23 May, 2017 - 07:03
Germany is in negotiations with Namibia about the phrasing of the first official apology for General von Trotha's extermination orders that led to the murder of around 100 000 Ovaherero and Nama people between 1904 and 1908 in the German colony of then South West Africa.
These negotiations have been criticized for excluding the victims, the Ovaherero and the Nama, who filed a class action suit in New York in January 2017 against Germany, seeking reparations and demanding that their representatives be included in the current negotiations.
The Ovaherero's rising anger is given a voice in Skulls Of My People, an upcoming documentary on Al Jazeera English that follows the campaign to pressurise Germany to acknowledge and apologise for the what's been called the first genocide of the 20th century; discuss reparations; and return the skulls of Namibian people that were taken to Germany for racial scientific profiling.
This anger is not just over the systematic massacre of roughly 80% of the Ovaherero more than a century ago, although this is tangible as the documentary subjects recount numerous atrocities, including the way German soldiers drove the Herero into the desert and then poisoned the waterholes; threw children in the air and bayoneted them; raped women; massacred church gatherings; forced a woman to take the meat' off her husband's severed head so that they could take the skull back to Germany; cut off men's penises and sent them back to Germany to be studied; and forced the survivors who didn't flee to Botswana or South Africa into concentration camps.
But that anger has been exacerbated by the German government's responses to the current campaign for restorative justice.
For example, the German parliament rejected a 2015 motion to commemorate and apologise for the genocide. In Skulls Of My People, a spokesperson for the Herero and Nama Genocide Committee calls this an official stamp of endorsing the extermination orders, humiliating, and a slap in the face of the Namibian people.
Similarly, when Ovaherero and Nama representatives met with the German ambassador to Namibia, he stuck to the government position that they can only negotiate with other governments, not groups.
In Skulls Of My People, Advocate Vekuii Rukoro, Ovaherero paramount chief, points out that in the case of the Jewish Holocaust, the same German government has been talking to the Jewish people, ordinary Jewish communities who are equally non-state entities. He says that the ambassador claimed that was a special case, but was unable to explain why, which obviously leaves us to conclude that the only thing that makes them special is because they are Europeans, they are white people, and we are Africans, we are black people.
The Herero in the film also voice their frustration at being left out of the negotiations.
Our government can be there at the conference table as well; we don't deny them their place, says Rukoro. But we are the people to negotiate on behalf of our people, because we know what pain we suffered, what pain we continue to suffer, materially, economically, psychologically and otherwise. Nobody else.
Utjiua Muijangue, chairperson of the Herero Genocide Foundation, distrusts both negotiators. In our eyes, the German government is the perpetrator. But they are also now the players and the referee as well. You don't decide yourself whether you are guilty or not; you also don't decide that if I am guilty, what punishment should I get.
Similarly, she distrusts the Namibian government. Namibia is the biggest recipient of the German development aid; why is that the case? she asks in the documentary. It is to shut their mouth and not support the issue of genocide.
Advertisement
Her distrust is also based on SWAPO's perceived ethnic bias towards the Ovambo. They want the whole world to know that the liberation struggle started in 1966. They don't want other people to get credit; credit should just go to them. And now if you recognise 1904; we recognise the Herero people and they don't want that.
Germany has avoided any promises of reparations, but the land issue comes up repeatedly in the documentary. When the Germans came, they had one thing on their mind, and that was to make sure that no one is living in this country, so they can have it to themselves, says Muijangue.
And the Germans largely still do have it to themselves, according to the Herero interviewed in Skulls Of My People. The land issue is a big problem, says Uahimisa Kaapehi, an Ovaherero chief. I will tell you that 80% of commercial farms are in the hands of the German people.
They have been inheriting, they have been bequeathing the wealth of generations, and we have been inheriting abject poverty, starting from 1904, adds Festus Muundjua from the Ovaherero Genocide Foundation.
As Muijangue says in the documentary, It's a time-bomb.
We say we have waited long enough, echoes Rukoro. 111 years is a long period and our patience is running out.
And that was two years ago
Skulls of My People had its world premiere at IDFA, who called it a story of an ordinary grassroots group taking on the mighty and powerful against all odds.
Directed by South African filmmaker Vincent Moloi, Skulls Of My People premieres on Wednesday, 24 May 2017 at 2000GMT / 2200CAT on Witness, Al Jazeera English's inspiring documentary strand that brings world issues into focus through compelling human stories. For more information, visit http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/.
Embedded video for Skulls of My People' documentary explores why Namibia is a time bomb
Documentaries
Africa South Africa
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
23 May, 2017 - 07:03 
