Ceremony honors Herero and Nama peoples massacred by German Empire between 1904 and 1908.
Namibia will today host its first-ever national commemoration honoring the victims of the genocide committed by the German Empire against the Herero and Nama peoples between 1904 and 1908.
The ceremony will take place in the gardens of the Namibian Parliament in Windhoek, where President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is scheduled to deliver a keynote address, the government announced.
“We invite all Namibians, all citizens, to come and commemorate this historic day with us, the National Genocide Commemoration Day, in memory of the Namibians we lost during the Herero-Nama genocide between 1904 and 1908. May their brave souls continue to rest in eternal peace,” said Namibia’s Minister of Information, Emma Theofelus, last week.
Gaob Dawid Gertze, from the Haboben Traditional Authority (a Nama clan), emphasized the date’s importance, noting that “May 28 marks the closing of the concentration camps.”
“We must never take for granted the privileges that democracy brings. But the beauty of democracy lies in the fact that the very communities they claim to lead will come together for this commemorative celebration,” Gertze told local newspaper New Era on Monday.
In 2021, Germany formally recognized as genocide the mass killings of tens of thousands of Herero and Nama people by German colonial troops in what is now Namibia, and pledged €1.1 billion for the African nation’s economic development.
The governments of Germany and Namibia reached this agreement after years of tense negotiations. However, the deal did not include individual compensation for the descendants of the victims, a decision that sparked controversy.
Historians estimate that between 1904 and 1908, German troops under Emperor Wilhelm II exterminated approximately 65,000 Herero (out of a population of 80,000) and 10,000 Nama (out of 20,000) following uprisings against German colonial rule.
The systematic extermination — carried out through mass shootings, desert abandonment, or internment in concentration camps — foreshadowed other ethnic cleansings of the 20th century.
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