Looking at these buildings, you'd probably think they
were somewhere in Germany or elsewhere in Europe.
But actually, I am in southern Africa. In Swakopmund, Namibia to be exact
And the reason why this town looks and feels the way that it does,
is colonialism - and a very brutal but often forgotten chapter of German history.
In the late 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck oversaw the colonisation of modern day
Namibia - naming it German South West Africa. Soon, German settlers started arriving at the
colony looking for a better life. They took land, cattle and built
towns in the image of their homeland. Those land grabs deprived local people of
their means of existence, stoking tensions - And in 1904 things reached a boiling point.
Two Black Indigenous groups - the Nama and Herero - launched a violent rebellion against settlers.
But the settlers were not alone. They had an army backing them up.
In response to the rebellion, German General Lothar von Throta issued a
now infamous extermination order, stating that “Within German borders every Herero,
with or without a gun, with or without cattle, will be shot.”
Historians widely consider what happened next to be the first genocide of the 20th century.
Imperial soldiers killed tens of thousands of Herero and Nama.
They drove many into the desert where they died and put survivors into concentration camps.
There, they experimented on inmates and used them as slave labour.
One of these camps was right here in Swakopmund where Laidlaw Peringanda says his
great-grandmother was held: My great grandmother was telling
me that some of my family members were raped by the German colonial soldiers. They were
killed, and even forced to peel off the skin from the skulls. It is a very painful history.
A couple of years ago Laidlaw started a small museum outside his home on the outskirts of
town to tell that history to tourists and locals. Even local Herero and Nama are sometimes not aware
of that dark chapter of history - it’s something he is determined to change.
If you do not know about your history then you are actually a lost person.
It's very important to know where you came from and where you are going onwards.
The town of Swakopmund doesn't show the history of it.
From above, the town’s polished European character is visible. Its streets are lined with charming,
pastel-coloured colonial buildings. They attract tourists that Namibia's
economy desperately needs. But what’s missing in most of Swakopmund is the context of
what happened to the indigenous population when those pretty houses were being built.
What you can find is a colonial statue that commemorates the German soldiers.
Laidlaw wants it removed. It was put so high,
which means that they have conquered us. This statue is standing at the statehouse grounds,
and we are talking about national reconciliation. But the statue is violating the rights of the
victims. And it is glorifying the perpetrators. Because every year the German community, they used
to come here commemorating, singing colonial songs and so on but we managed to stop them.
Its inscription, detailing the time and place where German colonial soldiers died while
fighting, resonates with Laidlaw personally. You see the names of the
villages Otjihaenemaparero and Okandjira, it is where my great-grandfathers used to stay.
Walking through town, one gets the feeling that its residents want to hold on to the
legacy that early German settlers left behind. Take the street signs for example. I am standing
at one of the main thoroughfares of Swakopmund. Following independence, it was re-named Sam Nujoma
Avenue, after Namibia's first Black president. But some of the buildings on the street still
bear its colonial name, Kaiser Wilhelm. It is something that you see throughout the town.
It’s the German community’s way of keeping its heritage alive, Norbert Sadlowski tells me.
He's the third generation of his family to live here. He runs “Alt-stadt”,
German for “Old Town”, a colonial-themed restaurant in the heart of Swakopmund.
The names have got a purpose. And I think it's sad that they just get
lost. That's why I decided, let's put as much history into this place as possible.
Above Alt Stadt, overlooking the street, Norbert put up a replica of another
colonial statue - the “Reiterdenkmal” For almost 100 years, the original
statue stood prominently in the capital Windhoek, to commemorate German soldiers
and civilians who died during the violence of 1904-1908. A symbol of colonial triumph.
Namibia’s president ordered it removed in 2013, saying it was an obstacle to national healing. So,
when it made a comeback as a replica at Norbert’s restaurant in 2019, it stirred controversy.
It's not offensive at all. It's part of history. The tourists, especially the German tourists,
when they come here, they come here because there are German roots here. And if they take
it all away, maybe the tourists won't feel as, you know, comfortable or not comfortable, but
they haven't got a reason to come here. In 2021, Berlin formally recognized the
events of 1904-1908 as genocide and offered development aid for affected communities.
The deal reached between the German and Namibian governments was rejected
by many descendants of victims who claim they were not consulted in the process.
They say they want ancestral land taken during the colonial era back.
To this day, approximately 70 percent of Namibia's farmland is owned by whites.
The move sparked in Namibia between descendants of victims and perpetrators.
What Norbert said next is something I heard off camera from many Namibians of German descent:
I don't think it's right to call it a genocide. It was never spoken about and then Germany or
some Germans came and said or brought the theme up again and made a political thing out of it.
Leave us alone. Leave our cultures alone. We live in peace. We know how to live with each other.
It's not necessary to stir and, you know, always say it's genocide and
this and that and that it must be sorted. When Germany lost the first world war,
it also lost its colonies. Namibia became part of South
Africa and was ruled under its system of racial segregation known as Apartheid.
For generations, the Herero and Nama did not get to process their trauma.
German-speaking Namibians’ ideas about their ancestors were not challenged.
That’s why people like Norbert and Laidaw see history so differently - Anton von Wietersheim,
a former Namibian government minister of German descent tells me.
People are emotional about it, because it is not something that is tangible for them,
it was so long ago. They feel attacked. Talk to each other about your experiences or about the
experiences of your forefathers so that one gets a feeling for the emotions of the other people.
Anton’s own family tree is intertwined with the events of the genocide. His German great uncle
was killed by Hereros in the uprising. And his German grandfather came to Namibia as a soldier.
But over the years he has grown more understanding of the Nama and Herero perspective.
In addition to dialogue, he believes fellow German-Namibians should accept evidence,
like Germany’s own records. If you study them, you can see
what happened. Our biggest problem is that many people are not willing to ignore the emotions
and look at the facts as they are presented. And there is evidence literally in the ground.
A cemetery on the edge of Swakopmund filled with thousands of unmarked graves of Herero and Nama
who died in the concentration camps. It's been neglected for years.
On the other side, the walls have collapsed and the dogs are always coming in and they are digging
the graves and taking out human remains. Frustrated by the lack of municipal care,
Laidlaw has been raising money and organising volunteers to restore the
graves - hoping his ancestors might be watching. Sometimes when I come here, I feel like, you know,
a bit come. I feel like, you know, there's some,
you know, that they are around me, surrounding me, that they feel happy with what I'm doing,
you know, trying to bring dignity to them. Laidlaw wants to cooperate with western
researchers who plan to use technology to identify just how many bodies are buried here. He hopes
clarity and agreed facts might help all Namibians who come here to fully see their shared past.