WINDHOEK, May 28 (Reuters) – Namibia honoured the victims of mass killings during German colonial rule with an inaugural memorial day on Wednesday, as politicians and affected communities voiced fresh calls for reparations from Berlin.<\/p>\n
German soldiers killed some 65,000 OvaHerero and 10,000 Nama people in 1904-1908 in what historians and the United Nations have long called the first genocide of the 20th century.<\/p>\n
Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n In 2021 Germany officially described<\/a> the massacre as a genocide for the first time, agreeing to fund development projects worth 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in the Southern African country, but stopping short of paying reparations.Namibian officials and representatives of the OvaHerero and Nama people say<\/a> that is not enough.<\/p>\n “We should find a degree of comfort in the fact that the German government has agreed that German troops committed a genocide,” Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah told a solemn memorial event in the parliament gardens.<\/p>\n “We may not agree on the final quantum, but that is part of the complex negotiations we have been engaged in with the German government since 2013,” she said.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the German embassy in Windhoek in response to an email request for comment referred Reuters to a statement the German government published on the memorial day.<\/p>\n “The federal government acknowledges Germany’s moral and political responsibility (for the killings) and emphasises the importance of reconciliation,” the statement said.<\/p>\n Item 1 of 5 Members of the Herero community attend the country’s first commemoration for victims of the Herero and Nama genocide, massacred by German colonial forces more than a century ago, in the capital, Windhoek, Namibia, May 28, 2025. REUTERS\/Stringer<\/p>\n [1\/5]Members of the Herero community attend the country’s first commemoration for victims of the Herero and Nama genocide, massacred by German colonial forces more than a century ago, in the capital, Windhoek, Namibia, May 28, 2025. REUTERS\/Stringer Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n Namibia’s government chose to mark Genocide Remembrance Day on May 28 because it was on that date that German colonial authorities ordered the closure of concentration camps.<\/p>\n Charles Kakomee Tjela, a descendant of genocide victims who attended the event in the parliament gardens, told Reuters the genocide should feature more prominently in school curricula.<\/p>\n Hoze Riruako, an OvaHerero chief, said the colonial-era atrocities were a prelude to the Holocaust but “people are not aware of what has happened here to the same level”.<\/p>\n Some representatives of the OvaHerero community boycotted memorial proceedings because they think the agreement for Germany to fund development projects over 30 years does not address their grievances.<\/p>\n Nandi-Ndaitwah said on Wednesday negotiations with Germany would continue and that any final agreement should be “satisfactory, particularly for the directly affected communities”.<\/p>\n McHenry Venaani, an opposition leader, agreed Germany’s initial offer was insufficient.<\/p>\n “We are demanding a fair deal,” Venaani said.<\/p>\n ($1 = 0.8838 euros)<\/p>\n Reporting by Nyasha Nyaungwa; Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWriting by Siyanda Mthethwa;
\nEditing by Alexander Winning and Bill Berkrot<\/p>\n