'The 77 Percent' hosts a debate in Namibia

The garishness of the simple unit-style houses cannot gloss over the austerity of Okakarara.

The central city of the Herero community lies 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of Namibia's capital, Windhoek. It's home to a population of around 4,000 and boasts a vocational training center and two traffic lights. The last agricultural fair attracted 12,000 visitors — even from abroad. But it's not exactly a lively hub. 

DW's African youth platform, "The 77 Percent," has brought its Street Debate format here: With all of the banners, cameras and loudspeakers, the setup looks almost otherworldly amid the everyday life of the district town. As the camera drone hovers and hums over moderator Edith Kimani, the children curiously follow its every move.

The prestigious newspaper The Namibian has arrived on the scene. The German-language HitRadio has also made the trip from the capital and is unpacking its microphones. The country's oldest newspaper — the German-language Allgemeine Zeitung — isn't on the ground, but still runs "Debate on the Genocide" as a lead.

Germany's international broadcaster, DW, is on a delicate mission: It's here to speak with a young generation of Herero people and German-Namibian profiteers about Germany's colonial crimes against the Herero and Nama peoples, which are infamously documented in history books as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Dealing with this legacy still divides Namibia to this day.

'Pay the reparations!'

"Why is Germany having such a hard time with an apology?" young journalist Charmaine Ngatjiheue says.

"What is 'today's perspective'? What does that mean?" she says. "It's a genocide — not 'today's perspective' — and reparations. Pay the reparations! I know they are scared and worried that more people, other countries, will come back to Germany and hold it accountable for whatever atrocities it may have caused. ... There is a call from the Herero and Nama People. There is this division and it will always be there until we get to that point."

This opinion proves to be the consensus in the Street Debate. The participants also agree that money alone won't solve everything.

Almost a year ago, following six years of tough negotiations, the German government — still led by Chancellor Angela Merkel — and the Namibian government agreed on a compensation package — although it is not officially called that. Over the next 30 years, €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) will flow from Germany to Namibia as part of "reconstruction and reconciliation efforts" in addition to regular aid, which remains the highest in Africa per inhabitant. The foreign minister and president of Germany are still due to make a trip to Namibia to deliver the long overdue genocide apology alongside the billion-euro package.

But the outcome of these negotiations was not well-received in Namibia. A parliamentary debate on the issue ended in chaos. Representatives of the Herero and Nama peoples complained that they weren't given a seat at the negotiating table. They only agreed that the promised sum was far too small. Some preferred the money be given in cash.

To make matters worse, two key Herero representatives and negotiating partners passed away after contracting COVID-19. Since then, Germany has ushered in a new government and there has been little political movement in Namibia on the matter.

Despite the circumstances, DW is warmly welcomed in Okakarara. It is acknowledged that the debate is taking place directly on Herero land instead of faraway Windhoek. The famous Waterberg mountain, where the anti-colonial Herero uprising was brutally suppressed in 1904, is just a stone's throw away. Eighteen-year-old law student Vaaruka Kaaronda says almost her entire community is poor and works under white supervision.

"We have literally no land that is available for us," she says. "We live there under management [of] the whites. ... Why are we the ones to be suffering if we are on our own land?" 

'German settlers never stole land'

One of the most well-known farmers in the area even bears the famous mountain in his name: Harry Schneider-Waterberg. He is a third-generation owner of thousands of hectares of farmland. One of his statements causes a stir among the panel.

"The people who came here, none of them stole any land," he says. "The people who came here bought the land under the law of the government of the day."

The spectators in the background laugh scornfully — one even swings his stick.

Herero youth activist Ileni Henguva from the influential National Youth Council shakes his head indignantly at the remarks.

"If we have to go back to the drawing board, how did the white communities acquire land in Namibia?" he asks. "Just because you were a soldier, you got a reward of the means of production, which is land. And then, because you have it, you are able to let your generation inherit it. The law that is there was just made for the purpose of protecting those who had land."

The reporter from The Namibian is frantically taking notes. She will later open her article with the pointed quote of the farmer: "German settlers never stole land."

So DW has sparked a heated debate — that much is certain. Schneider-Waterberg later apologized for his misleading statement in case it had caused offense. But he also criticized the reporter for taking his argument out of context and engaging in "divisive journalism." This also doesn't prove very helpful.

The quote itself triggered some fierce reactions. A petition started doing the rounds and some even demanded forced expropriations similar to Zimbabwe.

But, throughout the Street Debate, everyone pleaded for a Namibian solution. Nobody wants to witness a repeat of what happened in neighboring Zimbabwe, where armed groups forcibly expelled hundreds of white farmers in 2000, contributing to a massive economic crisis from which the country still hasn't recovered.

Unlike other white farmers in Namibia, Schneider-Waterberg agreed to the debate format.

"In any case, I am very grateful to Deutsche Welle for the opportunity and glad that I participated, although I was initially very skeptical," he said.

'Solutions begin with dialogue'

During the debate, Schneider-Waterberg said he wanted to be part of the solution. The focus needs to be be on a common future in Namibia. His farm is part of the national economy and supports 120 jobs in the structurally weak region. As emotional as debates over land can be, productivity and macroeconomic benefits must always be in the foreground. He would even sell his land if this were the solution, he replied to some vigorous requests from debate moderator Edith Kimani.

The German payments could also go towards this: fostering alternative-management models or cooperatives. "Solutions begin with dialogue," says Herero youth activist Ileni Henguva.

The morning after the debate, he and Schneider-Waterberg swap numbers.

"There has not been enough dialogue between the communities within Namibia," Henguva says. "It's necessary, and perhaps Deutsche Welle has kick-started this. I already took the contacts of my friend Harry now, and I would at least want the affected communities and German-speaking Namibians to engage more, because this is a Namibian issue. We can find Namibian solutions with the assistance of the German government."

Schneider-Waterberg gladly accepts Henguva's outstretched hand.

"People often don't even know each other, and there are so many prejudices," he says. "But, when you start talking to each other, you suddenly realize: We're not that far apart. And that's what it's all about."

Schneider-Waterberg is committed to this dialogue in the new Forum of German-speaking Namibians and hopes that the German-Namibian Reconciliation Agreement will establish fixed platforms for this to continue.

But the media have reservations, says the editor-in-chief of the Allgemeine Zeitung, Frank Steffen.

"I'm a bit put off by the fact that so much is being said about the amount of compensation," he says. "It is better to just sit down at the table and talk to each other instead of always going for a confrontation. This applies not only to the Herero, but also to us, the German-speaking Namibians. Someone has to take the first step."

This article was translated from German.