BERLIN — Germany’s offer of compensation for colonial atrocities is unacceptable and should be revised, Namibia’s President Hage Geingob said Tuesday.
During the German Empire’s colonial rule in what is now Namibia, which lasted from 1884 to 1915, tens of thousands of people of the Herero and Nama ethnic groups were killed in what is often called the 20th century’s first genocide.
Since 2015, eight rounds of talks have taken place aimed at reaching a settlement — including a formal apology — without success.
“The current offer for reparations made by the German government remains an outstanding issue and is not acceptable to the Namibian government,” Geingob’s office said in a statement posted on social media late Tuesday.
The German government did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but local media report the standing offer totals €10 million. The Namibian government said it will continue to push for a “revised offer” from Berlin during the next round of talks.
Germany said it would apologize for the atrocities, but has yet to do so; the terms of such an apology are part of the negotiations.
Part of the dispute rests on language, with the two sides disagreeing over whether to call a compensation arrangement “reparations.” Germany, which avoided the term in its settlement with Israel after World War II, favors the term “healing the wounds” in its talks with Namibia, according to Geingob’s statement.
Germany said it would apologize for the atrocities, but has yet to do so; the terms of such an apology are part of the negotiations. Until 2015, the government also avoided the word “genocide” when speaking about the brutal suppression of the Herero and Nama people’s uprisings against German colonial rule.
In recent years, ministers and officials have started using the term and the government has acknowledged “moral responsibility” for the atrocities, but Germany has not formally recognized the genocide.
From 1904 to 1908, German colonial forces responded to uprisings by the Herero and Nama people with brutal tactics.
German troops massacred and displaced tens of thousands following an extermination order by colonial military leader Lothar von Trotha, who wrote: “Any Herero found inside the German [colonial] border, with or without a gun or cattle, will be executed. I will spare neither women nor children, I will order them to be driven away or fire on them.”
Herero who escaped fighting between their warriors and colonial forces were driven into the desert, where many died of dehydration. Both Herero and Nama survivors of the killings were taken to concentration camps, where many died of starvation or exhaustion.
Historians estimate the death toll at about 80 percent of the Herero population at the time and about 50 percent of Nama.