Namibia’s Nama seek recognition of Hornkranz Massacre as genocide | DW News

Namibia’s Nama seek recognition of Hornkranz Massacre as genocide | DW News

to Namibia now where herero and Nama communities have been commemorating 120 years since the genocide of their forefathers by Colonial forces they held a memorial procession in the town of luderitz in what’s now an annual ceremony in 2021 Germany’s government apologized for the killings which made up the first genoside of the 20th century as German soldiers wiped out tens of thousands of Herrero and Nama people but these brutal events were not the first of their kind by the Germans over a decade earlier on April 12th 1893 Colonial troops attacked a Nama settlement and killed dozens of residents today Nama descendants want the horn CR Massacre as it’s known recognized as the first genocide against their forefathers now a new documentary shines more light on the event it uses open- Source material descendants accounts and 3D visualization to investigate what happened on that crucial day in [Music] 1893 the morning of the attack the chief instructed all his men soldiers to to leave the village with the expectation that the German soldiers will follow them HRA wew point of view was the Germans attacked them from that side so he took his soldiers the men and they retrieve here thinking that the Germans now will follow the men he always thought that the men will fight only men and they left the woman and the children at the settlement but what did the Germans did they attack the poor ladies and the children the whole battle was on the other side the distribution of spent cartridges found during our field workor indicates when most of the exchange of fire took place supporting the oral accounts that the Germans attacked the village directly from the East killing dozens the reported number of victims of this Onslaught were 88 almost all 78 of them women and children additionally around 100 women and children were taken as captives let’s speak now to Sima Luper from the Nama traditional leadership Association she joins us from marantal in Namibia welcome to DW news Africa Zima now why is this incident the um Massacre of 1893 not well known today yes um unfortunately we seem to think about genocide as something that happens in the moment genocide is a process it is not an event and U you know the the entire Colonial project was a project of uh total dispossession of a people of their land and it started with uh 12th of April 1893 when Germany used its uh military power and also a diplomacy to sign protection treaties when the Nama people said that they are not going to sign any protection treaty Germany decided that they are going to use um Force but this force was not only you know a a a military war but it was total annihilation and um Kur from Fran was said the mission of of of the the the objective of this mission is to completely exterminate um the the the VB Nama people and so yeah this is how the entire genocidal campaign started a year later Andreas Lambert from thean people of kabas um was executed by firing squad for also refusing to uh sign a protection treaty and 1904 was really just a culmination of a of resistance by um the the the N people and the over hero people right um against Colonial occupation so this is why this state is so important but unfortunately we see uh genocide as an event and not as a process and this is what we need to understand also going in future that genocide does not happen with an event it happens over time and so what qualifies this as a genocide you’re saying is the extermination of the people yes the intent the intent of extermination he said he said the purpose is to exterminate now exterminate means you are going on a genocidal purpose right so that’s what qualifies it for he did not only say it he also carried out the the intent so you um pushing to have this official recognition of the hrant massacre as a genocide what impact uh would that have both for the Nama Community uh domestically and internationally um the impact that that it would have is to question this whole um the the whole Colonial project the entire Colonial project was a project of um dehumanizing people that are not white um that that that’s what the project was about and the entire relationship between the glob Global North and the global South is based on the colonial idea of some people and their res you know some people uh being lesser human beings but only their resources are good enough in order to to build the wealth of the global North and now the people of the global South are saying we will not tolerate this anymore you have built your wealth on our suffering on on our deaths on our rape on our disposition and this needs to change and so the entire Global North Global South um relationship needs to change and you need to repair and the way that we see the world and the economy and and and global politics needs to change because it continues to operate on the principles of colonial ISM we are living in a new Colonial system in contemporary politics and and and yeah this is this this is the challenge here and what Namibia presents through its its call for reparations is actually a universal call for reparations from the entire Europe to make right what they have done during the colonial past as you’re taking this message forward what kind of response have you been getting uh both locally from your people from your government but also here in in Germany as well um the response that we’ve been getting is a response of denial in after Independence in 1990 you know the political struggles to come to terms with German colonialism really started to take root because during the colonial period you know before independence it was African colonialism before that it was German colonialism and and that period did not allow for the voices of the people to be heard it was only after 1990 and so in um 2006 um the Nama and the ovaherero people joined forces to put a a a a motion in the namibian parliament through the Paramount Chief um ruo right and uh this motion put in place you know mechanisms that we could use to demand but unfortunately the governments did not listen to to us because we said we want uh trilateral negotiations and the two governments said that they are going to talk bilaterally from state to state and this absolutely is a violation of our right to free uh um uh participation and also to free prior informed consent so yeah this is where we are we have we have put in motion a litigation process against our own government because we believe that our government is also violating our rights we have written to the to the UN special reps who have um confirmed that our rights are indeed being violated and we will continue to look for Avenues to continue taking Germany also to court we are not ruling out going to the international court of justice because this is a matter of of Justice it is not a matter of development Aid we are not we are not asking for development Aid we are asking for justice okay uh simma leard well that’s all we have time for but we’ll have to leave it there for now uh Sima Luper from the Nama traditional leadership Association thank you very much for speaking to us thank you sir

In Namibia, Herero and Nama communities have been commemorating the 120 years since the genocide of their forefathers by colonial forces.
They held a memorial procession in the town of Luderitz, in what’s now an annual ceremony. In 2021, Germany’s government apologized for the killings, which made up the first genocide of the 20th century, as German soldiers wiped out tens of thousands of Herero and Nama people. But these brutal events were not the first of their kind by the Germans.
Over a decade earlier – on April 12, 18-93 – colonial troops attacked a Nama settlement and killed dozens of residents. Today, Nama descendants want the Hornkranz Massacre, as it’s known, recognized as the first genocide against their forefathers.

00:00 Intro and report
02:41 DW speaks with Sima Luipert of the Nama Traditional Leaders Association

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#Namibia #HornkranzMassacre #Genocide