Andreas Eckl and Matthias Häussler with Martha Akawa (eds.): An Unresolved Issue: Genocide in Colonial Namibia, Windhoek 2024
Description of the book (by the publisher Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung on the back cover):
“War and genocide both connect and divide Namibia and Germany. German colonial rule over ‘South West Africa’ represents not only a long-neglected chapter of German history, but has also become a watershed in the history of Namibia – and, above all – of the Ovaherero and the Nama. An entangled history, marked by extreme violence, the handling of which has given rise to conflicts and resentment. The so-called ‘reconciliation agreement’ of 2021, which is still far from being signed, bears witness to this fact.
Genocidal warfare, deportations, concentration camps and an ensuing policy aimed at the destruction of Ovaherero and Nama as communities have shaped Namibian society to this day, while its colonial past has long since caught up with Germany, even if politicians are still struggling to fully acknowledge Imperial Germany’s legacy. Decades of scholarly, public, political and legal debates show that this is an unresolved problem that affects the present and the future of both countries.
In this volume ‘An Unresolved Issue: Genocide in Colonial Namibia’, scholars and experts look back on the wars and their aftermath, providing fresh insights. At the same, the ongoing processes of remembering and coming to terms with the past are discussed, as are the challenges for the future.”
Contents of the book:
Table of contents
Preface
Andreas Eckl, Matthias Häussler and Martha Akawa 9
I. WAR AND GENOCIDE: NEW PERSPECTIVES
The Vagciriku-Lishora Massacre of 1894
A colonial intrigue and genocide of the 19th century
Shampapi Shiremo and Kletus Likuwa 17
The Nama-German War –
an integral part of a complex trajectory of large-scale violence
Reinhart Kössler 51
A Visual Narrative of Genocide?
Lothar von Trotha’s photo album as seen against the backdrop
provided by his diary
Andreas Eckl 69
“Race Warrior”?
Lothar von Trotha in German South-West Africa (1904–1905)
Matthias Häussler 101
II. THE ENDING OF WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH
The Herero and Nama War in German South-West Africa (1904-1907)
in newspaper reports
Tilman Dedering 121
The Concentration Camp on Shark Island near Lüderitz
Chances and perspectives of archaeological surveys in colonial structures
Katja Lembke 137
“This country is hell for the white man!”
Land dispossession and resilience 1906-1914
Wolfgang Werner 173
“A question of fundamental, far-reaching importance for all the future”
German compensation payments as a result of the Herero War, 1904-1914
Jakob Zollmann 199
III. REMEMBERING GENOCIDE
Defined, or Disrupted?
Investigating post-memory and transgenerational trauma
in Herero Nama Genocide survivor family narratives
Sarala Krishnamurthy 221
From the Herero Uprising to the Ovaherero and Nama Genocide
About the discourse history of an event of mass murder
Medardus Brehl 241
A Forgotten Genocide?
The concept of colonial amnesia as an instrument of memory politics
Christiane Bürger and Sahra Rausch 259
The Herero War and the Question of Genocide
An overview of recent research
Jonas Kreienbaum 283
IV. PRESENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES
The Scientific Re-Presentation of Colonialist Propaganda
An analysis of the legal opinion by the scientific services of the
Deutscher Bundestag relating to Namibian compensation claims
Harald Kleinschmidt 301
A ‘Reconciliation Agreement’ that isn’t one
The German-Namibian Joint Declaration on the Genocide in German
South West Africa
Henning Melber 331
Decolonial Futures:
Reflecting on the legacy of German colonialism in Namibia
and the restitution of museum objects
Golda Eureth Ha-Eiros and Napandulwe Shiweda 359
After Genocide:
How might Namibians and Germans reconcile?
André du Pisani 373
About the editors (text by the publisher on the back cover):
“Martha Akawa is a senior lecturer in history, and Associate Dean of School of Humanities, Society and Development at the University of Namibia. She obtained her PhD from the University of Basel (Switzerland) for her thesis on “The Gender Politics of the Namibian Liberation Struggle” (Basel, 2014).
Andreas Eckl has published on aspects of German colonial history in Namibia and Namibian African history. He is publisher of the „Sources for Colonial History“, an ongoing series that is devoted to diaries and letters dating from the colonial period, see www.welwitschia.eu
Matthias Häussler is postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Educational Science at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. He is the author of several contributions to the history of colonial Namibia such as ‘The Herero Genocide: War, Emotion, and Extreme Violence in Colonial Namibia’ (Berghahn Books 2021)”
The book is available free of charge at the office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Windhoek (95 John Meinert St / Cnr. Verdi St, Windhoek West).
It is also available as PDF for download; source: website of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Namibia (checked in September 2024).