Namibia has officially recognized the “forgotten genocide” committed by Germany between 1904 and 1908, with a national day of remembrance for the over 70,000 Ovaherero and Nama people killed

[dropcap]N[/dropcap]amibia has for the first time observed a national day of remembrance for what historians describe as the first genocide of the 20th Century, a systematic murder of more than 70,000 Africans by German colonial forces.

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Dubbed “Germany’s forgotten genocide,” the atrocities committed between 1904 and 1908 saw the use of concentration camps and pseudoscientific experiments against primarily Ovaherero and Nama communities, nearly 40 years before their use in the Holocaust.

The victims were targeted for their resistance to colonial land and cattle seizures in what was then known as South West Africa.

The Genocide Remembrance Day, observed on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, follows years of persistent pressure on Germany to pay reparations.

Namibia’s President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah described the new national holiday as “a symbol of unity and reflection,” acknowledging that the country will never forget its “emotional, psychological, economical and cultural scars.”

She joined community leaders in a candle-lighting ceremony in memory of the genocide victims, where members of the Ovaherero and Nama communities also performed a traditional war cry.

President Nandi-Ndaitwah used the occasion to urge a swift conclusion to ongoing negotiations with Germany regarding Namibia’s demand for reparations, stating firmly, “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”

The government chose May 28 as the remembrance date because it was on this day in 1907 that German officials announced the closure of the concentration camps following international criticism.

For many years, Germany did not publicly acknowledge the mass slaughter. However, four years ago, it formally recognized that German colonizers had committed the genocide, offering €1.1 billion (£940 million; $1.34 billion) in development aid to be paid over 30 years.

Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

Critically, the offer avoided the terms “reparations” or “compensation” in its legal wording. Namibia declined this offer, calling it “a first step in the right direction” but insufficient, as it lacked a formal apology and the sought-after “reparations.”

Many Namibians viewed the 2021 offer with skepticism. Uahimisa Kaapehi, an ethnic Ovaherero descendant and town councilor in Swakopmund, where many atrocities occurred, told the BBC at the time, “That was the joke of the century. We want our land. Money is nothing. Our wealth was taken, the farms, the cattle.”

A group representing genocide victims’ families was also scathing, calling the deal evidence of a “racist mindset on the part of Germany and neo-colonial subservience on the part of Namibia.”

Since then, a draft deal has reportedly been reached that would include a formal apology from Germany and an additional €50 million to the overall sum.

However, many Ovaherero and Nama campaigners remain unimpressed, feeling excluded from negotiations and deeming the deal an “insult” to their ancestors’ memory.

Some community activists regard the national day of remembrance with cynicism, believing true restorative justice is still distant.

Many campaigners advocate for the German government to buy back ancestral lands now held by the German-speaking community and return them to the Ovaherero and Nama descendants.

Historians point out the historical irony, noting that Germany previously extracted its own “reparations” from Ovaherero and Nama people who resisted colonizers, totaling an estimated 12,000 cows, valued by German-American historian Thomas Craemer at between $1.2 million and $8.8 million in today’s money, which he argues should be added to the current reparations bill.

The genocide began in 1904 with an extermination order from German official Lothar von Trotha.

Namibian historian Martha Akawa-Shikufa explained on national broadcaster NBC that this order meant “they were no longer going to take on any prisoners – women, men, anyone with or without cattle – they were going to be executed.”

This was followed by the introduction of concentration camps where “people got worked to death, a lot of people died in the concentration camps because of exhaustion.”

She added that “there were pre-printed death certificates [saying] ‘death by exhaustion,’ waiting for those people to die, because they knew they would die.”

The remains of some victims were shipped to Germany for now-discredited racial superiority research, with many bones since repatriated.

Last year, Namibia notably criticized Germany after it offered to defend Israel against genocide charges at the UN’s top court.