Thread by @JewishBund

Thread:

The @JewishBund stands in solidarity with the Herero and Nama people in their rejection of Germany’s reconciliation deal with #Namibia...

Between 1884 and 1918, the German empire progressively dispossessed the Herero and Nama people of their lands...

used their bodies for scientific experimentation, and by 1908 had murdered thousands in brutal concentration camps. This was the Herero and Nama genocide – the effects of which linger on in Namibia, in Germany, and beyond today.

#Namibia

For almost a century the reign of white supremacy has actively silenced this history in Germany – it has been totally unrecognised, rarely spoken of, left unanswered for.

Anti-Black racism, the negation of indigenous life, and the suppression of colonial history have festered throughout Germany for decades, including among the German Left.

As diaspora Jews in Germany, we are painfully aware of the extent of repression concerning the Herero and Nama genocide and the history of German colonialism in general in comparison to the history of fascism and the Shoah.

While we have much to criticise about how Germany deals with the Shoah – at least it has been recognised, taught in schools, and something resembling reparations have been offered.

The history of genocides against Jewish people cannot and should not be told without the history of colonization. Our fates are intertwined. We stand against the German obsession with the 'singularity' of Jewish suffering.

Today, the German state has finally changed its tune on the Herero and Nama genocide – after years of bilateral negotiations they have offered to officially apologise and recognise the genocide – 113 years later.

They also are offering a fund of 1,1 billion euros as a "gesture of reconciliation". None of this has happened out of the good will of the German state, but from consistent pressure by Herero and Nama activists over many years.

While we welcome the shift toward greater consciousness of this history, we stand in solidarity with the vast majority of the Herero and Nama people and their traditional leaders in their rejection of this offer and their rightful anger.

They reject it not because of the amount at play, nor because they do not want an apology- but because the deal was negotiated without them on a bilateral level.

Development aid is not reparation, and their lands continue to be owned primarily by white people- including Germans.

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