Abstract:

Wounds caused by colonialism and colonial crimes are acutely felt by many people in Namibia. The colonial genocide and other colonial crimes, colonial dispossession and systemic racism continue to affect people, and their effects are not likely to simply fade away anytime soon. How should Namibia and Germany address this heritage and the current injustices which are its outcome?

In the lively and often painful discussions about the past and its presence, two conflicting notions appear pitched against each other. German institutions often promote ‘dialogue’, ‘cultural exchange’ and ‘restitution’, while many on the Namibian side ask for reparations and redress. The roundtable does not want to rerun such discussions. It starts from the assumption that some form of reparation is necessary: an honest attempt to repair the irreparable. It asks what forms such reparations can and should take, what motivates and drives them, what their effects can be – and whether dialogue, cultural exchange and restitution can indeed play any meaningful role in them.