Colonialism Comes Full Circle
Editor’s note: The following text was originally presented at “Der grosse Kanton: Rise & Fall of the BRD,” which was held in Zurich on 5-6 December. It was prepared for a panel on “tipping points in the history of the BRD and its democratic culture, and what can be done about the emerging chasms between Germany’s self-perception and global reputation.”
THE GERMAN COLONIAL PERIOD in (then-German) South West Africa is narrated as a brief spell. A typical German will, almost always with a sigh of relief, say that Germany was a latecomer in the utterly racist colonial project, without giving consideration to how barbaric this brief period was and how it shapes present-day Namibia’s natural and governance landscape. The official narrative in Namibia has also used the prolonged and oppressive apartheid era to bury the memory of German colonial brutality, forgetting that Germany laid the firm foundation for racial oppression and institutional dispossession.
Throughout the German period, which lasted from 1884 – 1915, the mass murder of Africans was justified as self-defense against rebellious natives by the settler communities and Germany. Towards the end of World War I, the Union of South Africa — which replaced German Imperial sovereignty in 1915 — published a “Report on the Natives of South West Africa and Their Treatment by Germany” (1918), commonly known as the “Blue Book.” Several years later, with the re-emergence of German nationalism, the all-white South West African Legislative Assembly of 1925 was lobbied by German settler, farmer, and commercial interests to ban and destroy the Blue Book. The all-white legislative assembly considered that it was in the interest of white rule over Africans that the genocides of the Ovaherero and the Nama peoples be forgotten. This racialized Western interpretation forms the foundation of today’s German collective conscience. Why?
In 1998, former German President Roman Herzog described the events as a “dispute between the German colonial administration and the Hereros” that had been “not okay.” In 2004, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul referred to atrocities that could possibly be a case of genocide. In 2018, the lawyer representing Germany in a New York Court effectively justified the actions of Germany by saying that no law existed to protect wild savages during German colonial rule. Since the German Foreign Office accepted moral but not legal liability in 2021, this view has not changed.
Today, there’s talk about German acknowledgment of responsibility and German apology, a breakthrough in German memory politics. Breakthrough for whom?
Today, there’s talk about German acknowledgment of responsibility and German apology, a breakthrough in German memory politics. It’s like a religiously-induced hallelujah song. Breakthrough for whom? I sense such a desperate attempt in German circles to somehow redeem Germany through this unprecedented step in the right direction. I experience the same desperate obsession in the excessive use of academic and diplomatic jargon, which is so far removed from the Nama child who today must eke out a living on the native reserve Germany has forever condemned them to.
“Hey, it is so wrong that your family members were killed, raped, dispossessed, forced to cut off heads of family members, boil and scrape out the eyes, tongue and ears until the skull was polished clean for racist experiments in Germany. It is so wrong that your great-grand-uncle Jakobus Jod was brought to the Berlin Colonial Human Zoo to display the somewhat exotic but uncivilized nature of Africans. It is so wrong that bodies were starved and worked to death and buried in shallow graves for feed to hyenas and sharks. It is so terrible and we are so sorry for it, but the law allowed us to do it.”
In 2026, that is what “genocide from today’s perspective” means. And we call that a breakthrough? Seriously? Now we are in the position of having to convince everyone that genocide is genocide, whether it happened then or now. That life is life regardless of who you are or where you come from. I must explain why my black life or a Palestinian life is actually life. Violence is violence. If 1948 and beyond should be the defining moment of genocide, then what happened during the Holocaust, which itself was before 1948? Can a person who is not white ever be considered human enough or worthy of justice or worthy of the air we all breathe?
The very structures built by colonialism are reinforced through ensuring Eurocentric dominance. We sanitize murder and appear to be doing something to stop ongoing violence while doing nothing.
We are back at square one, in which the purpose for which the colonial project was founded hits us right back in the face. The very structures built by colonialism are reinforced through ensuring Eurocentric dominance. We sanitize murder and appear to be doing something to stop ongoing violence while doing nothing. The excessive use of jargon by those who want to be seen as some sort of thought leader without actually saying anything useful simply doesn’t resonate with those who live the entrenched realities of German violence. I strongly sense how we use language to routinely advantage white people while reproducing the white gaze. It does not refer us to the process of deconstructing colonial ideologies regarding the superiority and privilege of Western thought and approaches.
Why do I say this? What is happening in Namibia right now under the auspices of Germany? Let’s start with what Mr. Habeck said two years ago. Namibia provides the perfect wide-open space to produce energy for Germany. For us, it resonates with the same racism of Friedrich Ratzel and his philosophy of Lebensraum — open spaces up for grabs because the existence of black souls in those open spaces is irrelevant.
The only thing that went right for the Western world is that it was built and continues its determination to build on the suffering of the enslaved and brutalized.
The Nama territory in today’s Namibia is a vast area that has been affected by multiple extractive industries. At present, there are two projects reinforcing colonial philosophy: the extension of Robert Harbor in Lüderitz, which is the port next to Shark Island, the former concentration camp, and the green hydrogen project by Hyphen (with German and UK shareholders). The port expansion threatens the heritage, integrity, and historical memory associated with German genocide. In addition, the hydrogen project is set to be constructed in the world’s only arid hotspot on ancestral Nama territory, expropriated during German colonial rule and declared as the Sperrgebiet, or restricted area, by imperial forces, which gave concessions to German colonial companies allowing them to exploit the diamond mines. During apartheid, this land remained inaccessible, with privileged concessions given to foreign companies. It remained privileged state land under independent rule, which now can be used again by powerful foreign companies, including German companies, backed by German strategic interests, right after the hallelujah song of having come to terms with its colonial past made headlines in Germany. In my reality, Germany has made the full colonial circle.
You tell me what changed that we are so shocked about. The only thing that went right for the Western world is that it was built and continues its determination to build on the suffering of the enslaved and brutalized. For those brutalized, we must now be grateful to still be alive and be allowed into spaces where we end up teaching so-called civilized people what it means to be actually civilized. Gaza is not far from here.
So I am no thought leader and will never claim to be one. But I have common sense, and we must step out of our comfort zones and follow the lead of those who are most impacted by violence and injustice.
