The German Genocide: Two Dates, One Truth

Every nation chooses the days that shape its memory, just like we did with Cassinga, Heroes Day, May Day, Women's/Human Rights Day, the Day of the African Child, and Africa Day.

These are the dates that tell future generations who suffered, who survived, and what lessons must never be forgotten.

For Namibia, the debate around Genocide Remembrance Day is not simply about the calendar. It is about truth, dignity, justice, and how honestly we are willing to confront our painful past.

There are two important dates in the history of German genocide violence. The first is 2 October 1904, the day German General Lothar von Trotha issued the extermination order against the Ovaherero people.

This order openly declared that the Ovaherero should be driven out and destroyed.

The Nama people later suffered the same brutal violence through executions, forced displacement, concentration camps, starvation, and forced labour. This date represents the clear intention to erase entire communities from this land.

The second date is 28 May 1908, which the Namibian government has chosen as the official Genocide Remembrance Day because it marked the closure of concentration camps in German South West Africa.

But many Namibians, especially the descendants of the genocide victims, continue to ask an important question: can we truly say the genocide ended on 28 May 1908? The truth is more uncomfortable than the official narrative allows.

The suffering did not suddenly stop when the camps closed. Thousands of Ovaherero and Nama people who survived the camps emerged into a society built to keep them broken, landless, hungry, and dependent.

Families had already been destroyed. Cattle and land had been confiscated. Traditional leadership structures were shattered. Survivors became cheap labourers for the colonial economy under conditions of severe control and deprivation. Many continued to die from disease, exhaustion, starvation, and trauma long after the camps closed.

For this reason, many people feel that 28 May cannot honestly be called the end of the genocide. At best, it marked the end of one brutal phase of colonial violence while another system of oppression continued.

This is why Namibia should consider recognising two separate national dates with different meanings and purposes.

The 2nd of October should be designated as the official Genocide Remembrance Day. This is the date that directly confronts the crime itself. It forces the nation to remember the moment when extermination became state policy. It speaks honestly about genocide, not as an accident of war, but as a deliberate attempt to destroy human beings because of who they were. It gives dignity to the memory of the victims and respects the pain carried by descendants for generations.

We must also not forget about the Damara and San who suffered the same fate, and those who sheltered the refugees who fled the German violence, both internally and externally. This is why the 28th of May, on the other hand, should become a National Day of Reconciliation and Reflection. This would create space for all Namibians to think deeply about the long history of violence and division that shaped our country under German, South Africa and the National Liberation Struggle. Reconciliation should not mean forgetting. It should mean facing the truth together, even when the truth is difficult.

Such a day should also acknowledge that the German colonial violence in Namibia did not only affect the Ovaherero and Nama communities.

The Damara and San people also suffered displacement, dispossession, killings, exploitation, and deep historical injustices under colonial rule. So are other communities, as colonial Germany was trying to expand its tentacles across Namibia and other colonies in Africa, especially Tanzania. Their pain should not remain invisible in national memory.

Apartheid's system

At the same time, Namibia must also be brave enough to acknowledge that human rights abuses did not only happen under German colonialism. South African apartheid rule brought its own system of violence, repression, forced removals, torture, and killings. During the liberation struggle, atrocities and abuses were also committed by some within the liberation movement itself. These are painful truths, but they remain part of our history. A mature nation does not fear the truth. It learns from it.

For too long, Namibia has struggled to discuss uncomfortable parts of its past openly. Some histories are elevated while others are silenced. Some victims are remembered while others are forgotten. This selective memory creates resentment and weakens national unity.

True reconciliation cannot be built on silence. It must be built on honesty.

Recognising two dates would help Namibia create a more balanced and meaningful national memory. The 2nd of October would honour the victims of genocide with the seriousness they deserve.

The 28th of May would allow the country to reflect on survival, healing, justice, reconciliation, and the unfinished work of confronting historical trauma.

This approach would not divide Namibians. It would strengthen us.

A nation becomes stronger when it listens to the voices of its people, especially those whose pain has long been ignored. Young Namibians deserve to inherit a country that does not hide from its past. They deserve a history that is complete, truthful, and human.

The story of Namibia is not only a story of suffering. It is also a story of survival. Despite genocide, concentration camps, colonialism, apartheid, exile, war, and oppression, the people of this country endured. Communities survived against enormous odds. Cultures survived. Languages survived. Human dignity survived.

But survival alone is not enough. Memory also matters. If we choose remembrance carefully and honestly, we can build a Namibia that is more compassionate, more united, and more truthful about itself. We can create a future where historical wounds are not ignored, but understood.

Perhaps that is what remembrance should truly mean: not simply recalling dates from the past, but choosing courage over silence and truth over comfort.

*Ndumba J Kamwanyah is a public policy expert focusing on the interplay among social welfare policy, development, and democracy. He is also a peace and reconciliation scholar and a certified mediator with a Master's in conflict studies.