Namibia Tribes Demand German Compensation for Colonial Deaths c.2011 Bloomberg News

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Namibian tribal leaders demanded compensation from Germany for killings by troops a century ago as the country celebrated the return of skulls taken during the colonial era.

The Nama and Herero tribal groups are demanding an apology from the German government and payment for the deaths, the leaders of the Nama Traditional Authorities Association and the Ovaherero Traditional Authority said at a ceremony today in the capital, Windhoek, broadcast on Namibian Broadcasting Corp.

“We want full compensation from the German government for the blood that was shed by our ancestors,” Ovaherero chief, Alfons Maharero, said in a speech read by a translator.

In 2008, the southern African nation requested the return of heads sent to Germany by Eugene Fischer, who was undertaking research to try to prove the superiority of European brains over those of Africans, according to a Namibian Information Ministry statement at the time.

Namibia was a German colony for three decades until South Africa took it over in 1915 during World War 1. During that period uprisings by the two peoples culminated in a German policy to reduce the numbers of the native population. The country gained independence in 1990.

The ceremony, attended by about 3,500 people including President Hifikepunye Pohamba and Egon Kochanke, the German ambassador to Namibia, at Heroes Acre in the capital was the first step toward “restorative justice,” Maharero said.

Murder, Disease

The government is verifying the identity of other skulls with German authorities before bringing them back to Namibia, Kazenambo Kazenambo, the culture minister, said.

“We have brought back 20 skulls, records show that 18 of them were taken from concentration camps in the then South West Namibia, the other two from elsewhere in the country,” he said.

A campaign led by General Lothar Von Trotha to suppress a Herero rebellion killed between one- and two-thirds of the as many as 80,000 Herero through murder, disease and forced starvation, according to the German Historical Museum. The skulls will be kept at the National Museum of Namibia in Windhoek.

“The skulls were taken to Germany for pseudo-scientific purposes,” Kochanke said. “Today’s program reminds us of a dark chapter in our history. I bow my head and express deep regret.”

--Editors: Gordon Bell, Alastair Reed

To contact the reporter on this story: Chamwe Kaira in Windhoek at ckairabloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzinbloomberg.net