr Ellison Tjirera ] Whatever happens would affect us. Because other countries are also 00:31:04.03 --> 00:31:11.19 going to put in a claim to say, no, what most of you guys did here was wrong, and you have to pay us.