31 December, 2021
!Hoaxa!nas, Hardap Region
Namibia
As I write this message, I am reminded of the Book of Job in the Holy Bible. His trials and tribulations started with a meeting between Satan and God, in his absence. We see him being tried and tested from the first chapter until the 37th. Job continued to say: “I know my Redeemer lives''. We see in chapter 38 that God answered Job in a whirlwind and all that had been taken away from him was returned.
Equally in Ecclesiastes 5:8, the following words are written about wealth and vanity of honour: ''If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.''
These words inspire me today as I reflect on a year gone by, traumatising and victorious as it was. My Redeemer lives and the high official is watched by a higher in the province of the oppressed, which is watched by even higher ones.
As I read these verses tonight, I recall Wednesday, 17 April, 2019, when President Hage Geingob, during his address to the Namibian parliament, said inter alia, Germany will not pay reparations to ''line pockets'' but that they will pay for German development projects and that is why the victim communities must prepare for projects.
This reminds me of something the former German ambassador to Namibia, Christian-Matthias Schlagga, had said at a local German high school, and subsequently, Special Envoy Ruprecht Polenz had repeated, that those who think Germany will arrive with ''suitcases full of money'' and apologise for the genocide, are dreaming. It seems to me the German Government and the Namibian president sat in the same room to rehearse their public statements. President Geingob also wondered who is funding the appeal case of the Nama and Ovaherero filed against the Federal Republic of Germany in the courts of New York.
On this occasion, he elected to ridicule our court case against Germany thereby implicitly endorsing the German position of ''No Genocide and No Reparations'' and literally campaigned in favour of a German ''development projects'' model.
In addition, President Geingob cast aspersions on the integrity of our court case against Germany by ''wondering who is paying for the appeal'', as if the Nama and Ovaherero are incapable of being resourceful. Here we are reminded, when the president some years ago said, to demands by the NTLA and OTA to be included in the genocide negotiations with Germany, that ''we cannot take people from the streets of Katutura to negotiate with a foreign state''.
The fact that the president thinks we are incapable of articulating our rights and incapable of being resourceful is reflective of his subtle and patronising aggression, almost to the extent of dehumanising the Nama and Ovaherero people. Just like the imperial German Reich considered the two communities uncivilised and incapable of ruling themselves so too the Namibian president seems to think that we are uncivilised people from the streets of Katutura, incapable of articulating our rights.
In the aftermath of our New York circuit court case, we ventured into the untested international diplomacy arena by engaging the United Nations systems and procedures on genocide and reparations.
Contrary to President Geingob’s thinking that the Nama and Ovaherero are nobodies from the dusty streets of Katutura, I want to remind him of the contents of the report by the Special Rapporteur to the UN General Assembly which explicitly states that the Nama and Ovaherero are legally entitled to self-representation.
Since President Geingob may understandably not have the time to read this voluminous report, I want to urge his spin doctors to highlight critical matters in the report which reflect badly on the international image of the Namibian nation and his administration. Suffice to say that Mr. Geingob was, in spite of everything, a breath of fresh air turned stale after a stifling and suffocating Animal Farm pre-Geingob era. We are ready to elaborate when the time comes.
The president also mentioned in passing that the negotiating teams, which had excluded the victim communities of the genocide, were in a deadlock over the amount of money as if restorative justice is only about money. However, barely a month later, on 15 May, 2021, news broke in German and western media circles that Germany had struck a deal with Namibia on the matter of the Nama and Ovaherero genocide.
Upon closer inspection of the deal between the two countries, the NTLA and OTA found that the Joint Agreement, in tone and content, is effectively a demand from the government of the Republic of Namibia from its former colonial master, Germany, for development funding in lieu of reparations. While this may constitute a legitimate pursuit as compensation for the crime of colonisation, it does not, in anyway, address the issue of reparations for the crime of genocide which is acknowledged, but not accepted, in the Joint Agreement. The latter is in itself an astounding contradiction of terms.
The types of activities sought for funding are incompatible with reparations for the crime of genocide. In the opinion of the OTA and NTLA, reparations for the crime of genocide need to be significantly sharpened remedies, addressed directly to the victims after a careful process of needs assessment, and with a view to undoing specific harms in a manner designed to compensate for damage and heal wounds.
Among the types of healing we seek, are the return of human remains, acknowledgement of the decimation of the culture, historical inquiries and mechanisms to restore the loss of names and of the languages and dialects through dispersal, and the loss of lives, livelihoods, natural resources, and lands. These form a crucial part of the healing process for descendants of the two nations, irrespective of their geographic location within the ancestral domains identified in the Joint Agreement.
Of equal and fundamental importance is the need for the Nama and Ovaherero, to emerge from the process of reconciliation with the means to overcome the persistent discrimination that we have faced within Namibian society, with many of our cultural values and traditions marginalised in an attempt by the government of the South West African People’s Organisation to present a single Namibian culture.
Wealth and influence within the country still remain far from the hands of the Nama and Ovaherero nation, with its youth lacking access to basic education, employment and health services. This, despite the provisions of article 23 (2) of the Namibian Constitution, which echoes article 2 (2) of the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, in recognising the need for the government to adopt measures to tackle structural injustices of those socially, economically or educationally disadvantaged by past discriminatory laws or practices.
It would seem as if only those who fought colonialism after 1960 with the formation of OPO, which later became SWAPO, were affected by structural injustices of colonialism, while those who fought before 1960 and were genocidally murdered are by default actually not Namibian citizens. The subtle signs of genocidal aggression become so glaringly obvious even to the biggest political fool, we alert the world.
The Prime Minister’s briefing of 8 June, 2021, claimed that there was significant participation of the community, which we contest. The claim of the participation of ''...esteemed traditional leaders of the affected communities, in order to provide them with feedback on the negotiations, as well as to allow them to make inputs and advise Cabinet on the negotiations strategy'' between 2016 and 2021 via the Chiefs Forum, is especially egregious.
The so-called esteemed leaders are used as a decoy to give the impression that the representatives of the victim communities also took part in the negotiations, but which, on the contrary, and in reality, are only a handful of individuals who have no mandate from the majority of the victim communities. In fact, most of them resigned or withdrew their support from the government negotiations after seeing the Joint Declaration for the first time.
Towards the end of May, 2021, after careful consideration and discussions between late Paramount Chief Rukoro (may his soul rest in peace) and myself, Gaob Kooper, we jointly decided to renew our commitment to uphold the principles of restorative and transformation justice, through the 12 June, 2021, !Hoaxa!nas Declaration. Oh, how I can still see his determined gait as we both walked to the podium.
On this day the OTA and NTLA reaffirmed our resolve to fight for restorative justice, to reject any negotiations which exclude the principles of the 2006 motion, to reject the silent genocide currently being committed by the Namibian and German Governments, and to protect our inalienable rights to self-determination and self-representation.
The !Hoaxa!nas Declaration also provides a framework for coordination and cooperation to fight for a comprehensive reparations package. In this declaration we vow to stand together as Ovaherero and Nama nations, by mobilising all Nama and Ovaherero worldwide, to resist and reverse ongoing salient genocidal acts and to guard our bond for self-preservation.
As we enter 2022, we must ensure a strong and resilient relationship that protects our interests and our dignity. The signing of this declaration, was indeed Paramount Chief Rukoro’s final assignment on this earth.
Only six days after the signing of the !Hoaxa!nas Declaration, we were met with the devastating news of the passing away of Paramount Chief Rukoro and Gaob Eduard Afrikaner, two stalwarts who had travelled back and forth between Windhoek and New York, in order to fight our case for justice in the courts of New York. It is no coincidence that they both passed away on the same day.
I also want to take this opportunity to remember so many Namibians, both leaders and followers, who perished during the period of June and July. I personally survived COVID-19, but so many friends and family did not. The entire Namibia was thrown into mourning as death hung over the country like a dark blanket intent on suffocating our very existence.
Many thought, hoped and even celebrated that the departure of our key leaders would leave a void in the leadership of our communities. The state apparatus put in place strategies of divide and rule to shred the Nama and Ovaherero communities into pieces, to maintain their servitude relations with the Germans, as was evident when parliamentary and other teams started traversing Nama and Ovaherero territories to convince our people that only an increase in the quantum would save the ill-fated Joint Declaration.
However, the legacy of our departed leaders' fighting spirit is ever filling our souls with renewed resolve to keep fighting. To this end, I want to extend a special word of gratitude to our genocide technical teams both in Namibia and the diaspora, the Ovaherero Genocide Foundation and the NTLA Technical Committee on Genocide, together with our international solidarity partners, for their tireless vigilance, youthful energy, and unprecedented commitment which ensured that no one shall shred us to pieces.
In fact, for the first time since independence, the technical teams of OTA and NTLA have jointly organised protests, webinars, and national and international radio, television, and podcast interviews. Never have we seen such solidarity in the history of the post-independence restorative justice movement in Namibia. The Joint Declaration backfired leaving its authors and vehement supporters flabbergasted by the determination of the Nama and Ovaherero who are historically considered an insignificant political and social force.
Today I am reminded of an incident which took place in October this year, 2021, where human remains were displayed by a group hitherto unknown to us, at the site where General Lothar Von Trotha announced the extermination order against the Ovaherero people. Until today we do not know who gave permission for the skulls to be removed from the National Archives, neither do we know who requested the remains. Without delving into the details, I want to reiterate that what happened on that day was desecration. We will continue to engage our legal team on the implications of such desecration and interferences with items that would serve as evidence. The legality of the matter aside, no one has the right to touch the immortal remains of our ancestors without mutually agreed rituals.
I also want to remind the National Heritage Council of Namibia that heritage rights include the rights to manage one’s heritage products, the rights of veto and the rights to accrue benefits, whether social, economic, or spiritual. Cultural goods form an essential part of the genocide charges because the initial plan in the case of Namibia involved ''cultural genocide'' leading to impoverishment. Keeping heritage material indefinitely without clear mutual understanding on the future of these goods is therefore tantamount to perpetuation in violation of international mechanisms, the original sin of barbarism, in short of a better word.
Considering that the information and the material evidence in question is a significant part of the Nama / Ovaherero cultural heritage, holding human remains and other artefacts hostage, while only allowing some access, depending on how close you are to the power houses, amounts to manipulation and or interference with the content. It censors available data and by doing so seeks to weaken us in our quest for restorative justice.
As the year draws to its end, we urge the National Heritage Council to enter into discussions with the Nama and Ovaherero leadership so that we can establish clear policy and legislation about the handling of human remains and other heritage material that was confiscated and looted before, during, and after the Nama and Ovaherero genocide.
I now want to summarise our key successes in 2021. The joint genocide technical teams of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority and the Nama Traditional Leaders Association have fought tirelessly throughout the year to ensure that our voices are heard in the chambers of the United Nations.
On the 9th of July, 2021, the OTA, NTLA, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), a a Berlin-based independent, non-profit legal and educational organisation dedicated to enforcing civil and human rights worldwide, Minority Rights Group International (MRG) which is a London-based international non-governmental organisation working to secure the rights of ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide, wrote an urgent appeal to the Committee for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination in the matter concerning the Reconciliation and Reconstruction Agreement.
In addition, we wrote an Alternative Report in response to the 7th Periodic Report submitted by the Federal Republic of Germany under Article 40 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Federal Republic of Germany was to be considered for its 7th periodic review by the Human Rights Committee in its 133th Session in 2021. We submitted that Germany in the inter-state negotiation of the Joint Declaration between the Namibian government and the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, in regard to Germany’s responsibility for the 1904 - 1908 genocide of the Ovaherero and Nama violates those rights by not including the affected communities directly in the negotiation process. We asked to put the matter up for consideration.
The German government failed to include the affected communities in a meaningful representative way. Germany has kept that position, despite very public criticism, hence it cannot argue to not have known about the problem and demands for tripartite negotiations. The problem of (direct) participation rights of affected communities is an important issue which is overdue for a ''constructive'' dialogue, given recent developments in regard to participation rights and the principle of prior, free and informed consent, in particular.
On 20 August, 2021, a written statement was submitted at our request by the Society for Threatened Peoples, a non-governmental organisation in special consultative status at the UN. The Secretary-General received the written statement which was circulated to all members. In the submission, it was stated that the German government neglected its legal and moral obligations in the case of the Herero-Nama Genocide. The latter tried several times to pressurise the negotiating parties, the German and the Namibian government, to include them without success. This is a violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as the negotiations between the German and the Namibian governments took place without the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of the affected communities who, according to UNDRIP, are entitled to that right.
The Society for Threatened Peoples also wrote an open letter to President Hage Geingob on the 21st of September, 2021, in which the president is reminded that Namibia ratified the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and thus, taking into consideration Article 18, is supposed to ensure that indigenous people can exercise their right to participate in decision-making matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen in accordance with their own procedures. Based on this both the Namibian and German governments are legally obliged to include all the genocide victims in any negotiations in relation to the genocide of 1904-1908.
In November 2021, the OTA and NTLA sent a technical team from the United States and Namibia, led by Dr. Ngondi Kamatuka and Ms Sima Luipert, in order to meet with members of the German Bundestag, to state our position and invite renewed negotiations which include the Nama and Ovaherero people. In addition, they were instructed to solidify our cooperation with German-based solidarity organisations, and develop further long-term strategies for litigation and engagement with the UN.
I am happy to report that our international team of lawyers are ready for litigation in Namibia, should it become necessary, and have developed a solid framework for getting a firm foothold in the UN corridors of decision-making. I am also happy to report that the NTLA office in Germany has facilitated the delivery of an official letter from OTA and NTLA to the newly appointed German foreign minister, in which we requested for a scheduled meeting to state our position, whether it be in Germany or Namibia.
The year 2022 will witness the strengthening of ties with the international restorative justice movement, particularly with people of African descent and those living in the diaspora. Year 2021 marked the laying of a foundation to engage the Pan-African Movement, and we are determined to solidify this foundation in 2022.
Rest assured, we know who we are, we exist, we have regrouped and we shall overcome. I have said it before and I say it again, we shall leave no stone unturned in our quest for justice for NOTHING WILL BE ABOUT US WITHOUT US.
I thank you,
Goab P. S. M. Kooper
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