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00:00:04of
00:00:07of
00:00:20of
00:00:28I am pl. mumba here at the Maruba
00:00:32Dam in Machacos County in the Republic of
00:00:36Kenya in the
00:00:37a continent of Africa. We continue our
00:00:40series on the continent of Africa
00:00:44and today we focus a subject that has
00:00:49in preoccupied historians for a long time. The Herrera
00:00:54of namamasaka. of Historians are unanimous in
00:00:58describing this. massacre as the first massacre
00:01:02of the 20th century, and in order to
00:01:05contextualize this massacre, I
00:01:08always look at the statement that was made by Ottovon
00:01:12Bismark in 1862,
00:01:16when he was addressing the Pressian Parliament, when he
00:01:20of said that the issues
00:01:22of the day will not be solved by long speeches
00:01:25and general consensus, but by iron and blood. It is after
00:01:29that speech. is that he convened the
00:01:32infamous Berlin conference held in
00:01:35Berlin between the year 1884 and
00:01:391885 and the European
00:01:42powers then divided the continent of Africa
00:01:46into spheres of influence. Germany of course
00:01:50acquired several territories in Eastern Africa
00:01:53in Western Africa and in what then became
00:01:57known as the southhwest.
00:02:01Africa,
00:02:03of of which we now know as Namibia, when they entered into
00:02:06that space, it was in
00:02:08the spirit that reigned in Europe at that time of
00:02:11acquiring territory for purposes of agriculture and
00:02:15exploitation of other resources and the
00:02:19primary inhabitants of that area
00:02:23included majorly the herrero ethnic
00:02:27group and the nama, of course the... were also
00:02:31there, but this
00:02:32of particular massaca that we now know as the
00:02:36Herrera took place between the year
00:02:391904 and 1908. The
00:02:43things that happened in modern day
00:02:47Namibia was so horrendous
00:02:51that some have said that it was
00:02:54in indeed the preparation for what was to happen
00:02:57in the German or during the holocaust. in the world war
00:03:012, what happened? number one,
00:03:04they eliminated nearly 80%
00:03:08of the then known herrero population
00:03:12and eliminated 10%
00:03:14of the nama population, and what was
00:03:18of significant is that the local
00:03:22inhabitants, namely the Herrero and the Nama were
00:03:25forced into labor, if they were not in
00:03:29agriculture? they were in other areas which were
00:03:32beneficial to the German colonizers and because this is
00:03:35area that is surrounded by deserts, in
00:03:39no wonder that many
00:03:41of them in the event that they did not comply with the
00:03:44instructions
00:03:45of the Germans were then exiled literally into
00:03:49the desert to die there. those who visit what is known as
00:03:52swakop moon, which is on the shores
00:03:55of the Atlantic
00:03:57of Ocean, will only have to appreciate when the... we see the
00:04:00sand dunes, how the climate
00:04:04of was punitive, and it is in that punitive
00:04:07climate that these individuals from the Herero
00:04:10community were subjected to the abuses by the
00:04:14Germanis, they were made to
00:04:17of work without rest, they were made to labor without
00:04:20pay, and one thing that emerged
00:04:24is that when they were dissatisfied with the
00:04:28activities
00:04:29of the... habitants, the Germans then exiled them
00:04:32to different island, the Shark Island in the area
00:04:36calleries, some
00:04:38of them were found in those areas, having been
00:04:41placed there because they were deemed to be acting
00:04:45contrary to the prescriptions
00:04:48of the Germans, and when they were placed in those
00:04:51islands, there is a man who history
00:04:55infamously remembers Dr. Eugene
00:04:58Fischer. Dr. Eugene Fisher actually
00:05:02tested some
00:05:04of the
00:05:06of atrocities that were later to be visited on the Jews in during the
00:05:09holocast by injecting. the
00:05:13herrero and the nama victims
00:05:16with viruses of
00:05:19cholera, of spilis and other known
00:05:23diseases at that time, as means
00:05:26of testing how people would react
00:05:30from alpha and omega the disease,
00:05:34and these were also considered to be useful in what
00:05:38was then described and what the medical world describes as
00:05:42hugenic experiments, they were trying to
00:05:45understand how do you deal with
00:05:48races of different kind, how does disease
00:05:52or diseases manifest in different
00:05:55environments, and the Germans committed the
00:05:58genocide of untold proportions and a manner
00:06:02that was unprecedented at that time, so that
00:06:06this continued as we now know from
00:06:091904 to 1900.
00:06:13and the reason why it begins to stop is because there is
00:06:17internal rebellion, but something is also happening in
00:06:21Europe and in the run up to what is described as the first world
00:06:25war, Germany is beginning to lose its grip, but that
00:06:29not withstanding, it is important to note that the loss
00:06:32the grip did not mean that the populations had not
00:06:36been decimated, in fact when one visits
00:06:39Vindhock up to today, one sees
00:06:43how the city was planned, planned
00:06:47in manner that ensured the different
00:06:50ethnicities were made to occupy different
00:06:53areas, buntustanization, if we are to use a word
00:06:57that later became popular in the southern part of
00:07:00Africa, the same is to be found in Sakopmund,
00:07:04which remains as German as German can
00:07:07be, and therefore when we talk about these
00:07:11particular. "it reminds us the
00:07:14atrocities the colonial power, it reminds us
00:07:18of how vicious the Germans were in
00:07:21deploying their anger towards inhabitants because they
00:07:25believed that they were inferior beings. what is
00:07:29most important is that later that
00:07:32particular territory was to be handed over to
00:07:36the appetite regime of South Africa through the league
00:07:40of nations and ultimate..." the UN
00:07:44became one the bodies that was responsible for it,
00:07:47yet the spectra of
00:07:51spectra and spectacle at once, and I use the word
00:07:55spectacle very deliberately, that this was happening
00:07:59a time when europe was claiming that they were
00:08:02civilizing other inferior
00:08:06civilizations, and it is
00:08:08instructive that even when this
00:08:12stopped, the atrocities did not stop,
00:08:16and it is instructive that much later, even the
00:08:20struggle and after independence was
00:08:23regained by the Namibians of South German West
00:08:27Africa, regained independence, the question
00:08:31the Herrero Namaamasaka remained
00:08:34alive, because the Namibian
00:08:37administration led at that time by Samnu
00:08:41Yoma. Sapo insisted that the Germans
00:08:45owed the Namibians, particularly the
00:08:48Herrero and the Nama,
00:08:51apology. Negotiations took
00:08:55place over a period of five
00:08:58years, and is only in the year
00:09:012021 that the Germans then
00:09:04apologized and agreed that there was in fact a
00:09:08genocide the Herrero and the Nama and
00:09:12what is instructive is that they then agreed to
00:09:16compensate the Herrero and the Nama to the
00:09:20tune or in the tune on of 1 billion United
00:09:24States dollars per over a period of 30 years
00:09:27condistanding, insulting at
00:09:30once, and that is why that has been rejected,
00:09:34because those who have done the calculation then say
00:09:38that that is actually equivalent to the
00:09:40money that the Germans had given. a manner of speaking
00:09:44or had loaned the people of Namibia
00:09:48during that period or up to that period. so as
00:09:52it is now, there are groups of people who have come out and
00:09:55said, we reject this perported
00:09:59compensation, and what the Germans have done is to say,
00:10:03but we cannot negotiate with multiple groups, we only negotiate
00:10:07with governments and they have refused to
00:10:09renegotiate, and this is matter. on which the
00:10:13jury
00:10:13is tail out, but the most critical thing which
00:10:17is important for historians and which is critical for the continent
00:10:21of Africa, that the continent of Africa be
00:10:25became the trial ground for
00:10:28massacre the peoples and the victims
00:10:32the Germans, of course, as we now know, were the
00:10:35Herero and the Nama. We know that there were other
00:10:39communities which were not decimated in the manner that the Herero and the
00:10:42Nama were, but it also gave birth to the question of
00:10:46reparations, and it is instructive that the Germans have
00:10:50always tried to avoid the question of reparation, because
00:10:54they know... that when one talks about reparation, then it
00:10:58becomes legal issue, which would then
00:11:01obligate the federal republic of Germany, as we know
00:11:05it, as the successor of all these German
00:11:08regimes to make reparations for all
00:11:12the peoples throughout the world, indeed and throughout Africa
00:11:16who are victims the diabolic comkinations
00:11:19the Germans as exemplified by the
00:11:23massacker of... the Herrero and the
00:11:27Nama and it is important that even as we speak
00:11:30now, it is estimated
00:11:34that over 70% of Arab
00:11:38land in Namibia, as we speak in the year
00:11:412026, is still owned by
00:11:45individuals of German descent. The
00:11:48massacre is not
00:11:50over, it is not over because it is
00:11:54now... taken an economic angle and there is
00:11:58agitation, as we speak now, that this
00:12:02must be made good, that the land must be
00:12:05redistributed, and I know number of individuals who are
00:12:09talking about taking land without compensation, but the
00:12:13economy of Namibia is still
00:12:16dominated by the Germans and
00:12:20the Herrero and the Nama are still
00:12:24suffering. from the very problem that they
00:12:27suffered during the very naked
00:12:30massacker that they experienced during the period of
00:12:341904 and 1908,
00:12:38which tells us a single
00:12:41story that the colonial
00:12:44project, whichever form it
00:12:47take, continues,
00:12:51it continues as neocolonial project and
00:12:55has one teacher once told me that the last colonial
00:12:58question has always been the economic
00:13:02question and the land question, one looks to
00:13:06the day when the Germans will not talk about
00:13:091.1 billion because the damages occasioned to
00:13:13the Herrero and the Nama cannot be quantified in monetary
00:13:17terms, but they will be a position even
00:13:20surrender the land which they took when they
00:13:24committed.
00:13:26the massacre, one day justice will be
00:13:29done and proper admissions of guilt
00:13:33will be made, one looks forward to those
00:13:37days. whenever we talk about the hereon nama
00:13:41genocide, the question has always been asked, why was there
00:13:45a genocide? and the direct answer to that
00:13:48question is that the Germans intended to
00:13:52displace the population for purposes. of
00:13:55agriculture among other things in the early days, in those days
00:13:59in 1904, 1908,
00:14:02agriculture was big business, and the Germans wanted to
00:14:06expropriate the land for purposes of agriculture, of
00:14:10course, subsequently, mining became issue, but the
00:14:14primary reason displaced them, conton them if
00:14:18you may into small pastels of land and give
00:14:21these large tracks of land to the Germans.
00:14:25for purposes of working those lands for the benefit the people of
00:14:29germany, that was the
00:15:25Russia's investigative committee unpacks the results of its probe into
00:15:29Kieve's attempted invasion the Kursk border region
00:15:33launched two years ago to
00:15:34this thing also. on the program, thousands
00:15:38of migrants, including many children remain in suita following last week's
00:15:42mass influx into Spain. We examined the political fall out as the
00:15:46EU demands that Morocco police the very frontier it contests
00:15:50and the devastating consequences on
00:15:54leash by the atomic age is remembered this August the
00:15:576th, as Hiroshima marks: