RT — Lumumbas Africa
20260806 164500 UTC
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[00:00:04] of
[00:00:07] of
[00:00:20] of
[00:00:28] I am pl. mumba here at the Maruba
[00:00:32] Dam in Machacos County in the Republic of
[00:00:36] Kenya in the
[00:00:37] a continent of Africa. We continue our
[00:00:40] series on the continent of Africa
[00:00:44] and today we focus a subject that has
[00:00:49] in preoccupied historians for a long time. The Herrera
[00:00:54] of namamasaka. of Historians are unanimous in
[00:00:58] describing this. massacre as the first massacre
[00:01:02] of the 20th century, and in order to
[00:01:05] contextualize this massacre, I
[00:01:08] always look at the statement that was made by Ottovon
[00:01:12] Bismark in 1862,
[00:01:16] when he was addressing the Pressian Parliament, when he
[00:01:20] of said that the issues
[00:01:22] of the day will not be solved by long speeches
[00:01:25] and general consensus, but by iron and blood. It is after
[00:01:29] that speech. is that he convened the
[00:01:32] infamous Berlin conference held in
[00:01:35] Berlin between the year 1884 and
[00:01:39] 1885 and the European
[00:01:42] powers then divided the continent of Africa
[00:01:46] into spheres of influence. Germany of course
[00:01:50] acquired several territories in Eastern Africa
[00:01:53] in Western Africa and in what then became
[00:01:57] known as the southhwest.
[00:02:01] Africa,
[00:02:03] of of which we now know as Namibia, when they entered into
[00:02:06] that space, it was in
[00:02:08] the spirit that reigned in Europe at that time of
[00:02:11] acquiring territory for purposes of agriculture and
[00:02:15] exploitation of other resources and the
[00:02:19] primary inhabitants of that area
[00:02:23] included majorly the herrero ethnic
[00:02:27] group and the nama, of course the... were also
[00:02:31] there, but this
[00:02:32] of particular massaca that we now know as the
[00:02:36] Herrera took place between the year
[00:02:39] 1904 and 1908. The
[00:02:43] things that happened in modern day
[00:02:47] Namibia was so horrendous
[00:02:51] that some have said that it was
[00:02:54] in indeed the preparation for what was to happen
[00:02:57] in the German or during the holocaust. in the world war
[00:03:01] 2, what happened? number one,
[00:03:04] they eliminated nearly 80%
[00:03:08] of the then known herrero population
[00:03:12] and eliminated 10%
[00:03:14] of the nama population, and what was
[00:03:18] of significant is that the local
[00:03:22] inhabitants, namely the Herrero and the Nama were
[00:03:25] forced into labor, if they were not in
[00:03:29] agriculture? they were in other areas which were
[00:03:32] beneficial to the German colonizers and because this is
[00:03:35] area that is surrounded by deserts, in
[00:03:39] no wonder that many
[00:03:41] of them in the event that they did not comply with the
[00:03:44] instructions
[00:03:45] of the Germans were then exiled literally into
[00:03:49] the desert to die there. those who visit what is known as
[00:03:52] swakop moon, which is on the shores
[00:03:55] of the Atlantic
[00:03:57] of Ocean, will only have to appreciate when the... we see the
[00:04:00] sand dunes, how the climate
[00:04:04] of was punitive, and it is in that punitive
[00:04:07] climate that these individuals from the Herero
[00:04:10] community were subjected to the abuses by the
[00:04:14] Germanis, they were made to
[00:04:17] of work without rest, they were made to labor without
[00:04:20] pay, and one thing that emerged
[00:04:24] is that when they were dissatisfied with the
[00:04:28] activities
[00:04:29] of the... habitants, the Germans then exiled them
[00:04:32] to different island, the Shark Island in the area
[00:04:36] calleries, some
[00:04:38] of them were found in those areas, having been
[00:04:41] placed there because they were deemed to be acting
[00:04:45] contrary to the prescriptions
[00:04:48] of the Germans, and when they were placed in those
[00:04:51] islands, there is a man who history
[00:04:55] infamously remembers Dr. Eugene
[00:04:58] Fischer. Dr. Eugene Fisher actually
[00:05:02] tested some
[00:05:04] of the
[00:05:06] of atrocities that were later to be visited on the Jews in during the
[00:05:09] holocast by injecting. the
[00:05:13] herrero and the nama victims
[00:05:16] with viruses of
[00:05:19] cholera, of spilis and other known
[00:05:23] diseases at that time, as means
[00:05:26] of testing how people would react
[00:05:30] from alpha and omega the disease,
[00:05:34] and these were also considered to be useful in what
[00:05:38] was then described and what the medical world describes as
[00:05:42] hugenic experiments, they were trying to
[00:05:45] understand how do you deal with
[00:05:48] races of different kind, how does disease
[00:05:52] or diseases manifest in different
[00:05:55] environments, and the Germans committed the
[00:05:58] genocide of untold proportions and a manner
[00:06:02] that was unprecedented at that time, so that
[00:06:06] this continued as we now know from
[00:06:09] 1904 to 1900.
[00:06:13] and the reason why it begins to stop is because there is
[00:06:17] internal rebellion, but something is also happening in
[00:06:21] Europe and in the run up to what is described as the first world
[00:06:25] war, Germany is beginning to lose its grip, but that
[00:06:29] not withstanding, it is important to note that the loss
[00:06:32] the grip did not mean that the populations had not
[00:06:36] been decimated, in fact when one visits
[00:06:39] Vindhock up to today, one sees
[00:06:43] how the city was planned, planned
[00:06:47] in manner that ensured the different
[00:06:50] ethnicities were made to occupy different
[00:06:53] areas, buntustanization, if we are to use a word
[00:06:57] that later became popular in the southern part of
[00:07:00] Africa, the same is to be found in Sakopmund,
[00:07:04] which remains as German as German can
[00:07:07] be, and therefore when we talk about these
[00:07:11] particular. "it reminds us the
[00:07:14] atrocities the colonial power, it reminds us
[00:07:18] of how vicious the Germans were in
[00:07:21] deploying their anger towards inhabitants because they
[00:07:25] believed that they were inferior beings. what is
[00:07:29] most important is that later that
[00:07:32] particular territory was to be handed over to
[00:07:36] the appetite regime of South Africa through the league
[00:07:40] of nations and ultimate..." the UN
[00:07:44] became one the bodies that was responsible for it,
[00:07:47] yet the spectra of
[00:07:51] spectra and spectacle at once, and I use the word
[00:07:55] spectacle very deliberately, that this was happening
[00:07:59] a time when europe was claiming that they were
[00:08:02] civilizing other inferior
[00:08:06] civilizations, and it is
[00:08:08] instructive that even when this
[00:08:12] stopped, the atrocities did not stop,
[00:08:16] and it is instructive that much later, even the
[00:08:20] struggle and after independence was
[00:08:23] regained by the Namibians of South German West
[00:08:27] Africa, regained independence, the question
[00:08:31] the Herrero Namaamasaka remained
[00:08:34] alive, because the Namibian
[00:08:37] administration led at that time by Samnu
[00:08:41] Yoma. Sapo insisted that the Germans
[00:08:45] owed the Namibians, particularly the
[00:08:48] Herrero and the Nama,
[00:08:51] apology. Negotiations took
[00:08:55] place over a period of five
[00:08:58] years, and is only in the year
[00:09:01] 2021 that the Germans then
[00:09:04] apologized and agreed that there was in fact a
[00:09:08] genocide the Herrero and the Nama and
[00:09:12] what is instructive is that they then agreed to
[00:09:16] compensate the Herrero and the Nama to the
[00:09:20] tune or in the tune on of 1 billion United
[00:09:24] States dollars per over a period of 30 years
[00:09:27] condistanding, insulting at
[00:09:30] once, and that is why that has been rejected,
[00:09:34] because those who have done the calculation then say
[00:09:38] that that is actually equivalent to the
[00:09:40] money that the Germans had given. a manner of speaking
[00:09:44] or had loaned the people of Namibia
[00:09:48] during that period or up to that period. so as
[00:09:52] it is now, there are groups of people who have come out and
[00:09:55] said, we reject this perported
[00:09:59] compensation, and what the Germans have done is to say,
[00:10:03] but we cannot negotiate with multiple groups, we only negotiate
[00:10:07] with governments and they have refused to
[00:10:09] renegotiate, and this is matter. on which the
[00:10:13] jury
[00:10:13] is tail out, but the most critical thing which
[00:10:17] is important for historians and which is critical for the continent
[00:10:21] of Africa, that the continent of Africa be
[00:10:25] became the trial ground for
[00:10:28] massacre the peoples and the victims
[00:10:32] the Germans, of course, as we now know, were the
[00:10:35] Herero and the Nama. We know that there were other
[00:10:39] communities which were not decimated in the manner that the Herero and the
[00:10:42] Nama were, but it also gave birth to the question of
[00:10:46] reparations, and it is instructive that the Germans have
[00:10:50] always tried to avoid the question of reparation, because
[00:10:54] they know... that when one talks about reparation, then it
[00:10:58] becomes legal issue, which would then
[00:11:01] obligate the federal republic of Germany, as we know
[00:11:05] it, as the successor of all these German
[00:11:08] regimes to make reparations for all
[00:11:12] the peoples throughout the world, indeed and throughout Africa
[00:11:16] who are victims the diabolic comkinations
[00:11:19] the Germans as exemplified by the
[00:11:23] massacker of... the Herrero and the
[00:11:27] Nama and it is important that even as we speak
[00:11:30] now, it is estimated
[00:11:34] that over 70% of Arab
[00:11:38] land in Namibia, as we speak in the year
[00:11:41] 2026, is still owned by
[00:11:45] individuals of German descent. The
[00:11:48] massacre is not
[00:11:50] over, it is not over because it is
[00:11:54] now... taken an economic angle and there is
[00:11:58] agitation, as we speak now, that this
[00:12:02] must be made good, that the land must be
[00:12:05] redistributed, and I know number of individuals who are
[00:12:09] talking about taking land without compensation, but the
[00:12:13] economy of Namibia is still
[00:12:16] dominated by the Germans and
[00:12:20] the Herrero and the Nama are still
[00:12:24] suffering. from the very problem that they
[00:12:27] suffered during the very naked
[00:12:30] massacker that they experienced during the period of
[00:12:34] 1904 and 1908,
[00:12:38] which tells us a single
[00:12:41] story that the colonial
[00:12:44] project, whichever form it
[00:12:47] take, continues,
[00:12:51] it continues as neocolonial project and
[00:12:55] has one teacher once told me that the last colonial
[00:12:58] question has always been the economic
[00:13:02] question and the land question, one looks to
[00:13:06] the day when the Germans will not talk about
[00:13:09] 1.1 billion because the damages occasioned to
[00:13:13] the Herrero and the Nama cannot be quantified in monetary
[00:13:17] terms, but they will be a position even
[00:13:20] surrender the land which they took when they
[00:13:24] committed.
[00:13:26] the massacre, one day justice will be
[00:13:29] done and proper admissions of guilt
[00:13:33] will be made, one looks forward to those
[00:13:37] days. whenever we talk about the hereon nama
[00:13:41] genocide, the question has always been asked, why was there
[00:13:45] a genocide? and the direct answer to that
[00:13:48] question is that the Germans intended to
[00:13:52] displace the population for purposes. of
[00:13:55] agriculture among other things in the early days, in those days
[00:13:59] in 1904, 1908,
[00:14:02] agriculture was big business, and the Germans wanted to
[00:14:06] expropriate the land for purposes of agriculture, of
[00:14:10] course, subsequently, mining became issue, but the
[00:14:14] primary reason displaced them, conton them if
[00:14:18] you may into small pastels of land and give
[00:14:21] these large tracks of land to the Germans.
[00:14:25] for purposes of working those lands for the benefit the people of
[00:14:29] germany, that was the
[00:15:25] Russia's investigative committee unpacks the results of its probe into
[00:15:29] Kieve's attempted invasion the Kursk border region
[00:15:33] launched two years ago to
[00:15:34] this thing also. on the program, thousands
[00:15:38] of migrants, including many children remain in suita following last week's
[00:15:42] mass influx into Spain. We examined the political fall out as the
[00:15:46] EU demands that Morocco police the very frontier it contests
[00:15:50] and the devastating consequences on
[00:15:54] leash by the atomic age is remembered this August the
[00:15:57] 6th, as Hiroshima marks: