3rd Repatriation: Germany returns human remains from Namibian genocide

The German government has returned to Namibia, 25 skulls of hundreds of indigenous men and women killed during the colonial era, more than a 100 years ago.

A Namibian government delegation received the skulls at a church service in Berlin last Wednesday, and on Friday, the remains were taken to the Namibian capital Windhoek where a traditional ceremony took place.

What happened between 1904 and 1908 ?

In October 1904, the head of the military administration in what was then known as German South West Africa, Lothar von Trotha, issued an extermination order, after a Herero and Nama rebellion, in response to the German expropriation of their land and cattle.

“The Herero and Nama were forced into the desert and any who were found trying to return to their land were either killed or put into concentration camps.” It is estimated that over 100,000 where killed, and that 75% of the Herero population and half of the Nama population died.” (BBC). That era is referred to as the “first genocide of the 20th century.”

During that time, Tens of thousands of Herero and Nama skulls were taken from Namibia for examination by racial anthropologists, in an attempt to justify the theory of European Superiority.

To when an official apology ?

Sources: BBC, This is Africa