When you think of German speaking minorities, this southwest African country may not be the first to come to mind. Though the relationship between Namibia and Germany is fraught, the influence of German culture can still be seen across Namibia’s urban areas.
Germany for the first time on Friday recognised it had committed genocide in Namibia during its colonial occupation, with Berlin promising financial support worth more than one
billion euros to aid projects in the African nation.
At time when Black Lives Matter protests have spread around the world, not least to Germany, there is a growing debate about how Germany should deal with its colonial legacy.
Many people wouldn’t expect to hear German spoken outside of central Europe. Yet today it is preserved, in its own dialect, in communities stretching from Texas to Namibia.
A German museum was set to announce Friday
that it would restitute to Namibia a key 15th-century navigation landmark
erected by Portuguese explorers, as part of Berlin's efforts to face up to its colonial past.
Berlin will on Wednesday hand back human remains seized from Namibia a century ago after the slaughter of indigenous people under German colonial rule, but descendants are still waiting for an apology.
A US judge on Tuesday heard arguments from lawyers representing the German government and indigenous groups from Namibia but deferred a decision on whether to hear a lawsuit demanding reparations for colonial genocide.
The German government said Friday it had asked a US court to throw out a lawsuit brought by indigenous groups from Namibia seeking reparations for the genocide of their peoples under German colonial rule.
On a thin strip of land at the bay of Lüderitz in southern Namibia are dozens of gravestones bearing the names of each German soldier killed during a largely forgotten colonial war.
Germany has proposed a German-Namibian future foundation and structural fund as part of its atonement for the injustices of the German colonization of southwest Africa.
Representatives of two indigenous groups have filed a class action suit in New York against Germany, seeking reparations for an alleged genocide of their peoples by German colonial rulers over a century ago in what is now Namibia.
Indigenous Namibians lashed out Friday at Germany for refusing to pay reparations for the genocide of their people a century ago, calling it a "phenomenal" insult to victims' descendants.
Germany plans to formally apologise to Windhoek for the genocide of indigenous Namibians a century ago, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said Wednesday, but added the move would not carry any obligation of reparations.
The speaker of the German parliament on Wednesday said the slaughter of indigenous Namibians a century ago constituted a "genocide" that stemmed from a "race war".
A national commemoration on Wednesday for 20 Namibian skulls seized by Imperial Germany a century ago provoked emotional calls for reparations for colonial-era abuses.
Thousands of Namibia's ethnic Hereros and Namas gave an heroic welcome Tuesday to 20 skulls of their ancestors returned from Germany, where colonial authorities had taken them a century ago.
A Namibian delegation will reclaim about 20 human skulls used by colonial-era scientists in Germany who sought to prove the racial superiority of whites over black people.
A leopard not previously thought to be dangerous has killed a member of a German television crew making an episode of a popular series in Namibia, production company ndF said.
A court formally charged a senior officer in Namibia's airport police on Monday for placing a fake bomb at the country's airport to be put on a Germany-bound plane last week, but postponed his case.
Namibian police have hindered a possible terrorist attack on a flight from Windhoek to Munich, Federal Criminal Police (BKA) said Thursday. A suspected explosive device was found in a piece of luggage discovered as the LTU/Air Berlin flight was being loaded.
The former German colony of Namibia has become an attractive destination for German tourists and expats looking for a new home offering a touch of Teutonic <i>Gemütlichkeit</i> - or hospitality.
