The SPD Should Return to Its Anticolonial Roots
Germany’s Social Democrats now have a chance to make amends for the German empire’s genocidal policies in Africa. In doing so, they’d be returning to the party’s anti-imperialist roots.
German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier gives an interview to the media during the open-house day at the Villa Hammerschmidt on June 24, 2018 in Bonn, Germany. Andreas Rentz / Getty
In January 2017, representatives of the Herero and Nama nations filed a lawsuit before a district court in the state of New York in order to force the German government to include delegates from both groups in negotiations between the Namibian and German governments.
These negotiations, which have been ongoing since 2015 and were supposed to come to an end before the last German federal elections in September 2017, could possibly lead to Germany finally officially acknowledging the genocide committed against the Herero and Nama nations by German troops between 1904 and 1908. A successful conclusion of the consultations could also result in a formal German apology for this genocide.
However, since the negotiations are officially only occurring between the German and the Namibian governments, the Herero and Nama are fearing that without their direct involvement potential future payments might not reach the descendants of those most affected by the German atrocities. The victims’ descendants want to use potential reparation payments in order to buy back the land that German colonial authorities took from them and then gave to white settlers over a century ago.
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