For decades, Namibians fought an uphill battle – not on the battlefield but within the corridors of justice. With remarkable tenacity, they fought tooth and nail to force Germany, their former colonizer, to acknowledge the brutal genocide inflicted upon them in the first years of the 20th century.
The horrors endured by the Ovaherero and Nama people were unimaginable; countless lives were wiped out under imperial Germany’s systematic extermination policies. From 1904 through 1908, those policies killed 80% of the Ovaherero and 50% of the Nama people. Those who survived fought tirelessly to see justice served.
It wasn't until 2006, however, that the Namibian government backed the motion to force acknowledgment and demand reparations for the genocide. In 2021, an agreement was reached to pay reparations, but not to Ovaherero and Nama peoples.
Discouraged but undeterred, Namibia's warriors continue to demand acknowledgment and reparations from Germany to the descendants of people whose lives were destroyed by German colonialism.
Namibians refused to have their history ignored and their anguish swept under the rug. Instead, they are bravely confronting the atrocities committed against their ancestors. As we consider our own past, what can we learn from their refusal to have their true history erased?