The recent decision by the German government to throw its weight and might behind Israel - one of the world’s strongest armies - which is busy obliterating the Palestinian people in Gaza with outright genocidal intent, is a stark reminder and an embodiment of the phrase “a leopard never changes its spots”.
In essence, this means one can’t change their innate character, no matter how hard one tries.
Having committed the first genocide of the 20th century on Namibian soil between 1904-1908 – killing nearly 80% of Ovaherero and 50% of the Nama communities – Germany would later commit what is now known as the Holocaust. Both genocides were executed in the most gruesome and heinous manner imaginable to humankind.
Between 1941 and 1945, Germany and its co-conspirators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of the Jewish population.
More than a hundred years after committing genocide in Namibia, and subsequently in Europe in the 40s, Germany has miserably failed to learn from its dark colonial past, and now stands on the side of their genocide victims (Israel), who have recently turned into perpetrators of genocide.
Perhaps President Hage Geingob put it best in his strongly-worded statement to Germany on Sunday when he said: “Worryingly, ignoring the violent deaths of over 23 000 Palestinians in Gaza and various United Nations’ reports disturbingly highlighting the internal displacement of 85% of civilians in Gaza amid acute shortages of food and essential services, the German government has chosen to defend in the International Court of Justice the genocidal and gruesome acts of the Israeli government against innocent civilians in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
This after Germany rejected the morally- upright indictment brought forward by South Africa before the ICJ that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Coincidentally, it was on 12 January 1904 that the Ovaherero people revolted against imperial Germany for the wanton killings, rapes of Ovaherero women, and outright theft of land and cattle.
The same year, on 2 October, ruthless imperial German army commander Lothar von Trotha escalated the violence against the Herero in an extermination order to wipe all the Ovaherero from the face of the earth.
Geingob worryingly said the German government is yet to fully atone for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil.
In no uncertain terms, he noted: “Germany cannot morally express commitment to the United Nations Genocide Convention, including atonement for the genocide in Namibia, whilst supporting the equivalent of a holocaust and genocide in Gaza. Various international organisations, such as Human Rights Watch, have chillingly concluded that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza.”
What is more, Germany’s support for Israel comes at a time when Namibia and Germany have had marathon talks over reparations for the genocide it committed here, which have so far ended in a cul-de-sac.
To date, Germany does not recognise that it was genocide at the time it was being committed, but only thinks of it as “genocide in today’s context”.
But before Germany can have a voice in genocidal matters, it must first admit and pay reparations for its genocide in Namibia. We, however, find solace in the fact that German-speaking Namibians hold a different posture from that of the German government under the stewardship of Olaf Scholz.
Forum of German-speaking Namibians’ chairperson Harald Hecht this week said: “This war must stop immediately, aided by an international peace conference and a permanent and negotiated two-state solution being sought to enable ongoing peace in this troubled region.”
Like a deer caught in the headlights, by supporting Israel in its genocidal crusade on the people of Palestine, Germany, by extension, shows the clearest sign that it never entered negotiations with Namibia to genuinely atone for her crimes, render an unreserved apology, and pay reparations.
This should be a wake-up call for all and sundry.
Commentator Natjirikasorua Tjirera could not have put it any better when he said: “President Geingob and the Namibian government should know that the people they are negotiating with are unrepentant criminals who are not only hellbent on defending their criminal acts, but who are also shamelessly committed to ensuring that the crime of genocide is perpetrated by the powerful against the powerless.”
This, however, must reinvigorate our resolve to push Germany to atone for her crimes on Namibian soil.