NAN-F-7
Genocide
Okahandja (Namibia) (Reuters/NAN) Namibia’s Herero people on Thursday said they were heartened that Germany was keen to atone for the genocide of their ancestors.
However, they expect something Berlin said it was not in a position to give.
“What we want is our land,” said 74-year-old Alex Kaubtauuapela, whose parents survived the extermination of 80 percent of the community, a precursor to the Holocaust,” said.
They said that about half of the arable land in the country in South West of Africa which Germany annexed in 1884 is owned by descendants of German and Dutch immigrants.
The immigrants make up of just six percent of the 2.3 million population.
Land used by the Herero, also known as OvaHerero, and smaller Namaqua community for grazing was seized and thousands were executed after they rebelled in 1904.
The rest were driven into the country’s vast tracts of desert to starve.
The call for land restitution by indigenous groups is mirrored in countries across Africa, and any reparation agreement for the Herero could set a precedent to other groups seeking redress from European colonial powers.
Momentum for a settlement with Namibia increased in 2016 after Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan called Germany hypocritical for recognising massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide but not confronting its dark past in Namibia. (Reuters/NAN)
OYE/AMY
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Abdullahi Yusuf