------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 26, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
On 100th anniversary of massacre
HERERO PEOPLE DEMAND REPARATIONS FROM GERMANY
By Monica Moorehead
It is a well-established fact that Africa is considered the most economically underdeveloped continent. How is it that Africa is so abundant in natural resources, including oil, diamonds, magnesium, uranium, etc., and yet is the continent most indebted to the imperialist banks?
The answer lies in the horrendous period of colonialism that intensified during the late 19th century.
Colonialism, or the enslavement of African peoples within the borders of their homeland, was an outgrowth of the slave trade. The African continent was virtually sliced up like a pie as European capitalist countries such as France, England, Spain, Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands built their capitalist economies by stealing the lands and resources of the African masses.
The African people heroically tried to beat back the onslaught of invasions by the racist colonialists. But their weapons were no match for technologically advanced European weaponry like machine guns.
Just as tens of millions of African people were kidnapped and sold into slavery--that is, if they survived the horrific Middle Passage to the "New World"--millions more died attempting to defend their homelands from European colonialism.
One of the most bloody, genocidal chapters during the depths of the colonial period occurred almost a century ago in the country then called "South-West Africa," today known as Namibia. Namibia, which borders South Africa, Angola and Botswana, was and still is considered to be one of the most mineral-rich countries in Africa.
During the 1880s, Namibia was brutally ruled by Germany. White farmers systematically took over the most arable lands from the indigenous Herero and Nama peoples. A similar process took place in Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, during the same period, with England being the colonizer there.
The Hereros organized a heroic guerrilla struggle against the invading German troops lead by the fascistic General von Trotha.
On Oct. 2, 1904, von Trotha issued a proclamation ordering that the Herero people were to be exterminated either by machine gun or by poisoning their drinking water if they refused to leave their lands.
An estimated 65,000 out of 80,000 Hereros, including children, were massacred in Okakarara, along with 10,000 Namas. Hereros who were captured were either hung in massive numbers or driven into the desert to die.
Apartheid South Africa succeeded Germany as the colonizer of Namibia in 1918. Namibia won its formal independence in 1990 under the leadership of an armed guerrilla movement, the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO).
On Aug. 12, a ceremony was held at Okakarara to mark the anniversary of this crime against humanity. The current German development minister, Heide marie Wieczorek-Zeul, attended. While Zeul acknowledged that what happened to the Herero and Nama peoples was genocide, she refused to make a formal apology.
To add insult to injury, Zeul stated that the German government would not pay $4 billion in reparations that are being demanded by the surviving Herero people for past colonial crimes. Zeul stated that because the "killings" happened so long ago, the reparations claim would not hold up in court.
Herero chief Kuaima Riruako countered: "We still have the right to take the German government to court." (BBC News, Aug. 14)
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