One of the headlining stories in the Namibian (Namibia’s largest newspaper) this week touches on a dark part of the country’s colonial history.
For a bit of background, the genocide in question took place in Namibia between 1904-1908. At the time, the region was called German South West Africa and was under German colonial rule. German forces carried out what has been referred to as a campaign of racial extermination in which they targeted indigenous Herero, Nama, and Sans people, wiping out tens of thousands of members of these groups.
For many years, there has been resistance from the German government to acknowledge this brutal history. Although there has been acknowledgement of the events as a racially-motivated genocide, there has also denial of the need for reparations. The most recent news on this case centers on Germany’s failed attempt to dodge an international case in which the nation would be held accountable to the international criminal justice system and potentially compelled to pay reparations. The reasoning behind Germany’s call for the case to be dismissed is based on the claim that Germany is a sovereign state which “cannot be taken to court by a domestic court in another country.”
Keeping up to date on this case as it unfolds on an international scale is of utmost importance as it can provide insight into the ways in which international justice can be carried out and buried history can continue to play a role in modern geopolitics.
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It's interesting to compare this to the genocide of Native Americans in California, a history that seems to still be emerging today. I wonder if the California genocide will eventually elicit similar reparation requests, or if they already have, and how the success of those efforts vary with international/intranational genocides.
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