“Traditional authority rejects Lüderitz port expansion plan
By Beatrice Prins
24 October 2024
The Nama Traditional Authority (NTA) [Nama Traditional Leaders Association, NTLA; ed.] has called on the Namibian Ports Authority (Namport) to be sensitive to the customs and traditions of locals amid their plan to expand the Lüderitz port.
The plan involves expanding to some parts of Shark Island, where ancestral graves can be found.
[…]
More than 65 000 Herero and 10 000 Nama people were killed by German troops between 1904 and 1908 in what is widely acknowledged as the first genocide of the 20th century.
[…]
Many were killed in the camp on the island, which is now a peninsula.
Johannes Ortman [Ortmann; ed.], a member of the NTA [NTLA; ed.], says the authority is not opposed to economic development, but wishes Namport would be more sensitive to the history of Shark Island.
“With the construction, the heritage site was infringed,” he says.
Ortman [Ortmann; ed.] claims the NTA [NTLA; ed.] was not consulted on the matter.
[…]
Namport’s chief executive Andrew Kanime says by law, any infrastructural development is required to follow a process.
He says they held public consultations with the public to hear their concerns.
Kanime says Namport had workshops with the NTA [NTLA; ed.], “where we presented the facts”.
“The facts are we are not touching Shark Island, we are expanding the current quay wall on the eastern side alongside Shark Island,” he says.
[…]
The planned expansion is planned for the end of 2025 after consultations have been completed.”
- Full report on the website of the Namibian (last checked in November 2024)
- See also the articles on the erection of concentration camps by the German colonial power in 1905 and the official closure of the camps in 1908