German imperial forces perpetrated the first genocide of the 20th century in then German South-West Africa, today’s Namibia, involving the targeted extinction of large numbers of Ovaherero and Nama people and the killing of many others. The conference presents the first results of a current research and discusses the effects of these colonial crimes.

The memory of colonial crimes is characteristically split between the societies by which and in which they were committed. The commemoration of the German colonial genocide in Namibia and the resulting transgenerational exclusion are ubiquitous in Namibia and weighs upon the minds of Ovaherero and Nama today. In sharp contrast to this, Germany’s colonial ambitions are still underrepresented in today’s public narrative of German history.

The conference The German Colonial Genocide in Namibia: A Case for Reparations presents the first findings of a research conducted by Forensis and Forensic Architecture together with the Ovaherero/Ovambanderu Genocide Foundation on sites of key importance in the German genocidal campaign around the Waterberg area. An accompanying discussion with representatives from the Ovaherero and Nama organized by ECCHR, explores challenges and shortcomings of addressing the colonial ignorance by Germany. The contributors demand reparations and redress according to the needs of the affected people within and beyond the existing international legal framework.

With Imani Jacqueline Brown, Joshua Castellino, Sarah Imani, Wolfgang Kaleck, Mutjinde Katjiua, Vepuka Kauari, Sima Luipert, John Nakuta, Agata Nguyen Chuong, Kambanda Veii, Eyal Weizman and others.