Nama People Research Articles

Problem reparacji za ludobójstwo Herero i Nama w stosunkach międzynarodowych Namibii i Republiki Federalnej Niemiec

THE PROBLEM OF REPARATIONS FOR THE GENOCIDE OF HERERO AND NAMA PEOPLES IN THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF NAMIBIA AND THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANYThe aim of this article is to present Namibian and German discourses on the reparations for the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples. Guided by the social‑constructivist epistemology, the authors sought to present the German government’s and Namibians’ understandings and positions on the issue of reparations instead of the complex explanation of this phenomenon. The authors conclude that while the Namibian government does not want to allow the Herero to negotiate unilaterally with Germany (this position is supported by the German government), the German government has admittedly stated that the crime committed during the Second Reich would have been genocide (“by today’s standards”) but simultaneously it does not intend to take any financial responsibility for the first genocide of the 20th century.

German Colonialism in the Courtroom—Law, Reparation, and the Grammars of the Shoah

Abstract: In the quest to address the lingering consequences of colonialism and slavery, activists and human rights practitioners have increasingly utilized legal channels. This article focuses on the Ovaherero and Nama people's pursuit of reparations from Germany in hearings held in New York between 2017 and 2019. It explores the historical conditions for bringing such a case in the United States, arguing that the 1990s economy-focused Holocaust Restitution Movement is a crucial backdrop. The argument examines the implications of applying this 'thefticide' framework to a colonial genocide, suggesting that it provides both an opening and a foreclosure of reparatory possibility in the context of a colonial history where private property relations were first imposed in order to dispossess.

Mineralogical and chemical characterization of ochres used by the Himba and Nama people of Namibia

Ochre is a natural iron oxide earth pigment that can vary from light yellow to intense oranges and to deep reds. Ochre-derived pigments were and continue to be widely used as face and body decoration, sun protection, mosquito repellant, geophagicearths and coloring agents. The Himba and Nama people of Namibia are among modern ethnic groups that still extensively use red and yellow ochre. Eight red ochre samples from Ruacana, northern Namibia and one red and one yellow ochre samples from Keetmanshoop area, southern Namibia used by the Himba and Nama people, respectively were studied by stereomicroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) for mineralogical identification, qualitative scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for major and trace element abundances. All nine red ochre samples contain hematite, the mineral responsible for the red color of the ochres. Quartz and biotite are also found in nearly all samples. Carbonates, magnetite, apatite, corundum, goethite, feldspar, and kaolinite are found as accessory phases. No hematite was detected in the Nama yellow ochre sample, which contains only goethite. The use of ochre as a geophagic substance by indigenous people of the world is common and consumption of ochre is the most likely route of potential exposure to toxic heavy metals that are found as trace elements in the ochre for the Himba and Nama people. Major and trace element abundances of these ochre samples were determined by ICP-mass spectrometry. The concentrations of the toxic metals (Ac, Cr, Pb) are found to be below permissible levels, thus they do not pose an excessive health risk if applied to human skin or if ingested.

Climate vulnerability and risks to an indigenous community in the arid zone of South Africa

Arid rangelands have been greatly affected by climate change and the people occupying these landscapes have become increasingly at risk by this phenomenon. This study explored the climate vulnerability and risks to an indigenous Nama community n South Africa. A household survey was conducted to understand the diversity and extent of the climate risks faced by the pastoral community and overall their vulnerability. Responses were coded numerically for statistical analysis and a climate impact chain was also developed. The main climate hazards faced by the community included drought, hot temperatures and strong winds. These hazards were more concerning to pastoralists who do not have access to some of the key natural resources located inside the adjacent national park. Outcomes of this study showed moderate levels of vulnerability to climate change due to low sensitivity and moderate adaptive capacity. Some households had high levels of physical and human capital assets whereas financial and natural capital were the lowest. With increased adverse climate conditions and a degrading natural environment, the community's vulnerability is expected to increase. We recommend using the South African National Park's existing co-management model as a platform to support the Nama people to reduce climate change risks.

Looting the archive

Since African nation-states began to gain their independence in the mid-twentieth century, they have fought for the repatriation of cultural artifacts and human remains as an integral part of continental processes of decolonization. Using the concept of the “afterlife of genocide” as a method for understanding transformed but still ongoing processes of genocidal dispossession, this paper engages the relationship between the organizing colonial logics of the 1904-1908 German genocide of Ovaherero and Nama people in South West Africa and the continued presence of Ovaherero and Nama skulls in Euroamerican museum institutions.

Disruption of Social Settings in Selected Narratives of Genocide

Social settings are what characterise each society hence they vary from one society to the other. If these social settings are disturbed by any force internally or externally, chaos becomes inexorable. Between 1904-1908 at the dawning of the 20th century, a genocide happened where Herero and Nama people of the then German South West Africa (present day Namibia) were nearly completely exterminated by German soldiers. Through the selected narratives of genocide: Parts Unknown (2018) by Zirk Van Den Burg, The Lie of the Land (2017) by David Jasper Utley, The Weeping Graves of Our Ancestors (2017) by Rukee Tjingaete, The Scattering (2016) Lauri Kubuitsile, and Mama Namibia (2013) by Mari Serebrov, this paper explores the disruption of social settings as represented in the selected texts. Founded within the disruption of social settings of the Herero and Nama people are three key issues namely: interference with family set ups; discounting religion, culture and tradition; and violation of revered places. The article concludes that the presence of the Germans brought with it a miserable overhaul to the indigenous people’s lives.

Literary reconstructions of the 1904-1908 Herero Nama conflict in Namibia

At the beginning of the 20th century (1904-1908), a genocide took place where Herero and Nama people of the then German South West Africa (present day Namibia) were nearly completely decimated by German soldiers. Through the selected factional novels, Parts Unknown (2018) by Zirk Van Den Burg, The Lie of the Land (2017) David Jasper Utley, The Weeping Graves of Our Ancestors (2017) by Rukee Tjingaete, The Scattering (2016) by Lauri Kubuitsile, and Mama Namibia (2013) by Mari Serebrov, this article explores the literary reconstruction of this Herero Nama conflict of 1904 to 1908 with German as the aggressor. The paper considers the pragmatic disposition of the Herero Nama conflict with the Germans as presented from a fictional perspective (faction) and how it is relevant to the reconstruction of the Herero Nama history. Additionally, there are various art forms that specify new modes of expression for the reconstruction of the same historical event and this paper pays attention to some of these forms as presented in the selected texts. Through the analysis, it was found that the selected historical novels recreate the same event but from different angles yet several incidents emerging in the novels relate to the historical reality that is now reenacted through art. Through the analysis of the historical novels, the researchers also found that there seems to be a thin line between the imaginative literary works and the historical events that took place. Lastly, the selected novels demonstrate literature’s immediacy to recreate some critical arguments that are still unsolved even in present day Namibia about the general welfare of the people with the problems that are still linked to the nation’s history.

Colonialism, genocide and International Relations: the Namibian–German case and struggles for restorative relations

The case of the first genocide of the 20th century, committed by German colonial troops against Ovaherero and Nama peoples in what is today Namibia, poses a significant ethical and political challenge not only in practice but also for International Relations theory and theorising. We develop our critical analysis by building on postcolonial critiques of eurocentrism in IR and world politics, and on critical historiographies of the discipline. In particular, we show how the bedrock of dominant international institutional arrangements in the early 20th century rests on a normative inversion, which can be explicated clearly in the context of the Ovaherero and Nama experiences. The normative inversion is manifested in the claims to supreme moral authority for continued European colonial rule in the aftermath of genocidal violence. While the League of Nations (LoN), and the legacies of imperialism have increasingly been addressed in historiographies of IR, neither this normative inversion, nor its political implications have been explicated in the way we pursue this here. Through the lens of our case, we argue that how IR and IR theory conventionally conceive of the international political order is not plausible or justifiable in light of the normative inversion. The struggles for justice and restorative relations by Ovaherero and Nama peoples draw attention to necessary shifts in political practices. The case signals the need for a more fundamental rethinking of premises in international political theory, and of global public political history. This can be meaningfully addressed by acknowledging and explicitly processing the implications of the normative inversion, its antecedent conditions, and its continuing presence in world ordering.

Reactive remembrance: The political struggle over apologies and reparations between Germany and Namibia for the Herero genocide

States are under increasing normative pressure to acknowledge and atone for past human rights violations. However, more than one hundred years after German colonial authorities committed genocide against the Herero and Nama people in today’s Namibia, the German government has neither issued an official government apology nor paid reparations. This article traces the shifting memory politics in Germany based on parliamentary records, speeches, diplomatic actions, and media accounts. The German government has made incomplete progress toward apologetic remembrance over four separate time periods punctuated by critical diplomatic events. Germany has engaged in reactive remembrance, in which only Namibian demands for engagement coupled with German inaction or diplomatic missteps increased pressure on the government to shift toward apologetic remembrance. The research suggests that activists who seek accountability for past atrocities face formidable challenges even in consolidated democracies.

Towards a Decolonial Narrative Ethics

This essay explores the contribution of two works of German literature to a decolonial narrative ethics. It analyzes the structures of colonialism, taking narratives as a medium of and for ethical reflection, and reinterprets the ethical concepts of recognition and responsibility. This essay examines two stories. Franz Kafka’s Report to an Academy (1917) addresses the biological racism of the German scientists around 1900, unmasking the racism that renders apes (or particular people) the pre-life of human beings (or particular human beings). It also demonstrates that the politics of recognition, based on conditional (mis-)recognition, must be replaced by an ethics of mutual recognition. Uwe Timm’s Morenga (1978) uses the cross-reference of history and fiction as an aesthetic principle, narrating the history of the German genocide of the Nama and Herero people at the beginning of the 20th century. Intercultural understanding, the novel shows, is impossible when it is based on the conditional, colonial (mis-)recognition that echoes Kafka’s unmasking; furthermore, the novel illuminates the interrelation of recognition and responsibility that requires not only an aesthetic ethics of reading based on attentiveness and response but also a political ethics that confronts the (German) readers as historically situated agents who must take responsibility for their past.

The Genocidal Gaze: From German Southwest Africa to the Third Reich by Elizabeth R. Baer

Reviewed by: The Genocidal Gaze: From German Southwest Africa to the Third Reich by Elizabeth R. Baer Kristin Semmens The Genocidal Gaze: From German Southwest Africa to the Third Reich. By Elizabeth R. Baer. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2017. Pp. xiii + 179. Paper $32.99. ISBN 978-0814343852. A book has clearly done much to provoke thought when a reader wishes it were double or triple in length so that its author might further explore a number of relevant themes. Elizabeth R. Baer's The Genocidal Gaze: From Southwest Africa to the Third Reich is one such book. It raises many tantalizing, important questions, but leaves many more unaddressed and unasked. The book is part of a growing academic literature linking German colonialism in Southwest Africa, and more specifically, the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples, to the Nazi Holocaust. Baer connects the two atrocities through the shared "genocidal gaze" of the German perpetrators, defined as a set of "racist attitudes" to racial others that were "passed from generation to generation," giving "license to exterminate" from 1904 to 1908 and again between 1939 and 1945 (3). To examine this gaze, Baer investigates literary and artistic works rather than archival sources. The texts she has chosen were created during the German colonial occupation of Southwest Africa in the early twentieth century or decades after the Holocaust; all either embody the genocidal gaze or challenge and critique it. Chapter 1 focuses on the incredibly rich archive of Hendrik Witbooi, a Nama revolutionary. Witbooi resisted the dehumanizing gaze of the German colonial authorities in his personal papers and correspondence with them just as he defied them militarily. [End Page 381] Baer's decision to "recover" a voice of the "gazed-upon" is commendable (13, 17). In a book spanning "German Southwest Africa to the Third Reich," one might expect to listen to the voices of Jews who likewise resisted the genocidal gaze at the time of their persecution, but Witbooi's words stand alone for the victims. Chapter 2 turns to Gustav Frenssen's novel Peter Moors Fahrt nach Südwest (1908), which Baer suggests was a crucial "instrument for transmitting" the German colonizers' racist attitude to Africans (61). This fictionalized biography of a soldier celebrates the efforts and heroism of the German troops in their brutal exploitation and suppression of the indigenous peoples. Frenssen actually mentions the Herero and Nama themselves "very little," Baer admits, but the Nazis found much to admire in it nonetheless (52). They reprinted the novel several times between 1933 and 1944. Here, then, is solid evidence of a link between imperial and Nazi attitudes toward others, be they Africans or Jews. Again, one might expect a parallel treatment of a text that narrates or fictionalizes Germans' experiences in the East during the Holocaust, which likewise would have transmitted the genocidal gaze from the periphery to the metropole. Baer's commentary on soldiers' letters and photographs from the eastern front or the correspondence of women sent to "Germanize" the occupied lands would have been most welcome. The book leaps across the years 1918–1945 entirely and next examines post-Holocaust texts and art. Chapter 3 focuses on two novels by Uwe Timm. Morenga (1978) centers on Gottschalk, a German military veterinarian, who witnesses the Herero uprising. Timm foreshadows the later Nazi genocide by referencing "a key Nazi henchman," death camps, and eugenics at various points (90). Am Beispiel meines Bruders (2003), Timm's fictionalized memoir of his brother's time on the eastern front as a member of the Waffen SS, is a scathing indictment, Baer argues, of the genocidal gaze. Yet how is Timm, writing not as a victim resisting that gaze but as a German, decades after the Holocaust, suddenly able to critique it? The transmission from generation to generation has obviously been halted or interrupted. How? Where did the genocidal gaze "go" after 1945? Was it so utterly discredited by unconditional surrender, Allied occupation, and forced denazification that it disappeared after decades of presence? One wishes Baer had addressed this subject. Chapter 4 examines "Black Box," a complex and fascinating 2005 art installation by William Kentridge that "interrogates German guilt" by way of...

Addressing Colonial Crimes Through Reparations: The Mau Mau, Herero and Nama

Britain and Germany had expansive colonial agendas in Africa from the mid to late 1800s, and both the British authorities in Kenya and the German authorities in Namibia were responsible for the commission of state crimes. This article explores reparations for state crimes committed during the colonial period and specifically examines how reparations should be afforded for crimes committed during colonization given the length of time that has passed. The authors focus on the cases of the Mau Mau and the Herero and Nama peoples and discuss present-day litigation and movements that have arisen from the commission of state crimes against these groups. The current framework for reparations is discussed, and a holistic and balanced formula that should be applied for those seeking justice for these state crimes is outlined.

The Ovaherero and Nama Peoples v. Germany - Declaration of Matthias Goldmann before the SDNY Court

This declaration was filed before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in case Civ. No. 17-0062 (Ovaherero and Nama peoples et al. v. Germany). Based on archival research, the declaration provides estimates of the financial benefits of Germany derived from the suppression of the Ovaherero and Nama, and specifically from the confiscations of property belonging to the indigenous population as well as their subjection to forced labor during and after the 1904 genocide. Further, the declaration argues that the respective actions of Germany violated international law at the time. When the Germans arrived in what is today Namibia, they did not find a terra nullius that could have been occupied, but entered into treaty relationships with the indigenous tribes exercising sovereign control over their territories at the time. Moreover, at the turn of the 20th century, international law knew a minimum standard of humane treatment, which the German government violated by its acts before, during and after the 1904 uprising.

The homecoming of Ovaherero and Nama skulls

In October 2011, twenty skulls of the Herero and Nama people were repatriated from Germany to Namibia. So far, fifty-five skulls and two human skeletons have been repatriated to Namibia and preparations for the return of more skulls from Germany were at an advanced stage at the time of writing this article. Nonetheless, the skulls and skeletons that were returned from Germany in the past have been disappointingly laden with complexities and politics, to such an extent that they have not yet been handed over to their respective communities for mourning and burials. In this context, this article seeks to investigate the practice of ‘anonymising’ the presence of human remains in society by exploring the art and politics of the Namibian state’s memory production and sanctioning in enforcing restrictions on the affected communities not to perform, as they wish, their cultural and ritual practices for the remains of their ancestors.

San and Nama indigenous knowledge: The case of |nhora (Pteronia camphorata) and its medicinal use


 
 
 A hitherto unidentified medicinal plant is here identified for the first time as Pteronia camphorata (L.) L., an aromatic shrub of the Asteraceae family endemic to the western and southern coastal region of South Africa. The plant was described in this journal by Laidler1 in 1928 as ‘D/nhora buchu’, and is one of the important types of buchu used by the Nama people. We report the traditional medicinal uses among San and Nama people, based on our interviews with rural participants. These include the treatment of colds, influenza, chest ailments and tuberculosis, as well as convulsions, haemorrhoids and inflammation of the neck. The major and minor chemical compounds of the essential oil that is produced by the plant are identified, together with the site of accumulation of this volatile oil within the leaf. We also investigated the plant’s antimicrobial activity against a selection of a yeast and two Gram-negative and one Gram-positive bacteria, all of which are associated with respiratory infections. P. camphorata is scientifically poorly known but is an important San and Nama traditional remedy. Our study not only prevents the potential loss of historically important indigenous knowledge, but also provides the first scientific evidence to validate the traditional use of ǀnhora against upper and lower respiratory tract infections, including tuberculosis. This detailed study has wider application in demonstrating the fragility of the oral–traditional knowledge of a scientifically neglected indigenous group. It also highlights the scientific and practical importance of preserving traditional plant-use knowledge within a botanically diverse region.
 
 
 
 
 Significance: 
 
 
 
 Reveals the botanical identity of ǀnhora, an important Nama medicinal plant.
 Presents scientific evidence to validate the traditional uses.
 Contributes to the cultural heritage of a scientifically neglected indigenous group.
 Demonstrates the fragility of oral–traditional knowledge.
 
 
 

Linguistic Borderlands Exploring the Role of Language in Uwe Timm’sMorenga

This essay explores the link between language and power through the definition of political and personal borders exemplified in Uwe Timm’s novel Morenga, which depicts the Nama rebellion in German Southwest Africa. I investigate how the ideologies and atmosphere of this time are depicted with regard to the historical role of language in the German Colonial period, both in the submission and subjugation of the African language and dominance of the German language, and its role in the suppression of the native Nama and Herero people. I also explore the ways in which language is repeatedly part of a failed learning process in the novel, demonstrated by the inability to achieve inter-cultural understanding and its result in the creation of “new” pidgin languages. Furthermore, I investigate the use of bureaucratic language to convey an authoritative presence, as it is used in historical and pseudo-historical documents and focalization through various figures and media throughout the novel. (LY)

Fragile Whiteness: Women and Girls in German Colonial Fiction, 1900–1913

This article examines the representation of white female heroines in works of lesser-known colonial writers including Agnes Sapper, Henny Koch, Elisa Bake, Valerie Hodann, and Hanna Christaller. Whiteness as portrayed by these authors is both powerful and fragile; white German women are both the bearers of German culture, able to bring order and civilization to “wild” Africa, and vulnerable creatures who can be attacked and violated by natives. The responsibility for upholding this racialized German identity and bearing white German children in Germany’s African colonies is placed on female characters, and the need to protect these young female heroines from Black male violence is used to justify the genocide against the Herero and Nama peoples.

Ludobójcze mikroby i pustynie. O latourowskiej pokusie w genocide studies

The dominant approach in genocide studies focuses on the intentions and motives of mass murderers. However, in many cases, natural phenomena, pathogens and machines determine the nature and course of genocidal mobilization. The aim of this article is to present the advantages of the actor-network theory (ANT) in explaining genocidal mobilization, taking into account environmental factors. “Natural objects” have been selected from a rich catalogue of non-human actors. The author divides these objects into three classes, showing that pathogens (associated with “the asymmetry of resistance” of victims and perpetrators) and deserts are of key importance in the history of collective violence. Referring to specific cases (in particular, the conquest and colonization of the Americas and Australia, the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples, the Armenian genocide, Shoah), the author identifies that adopting the assumptions and methods of ANT reveals new aspects of the genocidal process. This indicates the need for considering the politics of non-human actors, delegating morality and law, tracking consecutive translations, rejecting the division into qualitatively different micro- and macro-actors, and tracking the emergence of new actants and forms of knowledge during genocide.

Indigenous knowledge and education – the case of the Nama people in Namibia

Abstract This article describes and evaluates a project that aims to include the indigenous knowledge and skills of the Nama people in rural schools in The Karas Region, Namibia. In the Traditional Life Skills Project (TLSP) parents and grandparents teach children some of the traditional life skills and knowledge of the Nama people in the schools in the afternoons. The paper points out that in successful communities the project makes an important contribution to the conservation of the Nama culture. Furthermore, it has the potential of reducing both drop-out rate and disciplinary problems in the schools. It also contributes economically to the local societies through sales of products which they manufacture. In some of the communities the project has not succeeded. The causes of success or failure are analysed using the concept ‘social capital’, and a central conclusion is that the level of social capital in a community is pivotal for the success of this project. The paper suggests that a closer integration of traditional life skills and entrepreneurial education could be beneficial for the economic sustainability of the project.

From Africa to Auschwitz: How German South West Africa Incubated Ideas and Methods Adopted and Developed by the Nazis in Eastern Europe

The German terms Lebensraum and Konzentrationslager, both widely known because of their use by the Nazis, were not coined by the Hitler regime. These terms were minted many years earlier in reference to German South West Africa, now Namibia, during the first decade of the twentieth century, when Germans colonized the land and committed genocide against the local Herero and Nama peoples. Later use of these borrowed words suggests an important question: did Wilhelmine colonization and genocide in Namibia influence Nazi plans to conquer and settle Eastern Europe, enslave and murder millions of Slavs and exterminate Gypsies and Jews? This article argues that the German experience in Namibia was a crucial precursor to Nazi colonialism and genocide and that personal connections, literature, and public debates served as conduits for communicating colonialist and genocidal ideas and methods from the colony to Germany.