ABSTRACT
On June 15, 2017, Christian-Matthias Schlaga, the German Ambassador to Namibia, addressed the annual meeting of the German School Society in Windhoek. In his speech, the Ambassador deemed it appropriate to deal with the ongoing negotiations between the Namibian and the German government. The negotiations concerned the genocide that had been perpetrated by German colonial troops from 1904 to 1908, in what was then German Southwest Africa. At the incongruous venue of a private school society meeting, clearly addressing an audience that represented German speakers—today less than one percent of the Namibian population of some 2.3 million people—Schlaga told his listeners that from the point of view of German diplomacy, the negotiations hinged on three main points:
(1) to find a common language to address the events of 1904–1907.1 This will center around the way the concept of ‘genocide’ will be used; (2) Germany is prepared to apologize for the crimes perpetrated in the German name during this period of time. In this, it remains important for Germany that this apology will be accepted by Namibia as the final point of the political-moral discussion. We shall therefore talk about the requisite details of an apology; (3) construction of a joint memorial culture and financial support for the development in particular of those regions in Namibia in which the communities affected at the time live today.
